Smart grid technology company Viridity Energy announced a partnership with Thomas Jefferson University and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals (Jefferson) to develop and implement a large-scale energy storage project.
The project will allow Jefferson to strategically manage its on-site and renewable energy resources through Viridity’s dynamic load control optimization system so that electricity at or near a Jefferson site can be stored for use when it best serves Jefferson’s operational needs and economic opportunities.
It is hoped that the system will become a replicable model for other hospitals within the Jefferson network as well as throughout the region and country.
"Philadelphia is on its way to having one of the first grid-scale urban energy storage systems in the U.S., making it a leader and a model that others will want to emulate," said Audrey Zibelman, President and CEO, Viridity Energy. "Large hospitals and research oriented academic campuses are by nature some of the biggest energy users out there, which offers up a host of opportunities for savvy administrators to save huge sums by managing their resources more strategically."
Jefferson recently acquired one-third of its electricity supply from the 102-megawatt (MW) Locust Ridge II wind power project developed by Iberdrola Renewables (IBR.MC) and located in Schuylkill County, PA. Jefferson has been seeking ways to optimize this intermittent resource and maximize the value of wind energy, as its output will vary in ways that will not match variations in either Jefferson’s electricity usage or in wholesale power prices.
The development enhances the potential for Jefferson’s Center City Campus to become a key building block in a potential Center City microgrid that can help reduce the risk and cost of power outages in the heart of downtown Philadelphia, increase the use of clean local energy resources, protect against volatile electricity prices, and create environmental and economic development benefits for the city and region.
Viridity Energy is already working with other institutional leaders in the region, such as Drexel University and SEPTA on energy optimization projects and is in discussion with the Center City District about how to include many downtown commercial buildings in a larger local grid.
The company is also working with the University of California, San Diego to optimize its distributed resources, such as photovoltaics, with battery and chilled water storage, dispatchable generation, such as cogeneration and gas turbines, and demand side management capabilities to transform its portfolio of buildings into a unified, dispatchable energy asset.
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