A Santa Barbara-based company called Ice Energy has partnered with NRG Energy to deliver 1,800 ice batteries to commercial and industrial buildings served by electric utility Southern California Edison (SCE). The units are expected to reduce air conditioning bills by up to 40 percent and eliminate 200,000 tons of CO2 over the next 20 years.
Ice Energy has been building ice-based cooling systems since the early 2000s. Much like pumped storage or compressed air batteries, Ice Energy essentially stores electricity by drawing power from the grid at non-peak times to freeze water in a special container. Then at peak times, when the cost of electricity is high and grid operators are struggling to keep up with demand, Ice Energy’s systems kick in and use that block of ice to cool the space that the air conditioning unit normally serves.
Although the system isn’t storing energy like a lithium-ion battery does, it draws energy to charge and replaces the energy that would be needed to run an AC unit when it discharges. That’s good for the environment because air conditioning compressors are energy-intensive, and when a city like Los Angeles suffers a heat wave, people tend to run their ACs more. Grid operators have to meet that demand, and, to do that, they’ll often turn to fossil fuel-burning additions like natural gas peaker plants, which can be brought online relatively quickly. But if local, behind-the-grid energy-storage systems can meet the additional needs of a home or business before they have to turn to the grid that reduces the demand that grid operators would otherwise have to meet.
Ice Energy CEO Mike Hopkins said that SCE agreed in April to purchase the 1,800 units, called IceBear 30s, and to cover the cost of installation. Hopkins wouldn’t say how much the SCE is putting down in the deal. There are also some strings attached although IceBears can be added onto many existing air conditioning units, SCE is looking for commercial and industrial candidates who will be willing to replace aging HVAC systems with something more energy-efficient (SCE is also offering discounts on upgraded HVAC systems that would be installed with the IceBear units).
What the utility gets in exchange for its discounts is control over when the IceBears are turned on and off at each commercial or industrial property. Each IceBear 30 is capable of replacing a 10-ton AC unit for three hours, Hopkins said, and SCE will engage the IceBears on the roofs of its customers when it needs to lessen its load for three hours. SCE could do this, for example, on a hot afternoon in July.
