Redding City Council Votes to Expand Ice Energy's Thermal Storage Program

Redding Council Vote Approves 6 MW Deal with Multi-tiered Economic Upswing. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) June 21, 2012 - GLENDALE, Calif. - Marking the start of summer and seasonal peak demand, the Redding City Council voted June 19 in favor of the second phase of Redding Electric Utility's (REU's) Thermal Energy Storage Program with Ice Energy.

Ice Energy, a leading provider of distributed energy storage and smart grid solutions for increasing energy system efficiency and improving grid reliability, and REU will collaborate on the second phase. The program to install Ice Bear® units within the northern California territory aims to reduce peak electricity load demand by up to 6 MW over five years.

REU Utility Director Barry Tippin, said, "We are very excited to continue the expansion of our Energy Storage Program. After more than seven years of evaluation, installation and analysis, the Ice Bear product has proven to be a good fit for the Redding community and a cost effective means of shifting on-peak air conditioning demand to off-peak hours. This program improves REU's electric system efficiency and creates essential jobs in our community."

Currently, 40 commercial buildings in Redding have Ice Bears. Those installations have exceeded 1 MW of peak demand reduction and benefited the local economy by employing local HVAC technicians and engineers. The utility reported a 95 percent reduction in peak load demand since the units were installed. The latest phase of Ice Energy's Thermal Energy Storage Program significantly expands the program, and brings manufacturing jobs to Redding.

The Ice Bear system is a distributed energy storage solution used in conjunction with commercial direct-expansion (DX) air conditioning (AC) systems. Ice Bear units utilize electricity from the grid during off-peak periods, converting it into stored thermal energy in the form of ice, and use the ice to perform useful work for building cooling by displacing the operation of commercial AC condensing units during on-peak periods. The benefits include:

• Improved grid efficiency and reliability

• Deferral of the need to add new generating, transmission, and or distribution infrastructure

• Reduced emissions

• Local green job creation

REU expects to have the thermal energy storage program completed in 2017. Skyway Machine, a local Redding manufacturing company, will provide final assembly of the new Ice Bear units.

Skyway CEO, Ken Coster, said, "The team here at Skyway is very excited about this new opportunity for Redding and for Skyway to continue our business diversification and expansion. We have been working with REU and Ice Energy for the past year to bring this company and new manufacturing jobs to Redding and truly look forward to a long relationship with REU and Ice Energy."

About The City of Redding
REU is proud of its record in the Redding community and grateful that its utility operations remain subject to the local control and oversight of Redding's City Council. REU strives to provide the most reliable service, offer competitive pricing, develop our economy and protect our environment and natural resources that make Redding and Shasta County a great place to live, work, and play. For more information about REU and its support for City services go to REUpower.com.

About Ice Energy
Ice Energy delivers distributed energy storage and smart grid solutions that improve utility system efficiency and reliability. The company's smart grid platform integrates distributed energy storage technology with an advanced software infrastructure and intelligent two-way control to provide utilities with a powerful, cost-effective solution that fundamentally changes peak load management, and improves integration of intermittent, renewable resources onto the grid.

By leveraging the higher efficiencies associated with generating and transmitting power off-peak, storing it at thousands of distributed locations, and dispatching it during times of peak demand, Ice Energy's distributed energy storage system represents a transformational new energy solution for the industry.

Ice Energy, formerly based in Windsor, Colorado, recently relocated its headquarters to Glendale, California. For more information, visit www.ice-energy.com.

Contact:

Redding Electric Utility (REU)/City of Redding
Patrick Keener
Energy Services Manager, Economic Development Liaison,
Media Relations
(530) 339-7220 or (530) 524-8102 (cell)
pkeener ( @ ) ci dot redding dot ca dot us

The McDonnell Group
Marc Marton
Director, Public Relations
(404) 583-0003 or (404) 915-2853 (cell)
marc ( @ ) themcdonnellgroup dot com

###

space

Other Related Press Releases