FAQs

In every commodity market in the world - except electricity -- storage is used to address the periodic imbalance between supply and demand. We store food, water, and fuel to dampen price volatility, create efficiency in consumption, and increase reliability in delivery.  Only the electricity market meets peaks in demand by overbuilding generation, transmission, and distribution assets, which then sit idle most of the time.

In many ways, storage is the missing link. The utility industry needs storage for the successful integration of renewable energy into the grid, to increase efficiency of existing power plants and transmission facilities, and provide better power quality.

Storage can create a flatter and more efficient load shape on the grid, improve load factors, and increase energy system efficiency and grid reliability. Storage improves the value of investments in intermittent renewable generation, reduces carbon emissions, and offers the promise of ratepayer relief.

For Ice Energy’s solution in particular, by leveraging the higher efficiencies associated with generating, transmitting and storing power at night, and dispatching it during times of peak demand, storage represents a sustainable new energy solution equivalent to hundreds of megawatts of clean peaking power for utilities. 

Or, to put it slightly differently, our technology cost effectively stores energy off peak and delivers it on peak, at the point of consumption, without incurring significant inefficiency or losses in the process. This makes it possible for utilities, for the first time, to use cleaner, more efficient and less expensive off-peak power to produce and store energy to meet peak demand. 

Energy storage provides significant climate and environmental benefits. 

Off-peak power in California and many other states results in significantly less CO2 and other emissions per kilowatt hour than does on-peak power, due to avoidance of high heat rate peaking plants and the reduced losses in uncongested T&D lines during off-peak periods. This allows 30-45% less source fuel to be used when energy is stored at night and then providing cooling during the day. 

In addition, widespread and significant use of energy storage is increasingly necessary as renewable resources, such as wind and solar, which are intermittent by nature and not coincident with peak demand, become an increasing part of utilities power systems.  Energy storage can capture that clean, no-emission energy and store it for use when it is needed most and is most valuable – during peak demand periods – as well as help “smooth” power production from variable renewables.

It's not really an either/or question. At Ice Energy, we believe that energy storage - in all its forms - must be considered as part of any integrated energy solution by utilities.

Its benefits are many and varied: Storage enables intermittent solar, stores off peak wind energy; provides clean and highly responsive voltage regulation services; shifts peak demand and energy consumption to off peak; and boosts the market for efficient base load generation resources. And each form of storage, be it distributed or central, long duration or short burst, battery, thermal, pumped hydro, or whatever, has its place.

From our founding, Ice Energy has been focused on developing cost-effective, easy to deploy, utility-scale, distributed storage solutions capable of fundamentally changing how --  and more importantly when --  energy is consumed, leveling demand by transparently shifting significant amounts of energy usage from peak to off-peak periods. 

Ice Energy is the leading provider of intelligent energy storage solutions to the utility industry.

From our founding in 2003, we have been dedicated to developing cost-effective, easy to deploy, utility-scale, distributed energy storage solutions capable of fundamentally changing how -- and more importantly when -- energy is consumed. 

Storing energy off-peak, when electricity generation is cleaner, more efficient and less expensive, and delivering it on-peak, when it is needed most, Ice Energy represents a sustainable new energy solution equivalent to thousands of megawatts of clean peaking power for utilities.

Our smart grid platform integrates distributed energy storage technology with intelligent two-way control to provide utilities with a powerful, cost-effective solution to the problem of peak demand, improving energy system efficiency and reliability, and enabling the transition to a cleaner, smarter, more sustainable power grid.

We are based in Windsor, Co., with additional offices in Sacramento and Orange County, Calif., and manufacturing facilities in New York State. 

Ice Energy is privately held.

Ice Energy’s distributed energy storage technology attacks the problem of peak demand by enabling a powerful change in how — and, more importantly, when — energy is consumed for air conditioning.

Storing cleaner, more efficient and more abundant energy off peak, and delivering it on peak at the point of consumption, our intelligent distributed energy storage system is the industry’s first energy storage solution specifically developed for deployment on small to mid-sized commercial buildings.

