California transportation terminal retrofits energy storage system into solar-powered parking lots – pv magazine USA

September 25, 2024 Ryan Kennedy

Energy Toolbase and San Diego-based solar installer Stellar Solar Commercial have partnered to deliver a solar and energy storage project for a 24-acre transportation campus operated by Marten Transportation in Mira Loma, California.

The project included two solar-powered parking structures adding 197 kW of capacity. Stellar Solar also installed a BYD Chess 60 kW/266 kWh energy storage system.

The four-hour battery period is managed by the Acumen EMS control software. The primary control application for the energy storage system is time-of-use (TOU) demand charge management. The system is designed to optimize peak consumption reduction during all peak TOU periods by discharging the battery when the site’s metered demand exceeds thresholds calculated by Acumen EMS for each TOU period. This supports the customer in extracting value from their energy assets by controlling the site’s metered demand.

Stellar Solar designed the project using Energy Toolbase’s project modeling platform, ETB DeveloperModel the potential savings of the project by adding a storage system.

Marten Transport installed a solar power system in 2019 that covers some of its electricity needs, but the system did not have a mechanism to cover utilities’ peak demand charges.

“By adding BYD batteries, Marten has a comprehensive solution to meet both its base electricity consumption and demand spikes,” said Brian Grems, co-founder of Stellar Solar.

Real-time performance and savings of the system are visible to Stellar Solar and stakeholders as follows: ETB MonitorThis tool provides insights into the operations of energy storage systems and enables continuous evaluation and optimization.

“This project demonstrates our commitment to providing innovative energy solutions that deliver significant cost savings and operational efficiencies in California,” said Kevin Mulley, Vice President of Operations for Energy Toolbase.

Energy Toolbase is a software platform that provides a range of project estimation, storage control and asset tracking products that enable solar and storage developers to deploy projects more efficiently. Energy Toolbase’s software service Our products are used by more than 1,000 distributed energy organizations worldwide.

Stellar Solar was founded in 1998 and has a track record of more than 16,000 residential and commercial installations, mostly in California. Notable commercial installations include:at Cedars Sinai Hospital, Salk Institute, USA Foods and the United States Navy.