A company that manages luxury real estate is planning a first-of-its kind energy storage aggregation for New York City as a way to bolster the grid and improve power reliability for the indiviual bulidings.
Credit: Anthony Quintano
Glenwood will install the 1 MW of energy storage in its Manhattan luxury rental properties.
The project, which will use Princeton Power Systems’ GTIB-100 bi-directional converters, is likely to attract a lot of attention because it represents a significant first in management of the complex New York City grid.
For the first time, a networked energy storage portfolio, which is behind the customer meter, will manage real-time loads in individual buildings and also respond to calls by the local utility or the New York Independent System Operator to curb electric use when the grid is under strain.
The aggregated energy storage will help curb peak demand, improve power reliability for the individual buildings, and improve overall grid resiliency.
Aggregated energy storage is being developed in a similar fashion in California, where utilities are under a mandate to secure 1.3 GW of energy storage by 2020.
Princeton Power Systems is perhaps best known for the Alcatraz Island project in San Francisco. But its technology also is being used in the world’s largest vehicle-to-grid demonstration being undertaken in Los Angeles by the Air Force, Africa’s largest self-sufficient solar microgrid and several other energy storage projects being tracked by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Glenwood also is not new to energy storage. Two years ago the company installed storage at their Barclay Tower property.
“We all need to work together to manage our electric grid and intelligently manage load growth in NYC, and this pioneering technology offers a viable solution,” said Josh London, Glenwood vice president of management.
Glenwood has contracted with Demand Energy and EnerSys to deploy the 1 MW of energy storage in multiple buildings throughout New York City. Demand Energy’s storage systems will use advanced lead-acid (VRLA) batteries from EnerSys.
Princeton Power Systems’ GTIB-100 bi-directional converters are designed for advanced batteries, solar, on-grid and off-grid applications. The converters will link the batteries to the grid and manage power flow as an integral part of the power conversion system (PCS) architected by Demand Energy.
“Glenwood’s selection of the Demand Energy system is an exciting development for the New York market,” said Darren Hammell, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Princeton Power Systems. “We expect the market for energy storage in the city to grow rapidly, providing benefits to businesses, residents and grid resiliency.”
New York is viewed as a strong state for energy storage as it moves toward developing a more distributed grid through its Reforming the Energy Vision policy. New York City, in particular, offers great opportunity for storage because of its high demand for power, lack of available and affordable real estate for central power plants, historic transmission constraints and environmental goals..
The first Glenwood project is already under construction and all of the projects are expected to be finished in five months, in time to provide power to the grid this summer.
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