Tesla batteries to power Irvine office buildingsOct 29 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Sarah de Crescenzo The Orange County Register
Tesla batteries will soon store energy at as many as two dozen office buildings in Irvine. Newport Beach-based real estate firm Irvine Company recently announced plans, slated to get underway by year's end at 20 Pacifica in Irvine, to have the batteries installed as sources of energy storage at its commercial buildings in the city. A partnership with San Francisco-based Advanced Microgrid Solutions will create the world's first network of "hybrid electric" buildings, the company said. Southern California Edison will monitor the batteries and be able to pull from them in high-demand situations. The move is expected to cut the buildings' use of peak energy by 25 percent, lowering the company's power bills, and give the utility company a source of off-grid energy. "It's all seamless," said Rich Bluth, Irvine Co.'s vice president for energy management. "Our customers won't see any difference." The shuttering of the San Onofre nuclear power plant and an increase in renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, have made the grid in the Southern California region less reliable, said Susan Kennedy, chief executive officer of Advanced Microgrid Solutions. Kennedy was formerly chief of staff to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, cabinet secretary and deputy chief of staff to Gov. Gray Davis, and communications director for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. From 2003 to 2006, she served on the California Public Utilities Commission. She said the storage systems will turn the buildings into the equivalent of a small power plant, like those dubbed "peaker" plants, the term for facilities fired up for short-term bursts in times of high demand. "It's an exciting new trend in the electric utility industry," said Ted Flanigan, president of EcoMotion, an energy consulting group. He spoke to the Irvine City Council on Tuesday in response to a request from Councilwoman Christina Shea asking if similar batteries could be installed at city buildings. Last year, Elon Musk's Tesla began construction on a Gigafactory in Nevada; the company has said that by 2020 the facility will be the world's largest factory of lithium ion batteries. And while Tesla has received most of the attention when it comes to energy storage, Flanigan said there are as many as a dozen companies in the state that he considers "reputable players" in the field. California has set an energy storage goal of 1.3 gigawatts by 2020. Flanigan said the city could become a leader in the energy store game if it follows in the Irvine Co.'s footsteps on the battery systems project. The company has been in discussions with Advanced Microgrid Systems for about two years, said Mike LeBlanc, an Irvine Co. senior vice president. The batteries will be the size of a few parking spaces, LeBlanc said, although no existing parking spots will be eliminated in the batteries' installation. At night, when power is cheaper, the buildings will charge the batteries. When the grid is getting heavy use during the day, the buildings will automatically begin to pull from the batteries, avoiding using energy when it's most costly due to demand. Together, the buildings will be able to store in the new battery systems as much as 10 megawatts. "Energy storage is going to change the way we consume electrical power," Kennedy said. "It will change the grid forever." Others are considering following in Edison's footsteps, she said. "In the not too distant future, it won't make sense for a building not to store its own energy," she said. "I think it will become building standard someday." Bluth said that while the company is focusing on its Irvine offices as the moment, "we're certainly going to keep evaluating this in all the markets we're working in." Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=37803388 |