In The News
WATCHUNG, NJ, NOV. 11, 2021 – Power Edison, the leading developer and provider of utility-scale mobile energy storage solutions, is partnering with sustainability champion Hugo Neu Realty Management of New Jersey -and other stakeholders- to deploy the largest electric vehicle (EV) charging hub in the United States. This signature project —to be comprised of more than 200 high-power fast chargers— will be sited at Kearny Point Industrial Park, 10 minutes from the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, and 10 minutes from New York City. It is anticipated that this EV charging hub, serving the high-traffic Tri-State region, will power thousands of light, medium and heavy duty vehicles daily — in addition to charging electric marine vessels. As world leaders meet at COP26, the message is clear that we are significantly behind on climate change action. This innovative partnership is accelerating meaningful community-centric solutions that will improve livability for frontline communities — while reducing harmful GHG emissions.
“Power Edison is engaged with leading organizations such as Hugo Neu to make EV charging accessible and ubiquitous,” said Shihab Kuran, Ph.D., CEO of Power Edison. “Power Edison leverages its innovative solutions, including mobile truck and barge battery systems, to develop fast charging hubs expeditiously. Our utility-scale mobile power solutions allow us to develop charging sites without having to wait for the typical lengthy power utility infrastructure upgrade process. We welcome fleet owners, charging network operators, vehicle manufacturers and other EV stakeholders to contact us for more information and to reserve capacity.”
“In working with Power Edison to develop this strategically located EV charging hub, we’re bringing about an evolution in the sustainable use of land in this 130-Acre industrial campus,” noted property owner Wendy Neu, CEO of Hugo Neu Realty Management. “The transportation sector remains the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in New Jersey, accounting for over 40% of emissions along with other harmful pollutants. For decades, Kearny and the surrounding areas have been over-exposed to these pollutants. By deploying hundreds of EV chargers at Kearny Point, we will significantly reduce GHGs to help mitigate climate change and improve air quality for disproportionately burdened environmental justice communities in the area. Our innovative partnership with Power Edison is comprehensive in its approach to transforming this key location (located between the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers, off Route 9) into model beacons of clean, renewable energy / transportation, while growing local economies.”
“Delivering more than 200 megawatts (200MW) and 4800 megawatt-hours (4800MWh) of daily capacity, Power Edison’s new hub is an exciting and impactful EV super charging site,” noted Pamela Frank, CEO of ChargeEVC-NJ, a business association comprised of diverse interests that advocates for electrification of transportation (chargevc.org). “We’re thrilled that Power Edison and Hugo Neu have joined forces with other key players in the electric vehicle charging arena in bringing this electrification-of-transportation project to fruition in New Jersey.”
“Our engineered power solutions will initially offer over 250kW of power per charger and scale up to over 1MW per charger as vehicle technology evolves. This enables industry-leading fast charging for light, medium and heavy duty vehicles alike. Inherent in our design is flexibility, modularity and ability to integrate renewables, batteries and other technologies for added sustainability and resiliency,” said Yazan Harasis, Director of Projects at Power Edison.
Power Edison is led by industry veterans with experience in power generation, transmission, distribution, power conversion and smart grid. Power Edison is expanding its team and hiring to further support its growth.
With the significant need for EV charging solutions, Power Edison launched a new subsidiary called EV Edison (www.ev-edison.com) dedicated to the development of high-power fast charging hubs.
About Power Edison
Power Edison is a leading developer and provider of clean energy solutions. The company’s proprietary technology offerings include patent-pending hardware and software for land and marine based Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. Power Edison development portfolio includes energy storage, solar energy, EV charging, fuel cells and hydrogen. Power Edison has a development and sales pipeline of over 1GWh of battery storage projects.
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Power Edison Partnership to Develop the Nation’s Largest Electric Vehicle Charging Site in Metropolitan New York Area
Power Edison Supplying World’s Largest Mobile Battery Energy Storage System
WATCHUNG, NJ, APRIL 20, 2021 – Power Edison, the leading developer and provider of utility-scale mobile energy storage solutions, has been contracted by a major U.S. utility to deliver the system this year. At more than three megawatts (3MW) and twelve megawatt-hours (12MWh) of capacity, it will be the world’s largest trailer-based battery energy storage system.
