Dive Brief:
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Ice Energy has signed a turnkey contract with the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) to provide up to 1 MW of its ice battery systems.
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Ice Energy will replace the outdoor condensing unit of selected homes in SCPPA’s territory with its Ice Bear 20 storage unit. The systems are designed to cut customer cooling load and can be aggregated by the utility.
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The selected homeowners will assume ownership of the systems, backed by a five-year product warranty.
Dive Insight:
Energy storage is a hot market, but Ice Energy is chilling. Back in 2015, it and another cooled liquid storage company, CALMAC, told Utility Dive that unlike some highly leveraged battery companies, they both enjoy robust profits.
The Santa Barbara, Calif., company’s storage technology uses offpeak power to make ice, which is used to chill homes, offices or businesses during the day, cutting peak electricity use.
In 2014, Southern California Edison awarded Ice Energy 26 MW of storage contracts as part of a major local capacity procurement, and utility deals keep rolling in. Under the contract with SCPPA, Ice Energy will provide up to 100 of its Ice Bear 20 ice battery systems for residential use at the power authority's 12 member utilities.
The Ice Bear 20 is rated at 9.6 kW and is a smaller version of the company’s Ice Bear 30 unit. They are designed to be aggregated by the utility to help cut peak system demand.
The installations will begin in June and are expected to be complete by year end. Ice Energy will calculate system savings and performance of the systems and report the results to SCPPA for evaluation.
