Apr 16, 2018
At
the Atlantic County Utility Authority’s wastewater treatment facility in
Atlantic City, N.J., a new battery energy storage system is now online.
The
system captures up to one megawatt hour of energy produced by the site’s 7.5
megawatt wind farm and 500 kilowatts of solar energy, storing it to be used
when needed. It was formally opened with a ribbon cutting held today, April 16.
Viridity
Energy Solutions Inc., an Ormat Company, will own and operate the battery
system for 20 years. The system combines advanced energy storage with
Viridity’s VPowerTM energy management software. The New Jersey Board
of Public Utilities awarded a $300,000 grant to help fund the project.
During
times of high energy demand, the battery system will help power the authority’s
operations, which in turn will save the cost of electric supply at the
wastewater facility. Reliance on the battery system will enable the authority
to be an ancillary support to the region’s electrical grid. By providing extra
power to the grid, the authority will also receive revenue for its operations.
New
Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) President Joseph Fiordaliso attended
the event and praised the project, noting that it is the first battery storage
project to be funded by the NJBPU.
Using
energy from the battery storage system is an emissions-free energy choice and
goes hand-in-hand with ACUA’s other renewable energy installments, which also
includes a landfill gas to energy project and several electric vehicle charging
stations.
“The
Atlantic County Utilities Authority continues to be innovative in adopting
onsite green energy technology to lower their energy costs, said Mack Treece,
CEO of Viridity. Working together with ACUA, Viridity is installing this system
at no cost to the utility,” added Treece. “Viridity’s battery storage as a
service system provides customers with benefits including reducing peak usage
to lower energy costs, providing power back-up and power quality, and assisting
ACUA’s grid maintain its performance,” Treece noted.
Viridity
was the general contractor and engineering procurement and construction lead on
the project. Johnson Controls provided the battery storage system, RETTEW
served as the design-build manager, and Calvi Electric was the electrical
contractor.
“Battery
storage technology is the critical component to developing a smart grid; it has
the potential to completely revolutionize power generation,” said ACUA
President Rick Dovey. “Superstorm Sandy opened our eyes and made us realize we
needed to become resilient, able to operate and not lose power.”
While
the authority has invested in several renewable energy options, renewable power
is limited by being intermittent. The battery storage project helps to store
the electricity generated when it’s not needed and draw on the energy at later
times, when it is. The system will help balance the supply and demand of the
region’s electric grid.
***
About Viridity Energy Solutions Inc. www.viridityenergy.com
Viridity
Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ormat Technologies, Inc. is a leading
battery storage and distributed generation, demand response, and demand
management solution provider. Through its unique, flexible and turn-key
VPowerTM software and services platform, Viridity maximizes energy revenue and
savings for its customers. Viridity empowers customers to cut their electricity
prices through best-in-class proprietary peak shaving algorithms, and its
market leading VPowerTM optimization software, that ensures the best economic
return for each KW of flexible energy load, including generating revenue for
customers in the wholesale energy markets. Viridity is a market leader in
advanced distributed energy resources (DER) with a specific focus on battery
storage and by combining the skills of Viridity with its parent company Ormat,
Viridity brings to market the unique ability to provide a broad, end-to-end DER
solution to customers either as a service, with no capital outlay by the
customer, or as a sale.
Information
provided in this press release may contain statements relating to current
expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about future events that are
"forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements generally
relate to Viridity's plans, objectives and expectations for future operations
and are based upon its management's current estimates and projections of future
results or trends. Actual future results may differ materially from those
projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of
such risks and uncertainties, see "Risk Factors" as described in
Viridity's parent company, Ormat Technologies, Inc.'s, Annual Report on Form
10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 1, 2017.
These
forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and Viridity
undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
About the Atlantic County Utilities Authority www.acua.com
The
Atlantic County Utilities Authority is responsible for enhancing the quality of
life through the protection of waters and lands from pollution by providing
responsible waste management services. The Authority is an environmental leader
and will continue to use new technologies, innovations and employee ideas to
provide the highest quality and most cost effective environmental
services.
About Johnson Controls
Johnson
Controls is a global diversified technology and multi industrial leader serving
a wide range of customers in more than 150 countries. Our 120,000 employees
create intelligent buildings, efficient energy solutions, integrated
infrastructure and next generation transportation systems that work seamlessly
together to deliver on the promise of smart cities and communities. Our
commitment to sustainability dates back to our roots in 1885, with the
invention of the first electric room thermostat. We are committed to helping
our customers win and creating greater value for all of our stakeholders
through strategic focus on our buildings and energy growth platforms. For
additional information, please visit http://www.johnsoncontrols.com or follow
us @johnsoncontrols on Twitter.
About Rettew
RETTEW,
ranked on Engineering News-Record’s 2017 list of top design firms, began
providing civil engineering and surveying services in 1969. Today RETTEW has
about 350 employees and nine offices located throughout the United States
providing a wide range of traditional engineering and innovative design-build
solutions for our clients in the public and private sector. For more
information on any of RETTEW’s services, please call 1-800-RETTEW-5
(1-800-738-8395) or visit www.rettew.com.