“We’re engaged with industry-leading utilities on mobile storage, developing techno-economic analyses, advanced engineered solutions, utility filings and commercial deployments.” said Shihab Kuran, Ph.D., CEO of Power Edison. “Mobile and flexible solutions provide higher reliability and unlock additional benefits for electric utilities enabling them to make prudent investments on behalf of their ratepayers.”
Utilities are increasingly confronted with grid stresses and constraints. To meet these dynamic challenges, Power Edison has developed robust utility-grade battery storage solutions – with cutting-edge technology that provide reliability when it’s needed and where it’s needed. Power Edison’s engineered solutions incorporate best of breed batteries, inverters, switchgear, safety equipment, mobile transportation platforms and state-of-the-art software for battery, energy and fleet management. Energy storage has key reliability and economic applications for electric utilities and the commercial and industrial sectors. This includes grid resiliency, demand management, renewables integration, EV charging support and backup power.
Power Edison has also developed barge-based batteries that are at the core of its marine-based solutions. The initial set of its 500MWh+ development pipeline is going through final permitting and about to start construction. Power Edison’s barge fleet bring grid storage to key locations where land is at a premium or not available.
“Power Edison has key industry partnerships and a broad solutions portfolio that includes energy storage, solar energy, EV charging, fuel cells and hydrogen.” added Kuran. “We are experiencing strong traction with customers and with investors who are looking to deploy our solutions and leverage our industry expertise.”
“We have developed a full range of innovative, patent-pending solutions offering industry-leading features such as enhanced cybersecurity, ‘plug-and-play’ integration and modularity.” said Yazan Harasis, Director of Projects at Power Edison. “Our software provides asset owners and operators a unified control platform for the various technology assets.”
Power Edison is led by industry veterans with experience in power generation, transmission, distribution, power conversion and smart grid. Power Edison is expanding its team and hiring to further support its growth.
About Power Edison
Power Edison is a leading developer and provider of renewable energy solutions. The company’s proprietary technology offerings include patent-pending hardware and software for land and marine based Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. Power Edison development portfolio includes energy storage, solar energy, EV charging, fuel cells and hydrogen. Power Edison has a development and sales pipeline of over 1GWh of battery storage projects.
Getting extra power to where it’s needed is a tricky business, often requiring millions of dollars in investments. Now a solar-industry veteran has proposed a cheaper alternative: juice stored in batteries that are delivered by truck, rail or barge.
Shihab Kuran, who founded Petra Systems Inc. and also worked at NRG Energy Inc. and SunEdison Inc., has now formed Power Edison LLC, which offers grid-scale lithium-ion battery systems encased in specialized shipping containers that can be stacked like Legos. The Green Brook, New Jersey-based company was formed in March and formally announced Thursday.
The units would let utilities dispatch storage systems to match shifting demand and defer costly upgrades to the grid. Portability also allows businesses to send batteries to where power is needed most, like Canada in winter and Brazil in summer.
“We are the Uber of battery storage,” Kuran said in an interview. “We’re going to offer a solution for the duration that it’s needed, and after that, we’ll take our solution and re-purpose that for other applications.”
Power Edison’s offering comes as utilities like Consolidated Edison Inc. seek to employ new technologies like storage to avoid spending millions to beef up electricity networks to accommodate rising consumption. The amount of storage capacity installed globally is forecast to reach 750 megawatts this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, up from 160 megawatts in 2014.
Easy Delivery
Kuran, who previously headed storage businesses at NRG and SunEdison, said the key to his strategy is making batteries easier to move. Lithium-ion systems are complicated to transport. They are heavy, sensitive to temperature changes and prone to bursting into flames. To solve that problem, Power Edison designed containers to protect them from the rigors of travel.
