The 21 high-rise office buildings are also equipped with Advanced Microgrid Solutions energy management and optimization software that employs advanced analytics to enable each building to control its demand from the electric grid and respond in unison when SCE signals a need to reduce load on the grid.
"Distributed energy storage is an entirely new class of resource for balancing the grid and a viable replacement for 'peaker' plants – expensive power plants that run only when there is high demand," said California Energy Commission Chair, Robert B. Weisenmiller.
Each building's energy demand is controlled by software that shifts the building to battery power, in the same way a hybrid-electric car shifts from gas to battery power. The cloud-based optimization software continuously monitors grid conditions and coordinates demand reduction from all the buildings simultaneously when SCE calls for grid support.
The Hybrid Electric Building fleet can reduce peak demand by 25 percent and provide up to 10 MW of instantaneous load reduction for up to four hours to help SCE balance the grid.
In addition to providing clean, grid balancing resources to SCE, Irvine Company is reducing energy expenses and operating costs by an estimated 10 percent.
"Irvine Company takes great pride in being a national leader in sustainability while developing some of the nation's most vibrant workplace communities in the world," said Doug Holte, president, Irvine Company Office Properties, adding the company has the most LEED and ENERGY Star certified buildings in California.
"SCE is proud to join the Irvine Company in this innovative approach to achieving our vision for a clean energy future," said Mike Marelli, Vice President of SCE's Business Customer Division. "Projects like this will help us to accommodate more and more renewable resources on the electric grid while maintaining reliability and providing even more clean power to our customers."
