Ice storage market heats up on
rising US wind outlook
Aug 25, 2015
Riverside Public Utilities’ (RPU) decision to contract
Ice Energy for 5 MW of behind-the-meter thermal storage capacity shows ice
storage is seen as a practical solution to manage air-conditioning demand and
use excess overnight supply from growing wind power capacity.
US' rising wind capacity and high air-con use has
lifted interest in Ice storage. Image Credit: CreativaImages
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RPU’s selection of the Ice Bear thermal technology to
improve grid reliability and to reduce peak capacity of commercial business air
conditioning came just a few months after Southern California Edison (SCE)
awarded Ice Energy 16 contracts to deploy 26 MW of distributed customer-sided
thermal storage to reduce air-conditioning load as part of its local-capacity
requirements (LCR).
Ice storage reduces energy costs by freezing ice at
night when power demand is low and electricity is cheaper and then using that
ice to provide cooling to power-intensive air conditioning units during the
heat of day.
Yet the technology has supplied only 1% of the air
conditioning market over the last 30 years, indicating that it has been
difficult to sell to building owners. Current activity is being largely driven
by utility de-mand and rising wind power capacity is set to spur further
interest.
The US had 58 MW of Ice storage capacity on the grid
as at August 2015 representing just 6% of non-pumped hydro storage facilities,
according to the Department of Energy's Global Energy Storage Data-base.
Another 32 MW has been contracted.
The DOE forecasts ice thermal’s share could increase
to 20% by 2030 on the back of growing wind ca-pacity.
When wind levels rise during the night when demand is
low, Ice storage can capture this excess capacity and retransmit it later to
relieve daytime load.
The US had around 68 GW of wind capacity online at the
end of June, according to the US Department of energy. This is up by 2 GW since
the end of 2014 and some 7 GW higher than at the end of 2013.
The Energy Information Administration has forecast that 18 GW of wind is expected to come online between 2014 and 2016.
The Energy Information Administration has forecast that 18 GW of wind is expected to come online between 2014 and 2016.
Emerging technology
Ice Energy’s Ice Bear system has been developed
specifically for small to mid-sized commercial buildings and has been designed
to work in concert with existing package air-conditioning units.
Since rolling out its first projects in the 2000s, Ice
Energy has managed to gain traction for its ice bear system among several
California utilities.
Glendale Water & Power (GW&P) already has 200
Ice Energy units, which reduce its peak by 2 MW. Burbank Water & Power and
Redding Electric Utility are also customers.
Glenn Steiger pioneered the use of Ice Bears in 2011
as “distributed mega-watt peaker plants” when he served as a general manager
for GW&P. Steiger has since moved on, and could not comment on the current
cost of Ice storage solutions, but he told Energy Storage Update that it
“probably is safe to say that it is still substantially less than battery
storage.”
Companies selected to build energy storage projects
are prohibited from disclosing the PPA rate awarded, but under California law,
any technologies utilities selected must not result in any net costs for
ratepayers. Because batteries have limited life cycles, Ice Energy CEO Mark
Hopkins estimates ice storage is about half the cost of battery technologies on
a $ per MWh basis.
Erich Gunther, smart grid product analyst and chief
technology officer of research, engineering and consulting firm EnerNex, says
Ice Bears score highly in terms of utility-centric demand reduction, noting the
Ice Bears are easy to use with standard air conditioners.
"It is tempting for many engineers to over-design
a system, with complications for the end user," he said in his evaluation.
By not modifying user behavior, Ice Energy maximizes its grid utility as a
virtual spinning reserve, bid into the demand markets.
As part of its contracts for SCE, Ice Energy will
install 1,800 of its rooftop Ice Bear units on host buildings around two
high-voltage substations in Orange County, California. SCE identified these
feeders as high value because they have a very high load, in part because a
third of the A/C units on buildings are old and inefficient.
Ice Energy designs its units to be a visible grid
asset – they can be monitored and 'switched on' remotely by the utility when it
needs to cut peak demand by a specific amount on hot afternoons.
Because the 26 MW storage for SCE is made up of nearly
2,000 Ice Bears, the utility can dump the en-tire amount off the grid at once
or incrementally, as needed.
