Long-Duration Thermal Energy Storage
Why should public and private utilities focus on cold storage facilities? Because they have the #1 highest demand per cubic foot and the #3 highest consumption of any industrial category on the grid. And now there is a customer-located energy storage medium that can handle the formerly inaccessible high demand and continuous refrigeration equipment run time required to operate these facilities. Operators in this industry, which consumes over $30 billion USD worth of electricity annually to keep food cold, now have the flexibility to determine how they purchase, store, and consume that energy.
Viking Cold’s long-duration Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technology sits behind the meter and leverages the heat transference properties of phase change material, intelligent controls, and 24/7 monitoring and reporting software to reduce energy consumption and shift time-of-use for up to 13 hours per day while better maintaining stable freezer temperatures to safeguard frozen product.
This happens because the TES systems allow the energy intensive refrigeration equipment to be turned off for long periods of time during peak periods, or at times when renewable energy sources go offline, to flatten out demand spikes. TES now provides utilities access to the enormous load of the cold storage industry for additional grid capacity and resiliency. This newly accessible load helps utilities delay costly infrastructure projects and provides a path to engagement with commercial and industrial customers. Viking Colds TES technology has been tested, accepted, and incentivized in many utilities projects across North America (Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric, Eversource, Xcel Energy, and more), and our systems are installed and running in multiple countries.
Utility Benefits of Thermal Energy Storage
Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) < 2 cents per kWh
Long-duration, behind-the-meter storage + efficiency
Stores up to 500 kW, discharges up to 13 hrs/day/facility
Quick, easy install: 1000s of existing C&I refrigerated facilities
Addresses variability of renewables
24/7 Remote monitoring & notification
Utility tested, accepted, and incentivized technology
Learn how one industrial warehouse in PG&E territory (in video above) reduced consumption 43% and demand 29% for 13 hours per day, six days per week with long-duration Thermal Energy Storage.
TES Reduces Energy Consumption
Learn more about the grid benefits and demand shifting capabilities of Thermal Energy Storage technology in the heavy load and high demand sector of cold storage.
UtilityDive.com – Long-duration energy storage: The future of grid stability
Our growing need for more power, shifting patterns of demand, and the rapid expansion of variable renewable generation is presenting challenges to the grid. Energy storage is certainly part of the solution, but is the market or regulation driving the development of storage? How is long duration storage being advanced to better address these needs? Are there long duration energy storage solutions today that are economical to broadly deploy? Get some answers in this Utility Dive article that discusses the drivers and economics of long duration energy storage.
PLMA recognized Viking Cold as a 2019 Technology Pioneer
Peak Load Management Alliance has announced its eight recipients of the 16th annual PLMA awards. Viking Cold has been named a Technology Pioneer being recognized as an industry leader who created innovative ideas, methods, programs, and technologies to meet peak load needs and support successful grid integration of distributed energy resources during calendar year 2018. Click here to learn more about PLMA awards.
Distributed Energy Magazine - Thermal Energy Storage, A Cooler Energy Storage Technology
Energy publication Distributed Energy has published an article authored by our CEO, James Bell, describing how Thermal Energy Storage provides backup resiliency to cold storage warehouses, adds efficiency to commercial and industrial refrigeration applications, and provides the grid a storage technology that can now manage the high energy demand of the cold storage industry.