Our technology, called the Ice Bear, is an integrated energy storage system that, when combined with conventional building air conditioning, creates a hybrid storage and cooling system that draws upon each technology when it is most efficient and cost-effective.

The system stores cooling energy at night peak by freezing water within an insulated storage tank. It cools during the day by circulating chilled refrigerant from that tank to the conventional A/C system, eliminating the need to run the energy-intensive compressor during peak daytime hours. During off-peak hours, the conventional system operates as usual. 

By decoupling daytime air conditioning use from peak energy demand, this unique hybrid system surpasses the overall efficiency and performance of conventional equipment alone, while consuming an equal or lesser amount of energy on each building.

Each Ice Bear distributed energy storage unit eliminates the AC load for at least 6 hours daily, shifting the energy consumption to off-peak periods.  AC energy demand – typically 40-50% of a building’s electricity use during peak hours – is reduced by as much as 95%.

Our advanced software Smart Grid architecture, called the CoolData Controller, can interface, aggregate, and intelligently control individual Ice Energy units, creating the functional equivalent of bulk storage. The ability to aggregate and control the distributed units as a single utility resource enables a utility to deploy and evaluate the solution in much the same way as they evaluate new peaking generation, and provides significantly more incremental value across the entire value chain, from source generation to site consumption. 

When aggregated and deployed at scale, the Ice Energy system represents the first viable, cost-effective alternative to conventional peaking power plants for meeting peak demand.

Our customers are the utilities. Simply put, Ice Energy provides aggregated blocks of intelligent, distributed energy storage and the associated load shifting benefits, on a multi-megawatt scale, to utilities, who fund the installation of individual Ice Bear units directly on customer buildings within their service territory. 

The utility owns and operates the asset – just like it would a meter, transformer, or other piece of utility equipment. Ice Energy handles all site identification and acquisition, installation, and maintenance. And the customer enjoys all the economic, environmental and performance benefits of adding storage to their facility -  at no cost to them.

A fleet of aggregated Ice Bear energy storage units can help a utility to better manage its load, levelizing demand across peak and off-peak periods. Using lower-cost, off-peak power to meet peak demand reduces the need for high-cost, on-peak power and delivers significant savings in operating costs to the utility.  Additional benefits include increases in energy system efficiency, better utilization of generating assets, reduced use of fossil fuels, enhanced integration of renewables like wind and solar, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Because our solution is fully funded by utility companies, there is no cost to the end-use consumer or building owner.  They receive the Ice Bear equipment, installation and maintenance -- as well as all the economic and environmental benefits of adding storage to their buildings -- at no cost to them.  They'll also benefit from our purchasing power with the national HVAC equipment manufacturers when you purchase Ice Ready replacement roof top units.

For the businesses and buildings where the Ice Bear units are installed, benefits include lower daytime energy consumption, increased efficiency and lower energy costs, a smaller environmental footprint, and consistent comfort for customers and employees.

While our solution delivers substantial benefits individually for building owners and national accounts, that’s just one of the many value propositions we provide across the system.

When deployed at scale, the utility company derives the most significant value from the broad deployment of our solution, as a clean, cost-effective alternative to new generation. It was a natural to focus our efforts on the customer who receives the highest value at the largest scale.

Ice Bear systems are still available to individual building owners through participating utility programs.

Ice Energy’s intelligent distributed energy storage solutions are sold to utilities as multi-megawatt projects at the utility scale on a negotiated basis. We do not sell individual Ice Bear units.

When considering levelized cost, our solution is more cost effective for utilities than deploying new gas-fired-peakers, and it provides significantly more incremental value across the entire energy delivery chain, from source to consumption.

It is also significantly less on a per kilowatt basis than any other storage technology available today.

In early 2010, The Southern California Public Power Authority, or SCPPA (www.scppa.org) and Ice Energy announced plans to undertake the industry’s first utility-scale, smart grid-enabled distributed energy storage project. 

The 53 Megawatt project will help to permanently reduce California’s peak energy demand by shifting as much as 64 Gigawatt hours of on-peak electrical consumption to off-peak periods every year, reducing exposure to costly peak power and improving the reliability of the electrical grid.

The project entails the installation of Ice Bear smart grid-networked distributed energy storage systems at more than 1,500 sites throughout the region over a multi-year period.

The Southern California Public Power Authority, or SCPPA (www.scppa.org) is made up of 11 municipal utilities and one irrigation district. SCPPA utilities deliver electricity to approximately 2 million customers over an area of 7,000 square miles, with a total population of 4.8 million.

SCPPA Members include the municipal utilities of the cities of Anaheim, Azusa, Banning, Burbank, Cerritos, Colton, Glendale, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Riverside, Vernon, and the Imperial Irrigation District.

The wide-scale implantation of energy storage is one of the crucial enabling technologies for the nation’s power system (smart grid). This project by SCPPA is the first utility-scale deployment of grid-connected, distributed energy storage technology on a multi-Megawatt scale. 

It is not a demonstration or pilot project, but a viable, cost-effective, utility-scale alternative to building new peaking power plants to meet California’s growing peak demand. 

The Ice Energy project represents the first viable, cost-effective alternative to conventional peaking power plants for meeting California’s growing peak energy demand. It aligns with SCPPA’s mission to enable its utilities to deliver reliable, competitively priced electric service to their customers in a sustainable, environmentally-sensitive manner.

When weighed against the environmental impact and financial costs associated with adding peak generation as a solution for addressing peak demand, SCPPA determined the Ice Energy solution to be more cost effective while reducing emissions instead of adding them.

When implemented by SCPPA member utilities throughout Southern California, the 53 Megawatt (MW) distributed energy storage project will permanently and significantly reduce the region’s peak electrical demand by shifting as much as 64 Gigawatt hours of on-peak electrical consumption to off-peak periods every year, reducing exposure to costly peak power and improving the reliability of the electrical grid.

By leveraging the higher efficiencies associated with generating and transmitting power off-peak, storing it at thousands of distributed locations at the site of consumption, and dispatching it during times of peak demand, this project makes it possible, for the first time, for SCPPA utilities to use cleaner, more efficient and less expensive off-peak power to meet peak demand.

By storing energy off peak and delivering it on peak, base load generation resources can be more effectively utilized; we can offset the need to run fossil-fuel burning power plants during the peak of the day; grid congestion is reduced, and a load can be created to better integrate renewable generation like off peak wind, solar and geothermal resources.

All of this also helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and significantly reduces  SCPPA members’ environmental footprint.  

The initial 53 Megawatt project represents the installation of more then 6,000 networked Ice Energy distributed energy storage systems by SCPPA member utilities on commercial and government buildings in their respective territories throughout Southern California.

Allocation and distribution of the systems is determined by individual participating utilities. Site identification and installation of the Ice Energy storage systems by initial participating SCPPA members, including utilities in the communities of Glendale, Burbank, Azusa and the Inland Empire, began in late 2010, with targeted deployment of all 53 MWs anticipated over the next several years.

The units will be owned by the utility, much like a turbine, a meter or any other utility asset, and maintained by Ice Energy through a long-term maintenance agreement and installed onsite at no cost to the customer. 

Participating SCPPA member utilities see energy storage as a cost-effective alternative to meeting peak energy demand, helping them to deliver reliable, affordable electric service to their customers in a sustainable, environmentally friendly manner – now and into the future.

By shifting when energy is used, storage saves money, reduces emissions, improves reliability, and makes better use of clean, renewable energy.

By connecting Ice Bear energy storage units to air conditioning systems on commercial & industrial customer sites throughout their territories, participating utilities can reduce the amount of electricity required to power daytime building cooling – the single largest contributor to peak energy demand.   

In turn, this helps reduce overall demand on the electric system, lowers stress on the grid, and reduces the risk of brownouts and blackouts – even on the hottest days.

And, because power generated at night is cleaner, more abundant, and less expensive, it also means improvements in efficiency and savings in electric system operating costs. All of this helps to keep customer rates as low as possible.

For the businesses and buildings where the Ice Bear units are installed, this means reduced daytime energy consumption, increased efficiency and lower energy costs, a smaller environmental footprint, longer equipment life, and more consistent cooling comfort for your customers and employees – no matter how hot it gets outside.