The small insulated tanks are connected to the air
conditioning unit on top of a commercial building, storing water frozen with
night-time electricity when demand is low, to replace about 95% of the air
conditioning load on hot afternoons.
One or two-story car dealers, fast food franchises and
strip malls make ideal hosts with steady use into the evening.
Building owners do not see any visible change to the
air-conditioning units when the ice bears are at-tached, according to Ice
Hopkins.
"The building owners are getting the temperature
they set the thermostat for," Hopkins said.
"SCE determines whether it is the air conditioners or the Ice Bears providing cooling. If they decide they want the Ice Bears to do it, then what they see on their grid is a 26 MW drop in load."
"SCE determines whether it is the air conditioners or the Ice Bears providing cooling. If they decide they want the Ice Bears to do it, then what they see on their grid is a 26 MW drop in load."
There are some complications when contracting with
utilities. To meet the 20-year PPA with SCE, Hop-kins must persuade the owners
of older inefficient A/C units accounting for 26 MW to use the Ice Bears, to
fulfill the load reduction required for the overburdened substations.
This could take time and the PPA allows Ice Energy to connect each unit to the grid as it is installed, so the cumulative storage capacity increases over time until it meets the 26 MW RFO.
This could take time and the PPA allows Ice Energy to connect each unit to the grid as it is installed, so the cumulative storage capacity increases over time until it meets the 26 MW RFO.
Building allies
With about 4,000 installations globally, CALMAC chose
a different market segment.
While Ice Energy works with utilities, CALMAC focuses
purely on the business case for individual building owners; selling modular,
scalable Ice Bank tanks through a global distribution network.
CALMAC CEO Mark MacCracken points out the risk of
relying on the stability of incentive regimes.
"You don't want to base your business on utility
incentives because they can change their minds," he said.
Despite the difference in marketing and in scale, Ice
Energy and CALMAC’s products do the same thing –
they time-shift energy use into the cooler hours after midnight, when it takes less energy to freeze water in cooler night air, and when there is excess wind energy on many US grids.
they time-shift energy use into the cooler hours after midnight, when it takes less energy to freeze water in cooler night air, and when there is excess wind energy on many US grids.
Both products meet SCE's LCR requirements that storage
solutions offer 'proven technology,' able to run for four hours for three
consecutive days, and to respond in seconds.
Icing skyscrapers
In the Northeast, where seasonal temperature swings
are more pronounced and where demand is much ‘peakier,’CALMAC’s larger ice
storage units are being used to time-shift energy demand for some of the
region’s most iconic high-efficiency skyscrapers. The units are shaving off 1
MW from the Rockefeller Center and the Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the
Bank of America Towers.
In many jurisdictions, commercial and industrial
operators pay for power not only by the kilowatt hour used, but also using a
'demand charge' on maximum power drawn at any moment.
The demand charge allows utilities to keep available a certain amount of peak supply capacity and these charges can account for half a building owner’s monthly power bill.
The demand charge allows utilities to keep available a certain amount of peak supply capacity and these charges can account for half a building owner’s monthly power bill.
At Rockefeller Center, CALMAC’s 41-tank system
provides 8,600 ton hours of thermal storage, shaving energy costs by $1
million.
"Most of the buildings we do in New York City, we
take one or two megawatts off the peak of the building," MacCracken said.
At Rockefeller Center, CALMAC’s 41-tank system provides 8,600 ton hours of thermal storage, shaving energy costs by $1 million.
At Rockefeller Center, CALMAC’s 41-tank system provides 8,600 ton hours of thermal storage, shaving energy costs by $1 million.
Most of CALMAC’s business consists of retrofits, where
incentives cover about half the installation and equipment costs. One incentive
program pays $875 per kW, equivalent to $17,000 per 20 kW Ice Bank and this
covers most of the tank costs.
US wind power capacity will continue to rise sharply
in the coming years and this should underpin ice storage growth.
Wind capacity is forecast to increase by 12% in 2015 and by 14% in 2016, according to EIA, and the over-flow of wind capacity during the night will provide fertile ground for new ice storage contracts with utilities and building owners looking to shave their demand profiles.
Wind capacity is forecast to increase by 12% in 2015 and by 14% in 2016, according to EIA, and the over-flow of wind capacity during the night will provide fertile ground for new ice storage contracts with utilities and building owners looking to shave their demand profiles.
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