Bit by bit, Philly moves to KO energy waste
Not all the news developments out of the smart-grid world can be characterised as “exciting.” You’ve got the standard “Company X rolls out another million smart meters” stories, for example, and the “Company Y hires so-and-so for MDMS (meter demand management system) deployment”-type announcements. Nice, in terms of the continued advance toward a more intelligent energy future … not thrilling, but nice.
But every once in a while, a development arrives with a much bigger splash … and that’s definitely the category Viridity Energy’s latest project falls into.
The Pennsylvania-based smart-grid firm is kicking off a partnership with Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in which it will help the organisation make the most of electricity from a wind farm in the region. Jefferson says the energy it gets from Iberdrola’s Locust Ridge II wind farm in Schuylkill County will meet 35 per cent of the health system’s electricity needs, but it also wants a way to manage that energy for maximum efficiency and cost control. That’s why it turned to Viridity.
Viridity Energy plans to use dynamic load control and energy storage technologies to balance electricity supplies with Jefferson’s fluctuating demands and ever-changing wholesale power prices. And while some of the details are on the fuzzy side (what kind of energy storage technology will be used, for instance, isn’t clear from what the company’s willing to say so far), the potential isn’t hard to appreciate.
The project could also lead to even bigger things for the city of Philadelphia. As Viridity’s new announcement put it, 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 has a hand in other projects that could contribute to that goal. It’s already working with Drexel University and the region’s transit authority, and is talking with the Center City District about how to include many downtown commercial buildings in a larger local grid.
Pretty exciting stuff, for sure, and a nice — thrilling, actually, way for Philadelphia to make its mark as a smart-city leader.
