PUC approves Calif. co. for Boothbay energy pilot
State utility regulators have approved a contract for a Glendale, Calif.-based company to install more than one-eighth of the power capacity for a pilot project in Boothbay aimed at reducing the peninsula’s summertime power demand. The project is an alternative to an $18 million transmission line upgrade by Central Maine Power.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission on Dec. 3 approved the contract between Portland-based GridSolar, which is administering the pilot project, and Ice Energy. Mike Hopkins, the California company’s executive vice president of corporate development and legal, told Mainebiz the company plans to install between 20 and 25 of its Ice Bear cooling units by January.
The Ice Bear units are connected to existing air conditioning units and freeze water at night, when power is cheaper and demand is low. The units then use that stored ice to cool air, instead of on-demand air conditioning compressors, when power demand peaks during the day.
Hopkins said the company is now working with local commercial and municipal properties to identify the most demanding and inefficient air conditioning units onto which it will install its system.
Regulators approved the pilot project, expecting it will ultimately cost ratepayers less than building out transmission lines to meet summertime peak demand for Boothbay.
Hopkins said the project is a pilot in Maine, but the 60-employee company that has raised nearly $100 million in equity capital has proven its strategy of improving grid reliability by shifting power demand from air conditioning units to off-peak times.
“From [the PUC’s] perspective it’s a pilot, but we don’t think of it that way because we’ve already done 40 ‘pilots’ across the country,” Hopkins said. “I believe this is part of a growing trend to look to alternative technologies like the Ice Bear in lieu of additional utility infrastructure.”
Richard Silkman, a co-founder of GridSolar, told Mainebiz the project is now seeking a total of 1,800kW of demand reduction in the area, which will come from a combination of efficiency improvements, generators, battery storage and distributed power generation, mostly from photovoltaic solar systems. Earlier this summer, the PUC approved Portland-based ReVision Energy taking over for the local company Boothbay Microgrid, which was not able to secure adequate financing by a July 1 deadline.
Silkman said the project is on schedule to begin reducing power demand in Boothbay next summer.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments