Viking Cold Solutions has completed the installation of eight Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems as part of a utility-backed demand management program in Massachusetts. These eight behind-the-meter TES systems store and facilitate management of approximately 1.3 megawatts (MW) 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 program is approximately 50,000 square feet (4,600 sq. meter), with the largest being 157,000 square feet (14,600 sq. meter).
Installation time 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 program, 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.
Energy is the second highest direct operating cost for cold storage operators, who must run their refrigeration systems nearly 24 hours per day. Additionally, these facilities have the highest energy demand per cubic foot of any industrial category on the grid. Viking Cold’s TES systems not only store enough energy to cycle off refrigeration for up to 13 hours per day to avoid time-of-use and demand charges, they also improve the existing refrigeration systems’ efficiency and reduce consumption by more than 25 percent.
“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 program enabled users to deploy proven, clean technology to improve temperature stability and safely reduce energy costs with no upfront capital.”
The Viking Cold TES systems have a 20-year life with zero maintenance and provide resiliency and risk mitigation by extending temperature control three times longer during power outages or equipment failures.
