Energy storage takes the load off refrigeration demand
12th June 2019
USA: Viking Cold Solutions has installed 1.3MW of Thermal Energy Storage systems in cold storage facilities in Massachusetts as part of an energy demand management programme.
The eight Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems store and facilitate management of approximately 1.3MW of energy onsite, and do not require any additional real estate for the system components. The average size of the cold storage facilities in the programme is approximately 50,000ft², with the largest being 157,000ft².
Installation time is said to have averaged 127 days from agreement to commissioning and removal of demand from the grid. The Greater Boston Food Bank was the first TES installation of the demand management programme, which also includes industrial facilities owned by the world’s largest third-party cold storage company, the world’s largest foodservice distributor, and numerous frozen food processing companies.
Viking Cold’s TES systems store enough energy to cycle off refrigeration for up to 13 hours per day to avoid time-of-use and demand charges. They are also said to improve the existing refrigeration system’s efficiency and reduce consumption by more than 25%.
“Our TES systems, with a levelized cost of energy that is less than two cents per kilowatt-hour, provide commercial and industrial demand management tools for utilities, while lowering energy costs for customers in frozen food,” said Collin Coker, Viking Cold Solutions’ VP of sales and marketing. “This programme enabled users to deploy proven, clean technology to improve temperature stability and safely reduce energy costs with no upfront capital.”
