Advanced Microgrid Solutions Selected for Groundbreaking Clean Energy Project in Southern California
San Francisco clean-tech leader Advanced Microgrid Solutions (“AMS”) was tapped for a second major grid services project in electricity-constrained areas of the Los Angeles Basin. Under five new power purchase agreements announced recently, AMS will build 40 Megawatts (“MW”) of fast-response energy storage systems at targeted customer locations in Southern California to reduce demand from the grid on key distribution circuits. Utility customers hosting the energy storage systems will benefit from lower energy costs and increased revenues for participating in grid services programs.
The 40 MWs awarded to AMS are part of a 125 MW procurement by Southern California Edison (“SCE”) under a Preferred Resources Pilot, which will use storage and other clean energy resources to supply electricity to thousands of businesses and homes in the densely populated cities of Santa Ana, Irvine, Tustin, and other areas of Orange County hit hard by the closure of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. AMS was one of only six companies chosen to participate in this groundbreaking effort by SCE to replace traditional power plants with clean energy resources that can provide grid reliability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“SCE is leading the transition to a cleaner, faster, more resilient electric grid,” said Susan Kennedy, founder and CEO of AMS. “SCE’s aggressive use of advanced technologies for grid management showcases the utility’s unrivaled leadership in the clean energy sector.” “Energy storage is a clean-air, clean-energy strategy that should be a top priority for every electric utility,” said Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board. “Reducing
demand on the grid instead of adding new peaker plants is the fastest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while improving reliability for customers.”
Under the contracts with SCE, AMS will build, own and manage networks of advanced energy storage systems at SCE’s commercial and industrial customer locations to provide fast-response load control on key areas of the grid. At selected host customer sites, AMS will install a combination of advanced energy storage, demand management software and cutting-edge energy efficiency technologies to manage demand on the grid and avoid the need to build more fossil fuel generation to serve the LA Basin. Customers participating in the project by hosting AMS’s energy storage systems will see lower energy costs as the batteries reduce the building’s demand from the grid during the most expensive “peak” periods when electricity prices are the highest.
AMS is currently contracted to build more than 120 MW of customer-sited energy storage projects for grid support, including a fleet of 24 Hybrid Electric Buildings® for the Irvine Company, 18 water treatment facilities for Southern California water agencies, the California State University System, Shell Energy North America, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investment Trust and others. AMS is developing landmark energy storage and microgrid projects addressing the waterenergy nexus, grid reliability and renewable energy integration that use advanced energy storage to integrate solar, wind, fuel cells and other renewable resources into the electric grid and lower energy costs for customers. The first projects began operating in 2016 with more scheduled to come on line in 2017.
AMS donates a portion of the proceeds from every project to a microlending fund for women, minority and veteran-owned businesses. A portion of the proceeds from the SCE project will be dedicated to microlending in the Orange County area.
