NRG Begins Deployment of More than 60 Megawatts of Commercial and Industrial Preferred Resource Programs in Southern California
NRG Energy launched new offers for commercial and industrial customers to take advantage of more than 60 MWs of Preferred Resources under contracts executed with Southern California Edison® (SCE). Through three new programs, NRG and its partners can provide SCE customers with innovative, cost saving commercial and industrial products and services. These products and services are expected to reduce energy consumption and emissions during peak hours and enhance the reliability of individual facilities, as well as the overall power grid in Southern California.
“The partnerships with SCE, local businesses and our technology providers are designed to provide cost savings and enhance electric grid reliability as we help California meet its aggressive emission reduction goals through cleaner energy,” said John Chillemi, Executive Vice President of Development for NRG Energy. “Aligning smart business decisions with smart environment choices is part of NRG’s larger effort to develop new and optimize existing resources to provide more sustainable and reliable electricity services to customers across California.”
Through the NRG Ice Bear® Program, NRG will work with commercial and industrial customers to host Ice Bears, an ice battery for 3 to 20 ton commercial air conditioning units. Ice Bears freeze water overnight when energy demands are traditionally at their lowest. During the day, the Ice Bears use the ice to cool the air, eliminating the need for power-hungry air conditioner compressors and providing a unique solution to the problem of peak load management. The result is a more efficient and reliable power grid that more effectively leverages and integrates renewables. In total, the NRG-Ice Bear® Program is designed to provide more than 25 MWs of peak demand reduction.
“Ice Energy appreciates the opportunity to partner with NRG to help improve the grid in the Southern California service area through a solution that will save ratepayers money while reducing CO2 emissions over the life of the project,” said Mike Hopkins, CEO of Ice Energy. “It is also a great opportunity for participating commercial and industrial customers to lower utility bills and replace aging HVAC units with new, energy efficient ones.”
The City of Tustin, CA, located in Central Orange County, is under contract to take advantage of this offering. The municipality will receive 12 Ice Bears at facilities across the city, generating significant cost savings for the near and long term.
In addition to the NRG Ice Bear Program, NRG is launching its NRG Lockheed Martin Energy Efficiency Program. Through this program, NRG and Lockheed Martin Energy will offer a number of energy solutions that encompass commercial HVAC, industrial refrigeration, process cooling, compressors, and lighting to SCE commercial and industrial customers. This program is expected to help commercial and industrial customers reduce energy usage, costs and air emissions as well as strengthen grid reliability through peak demand reduction. In total, the NRG-Lockheed Martin Energy Efficiency Program is designed to provide 30 MWs of peak demand reduction.
“Lockheed Martin Energy is delighted to partner with NRG in the delivery of commercial and industrial energy efficiency projects that will provide capacity resources and grid reliability for Southern California Edison,” said Roger Flanagan, Managing Director, Lockheed Martin Energy. Lockheed Martin Energy is a line of business within Lockheed Martin that delivers distributed energy solutions to commercial, utility and government customers.
To optimize the sales process for new distributed energy solutions like these, NRG developed and utilized the SpaceTagTM platform, a patent-pending geospatial analytics software platform. Using technology built in-house, the platform determines the compatibility of different buildings across a target region for distributed energy products by harvesting, synthesizing and analyzing data for business locations. The platform enables the NRG team to automatically identify the best solutions for each customer, making the potential customer identification and acquisition process more accurate and efficient.
Finally, NRG launched a demand response program for commercial and industrial customers allowing large electricity consumers to make money while improving grid reliability. Through this program, NRG will offer demand response services to customers that are willing to participate in curtailment during peak events and in return, earn an attractive incentive payment. This NRG demand response program is designed to reduce 5 MWs of peak load.
“NRG has long been a part of empowering California through solar and wind as well as fast-start, flexible and efficient generation that enables additional renewable power to be added to the grid,” added Chillemi. “Bringing innovative options to the table such as the products offered under these Preferred Resources contracts are an exciting addition to our collaborative effort to help California achieve a more sustainable energy future.”
