LEADING ENERGY STORAGE COMPANY TO RELOCATE IN GLENDALE CALIFORNIA

Contact:
Martin Powers
Glendale Water & Power
(818) 548-3884

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 26, 2012

Leading Energy Storage Company to Relocate in Glendale California

GLENDALE, California – Glendale Water & Power (GWP) announced today that Ice Energy, a leading green energy company that supplies advanced energy storage solutions to the electric utility industry, is relocating its corporate head quarters and national logistics center to Glendale.  The move comes after the successful installation of 1.5 MW of Ice Bear energy storage units as part of GWP’s U.S. Department of Energy supported Smart Grid Project. 

"Ice Energy’s relocation of its headquarters is expected to bring many benefits to Glendale and shows how GWP’s investment in Smart Grid is providing long term benefits to Glendale,” said GWP General Manager Glenn Steiger.   “As GWP evaluates larger energy storage investments and other California Municipal and Investor Owned Utilities develop energy storage projects, the City of Glendale will surely benefit from Ice Energy’s relocation.”

In the last year, GWP’s Ice Bear project installed energy storage units known as Ice Bears at 28 Glendale city buildings and 58 local small, medium sized, and large commercial businesses.  The project was supported by local trade companies and created approximately 40 jobs during the 1 year installation process. A total of 180 Ice Bear units have been installed in Glendale since the program’s inception in 2005.

As part of its long term capital investment plan, GWP is currently evaluating the installation of an additional 10MW in Ice Bear energy storage capacity.  Such an investment would help GWP meet its long term commitment to provide reliable energy in an environmentally sensitive manner by providing GWP with a simple, cost-effective solution for managing peak demand while helping the local economy by creating more jobs and opportunities.

Ice Bear energy storage systems are paired with commercial air conditioning units to create a hybrid cooling solution that delivers a powerful change in how — and, more importantly, when — energy is consumed for air conditioning.  Air conditioning energy demand – typically 40-50% of a building’s electricity use during peak hours – will be reduced by as much as 95%.  For GWP and its customers, the expanding Ice Bear project reduces peak demand on the whole electrical grid, reducing exposure to costly peak power and improving the efficiency and reliability of the grid.

To better support its energy storage projects underway with Southern California Public Power Authority utility members and Southern California Edison, and expansion plans with GWP, Ice Energy has relocated its corporate headquarters to the City of Glendale and is building out a new logistics center co-located with its headquarters.

“Ice Energy is excited about its new home in the City of Glendale,” said Greg Miller, Executive Vice President of Market Development. “Our company has enjoyed market adoption of the Ice Bear product and our relocation is an ideal location for us geographically to better serve California’s peak reduction requirements cost effectively. As business grows, we’ll be partnering with many companies that can support our utility energy storage deployments.” 

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Glendale Water & Power is the City of Glendale’s utility which provides water to 33,400 customers in Glendale, California. The city-owned utility also generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to 84,900 residential, commercial, and industrial customers.  www.GlendaleWaterAndPower.com. 

Ice Energy delivers distributed energy storage and smart grid solutions for transforming utility system efficiency and improving grid reliability.

The company’s smart grid platform integrates revolutionary distributed energy storage technology with an advanced software infrastructure and intelligent two-way control to provide utilities with a powerful, cost-effective solution that fundamentally changes peak load management, and improves integration of intermittent, renewable resources onto the grid.

By leveraging the higher efficiencies associated with generating and transmitting power off-peak, storing it at thousands of distributed locations, and dispatching it during times of peak demand, Ice Energy’s distributed energy storage system represents a transformational new energy solution for the industry.

The company is now headquartered in Glendale California. For more information, visit www.ice-energy.com.