University-hospital group eyes large-scale energy storage
Viridity Energy will develop and implement a project aimed at maximizing the economic and environmental value of energy resources at Thomas Jefferson University and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals (Jefferson).
The two have signed a letter of intent to develop a large-scale energy storage project that will allow Jefferson to strategically manage its on-site and renewable energy resources through Viridity’s dynamic load control optimisation system so that electricity at or near a Jefferson site can be stored for use when it best serves Jefferson’s operational needs and economic opportunities. The organisation hopes the system will become a replicable model for other hospitals within the Jefferson network as well as throughout the region and country.
“Philadelphia is on its way to having one of the first grid-scale urban energy storage systems in the US, making it a leader and a model that others will want to emulate,” said Audrey Zibelman, president and CEO of Viridity Energy. “Large hospitals and research-oriented academic campuses are by nature some of the biggest energy users out there, which offers up a host of opportunities for savvy administrators to save huge sums by managing their resources more strategically.”
Jefferson recently acquired one-third of the electricity supply from the 10- megawatt Locust Ridge II wind power project developed by Iberdrola Renewables and located in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Jefferson has been seeking ways to optimise this intermittent resource and maximise the value of wind energy, as its output will vary in ways that will not match variations in either Jefferson’s electricity usage or in wholesale power prices.
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