News

Ice Energy, a leading provider of distributed thermal energy storage and smart grid solutions, recently solved a major cooling challenge for the City of Azusa. Faced with an unexpected air conditioning equipment failure at the public library during a sustained summer heat wave, Azusa Light and Water, the City’s public utility, stepped in with a thermal energy solution from Ice Energy to supply a more reliable and efficient solution.

Azusa Light and Water has a proven track record with Ice Bears, using them since 2005 to help reduce summer peak capacity requirements set by refrigerant based air conditioning. Azusa uses the thermal energy storage units at major city facility’s including the City’s public library, event center and gymnasium, police station headquarters, City’s critical data centers, Azusa Light and Water main offices, and the Utility’s largest customer, Azusa Pacific University.

In the case of the public library, a 30-year-old, 30 ton air conditioning unit had come to the end of its useful life. The problem got worse as the City identified the library had reached the limits of the facilities’ current electrical distribution panel rating.

Within just two weeks, Ice Energy installed four Ice Bear thermal energy storage units that were integrated with ceiling and wall mounted ductless cassettes — eliminating the need to circulate air through existing uninsulated and inefficient air ducts. With the significant efficiency improvement, 20 tons of Ice Bear capacity displaced the 30 ton vintage AC system and eliminated the peak overload situation on the facilities’ main electrical panel.

Azusa Light & Water General Manager, George Morrow said, “We were confident that the Ice Bears would serve as a reliable solution for our public library based on our successful experiences since 2005, which were even featured in a Modern Marvels episode on the Discovery Channel. We were extremely pleased at how quickly and smoothly the entire process worked from purchase to implementation. Ice Bears not only solved the cooling problem, they added to our utility’s peak reduction and energy efficiency objectives, which ultimately drive greater grid reliability and support our efforts to maintain the lowest cost of service to our customers.”

Azusa Light & Water and Ice Energy plan to continue efforts to lower peak air conditioning beyond local businesses. Recently Azusa was awarded R&D DEED grant funding from the American Public Power Association to demonstrate residential Ice Bear applications at single family residences.

Ice Energy Executive Vice President Greg Miller said, “We are excited about expanding our product application to the residential market. The Ice Bears have proven success in the commercial and industrial arenas and I believe that residential customers may soon have the opportunity to experience similar energy saving benefits as a result of new smart meters that offer the customers time-of-use electric pricing.”