Avalon White Plains, a 13-year-old 407-unit luxury rental complex in White Plains, NY, has become the first building in the state to have an indoor lithium-ion battery storage unit installed.
The 144kW battery bank, about the size of two side-by-side refrigerators, discharges at peak hours to support the electricity grid when under stress. It re-charges at off-peak times to take advantage of low cost, low carbon emission power.
Another advantage, promoted by the smart building technology software developer that helped create the system, Logical Buildings, is the battery operation is able to serve as a generator in the event of power outages.
“Beyond adding resiliency and cost savings for the Avalon community, the battery will support important environmental, social and governance goals, such as the installation of electric vehicle charging stations,” said Abhay Ambati, senior vice president of Technology Services at Logical Buildings.
Immediately after going live in June during the first heatwave of the summer, the battery was able to offer 50kW of demand reduction at the building for two consecutive days. It is anticipated the battery will deploy at least four times per month over the summer.
AvalonBay Communities, the owner of the White Plains property, purchased both the Stem battery and its proprietary Athena AI software analytics systems to reduce daily peak demand through charging and discharging.
Logical Buildings worked with the battery’s developer Stem to automatically optimize battery discharge during four-hour load reduction windows.
As power grids come under increasing stress from climate change, such investments might be more common for building owners and an attraction for ESG-oriented tenants.
No comments:
Post a Comment