“Today if you want to move an energy storage container by code you have to empty the batteries out, you have to put them into cool containers, you have to transport them separately,” Kuran said. “It’s a very expensive process.”
First Project
Another part of the strategy is leasing the batteries instead of selling them, cutting costs for utilities, Kuran said. Utilities typically rely on battery storage for one to three years before major upgrades are needed to meet rising power demand. The containers, measuring up to 40 feet (12 meters) long, will have a capacity of one megawatt-hour. The company is taking orders now and the first project is expected to be unveiled this year.
Clean energy advocates have long considered storage the elusive link to better incorporating energy into the grid from wind and solar farms, where production ebbs and flows based on breezes and sunshine.
“Solving the storage problem, in my humble opinion, is the last obstacle before allowing renewables to become a meaningful source of energy that can tackle climate change,’’ Kuran said. “Renewables, they suffer from intermittency and they are not a dispatchable energy source, so energy storage remains to be the Holy Grail that many in the industry are working on.”
Dive Brief:
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Power Edison LLC, a startup based in New Jersey, is offering grid-scale lithium-ion battery systems housed in shipping containers that can be stacked like Legos and delivered via truck, rail or barge, Bloomberg reports.
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As part of its strategy, Power Edison leases its batteries rather than selling them, cutting costs for utilities.
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The Green Brook, New Jersey, company was founded by Shihab Kuran, who founded Petra Systems Inc. and also worked at NRG Energy and SunEdison.
Dive Insight:
Lithium-ion batteries are on the forefront of a boom in energy storage deployments. They dominated the makeup of storage projects in 2015, according to Navigant Consulting, composing more than half of newly announced energy storage system capacity and more than 85% of deployed power capacity.
But li-ion technology is not without its problems. It is difficult to transport li-ion batteries. They are heavy, sensitive to temperature changes and prone to bursting into flames. To address those problems, Power Edison designed containers to protect them from the rigors of travel.
“We are the Uber of battery storage,” Shihab Kuran, Power Edison’s founder said in an interview with Bloomberg.
“Today if you want to move an energy storage container by code you have to empty the batteries out, you have to put them into cool containers, you have to transport them separately,” Kuran said. “It’s a very expensive process.”
Making storage mobile allows utilities to dispatch storage systems to match shifting demand and defer costly upgrades to the grid. It also allows businesses to send batteries to where power is needed most, like Canada in winter and Brazil in summer.
Utilities typically rely on battery storage for one to three years before major upgrades are needed to meet rising power demand.
The containers, measure up to 40 feet long, and will have a capacity of 1 MWh. Power Edison expects to unveil its first project this year.
“We’re going to offer a solution for the duration that it’s needed, and after that, we’ll take our solution and re-purpose that for other applications,” Kuran said.
Yahoo Finance covering Con Edison's Storage on Demand project which Power Edison is involved in.
Con Edison Storing the Future for Energy Customers
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - February 28, 2017) - Con Edison has filed a project that will bring battery storage technology to New York City neighborhoods to help keep service reliable during the hot summer months.
By the summer of 2018, the company will deploy batteries capable of sending 1 megawatt of power for four hours into the grid to serve homes and businesses. Con Edison will determine where to deploy the batteries each summer based on the needs of its electrical networks.
The project, called "Storage on Demand," is the second battery demonstration project Con Edison has filed in 2017. The company believes both projects will produce insights leading to more widespread adoption of large-scale battery storage to benefit electrical delivery systems and customers. The projects support the state's Reforming the Energy Vision initiative.
"Battery storage technology is advancing quickly and can provide us with another tool to keep our service reliable on the days our customers need it the most," said Matthew Ketschke, Con Edison's vice president, Distributed Resource Integration. "Battery storage can also help us defer making upgrades to our infrastructure, saving our customers money."
Con Edison has formed a partnership with NRG Energy, which owns almost 50,000 megawatts of generation capacity across the United States, to develop and build the units at NRG's generating station in Astoria, Queens. Storage on Demand will consist of two mobile battery trailers and one mobile electrical switchgear trailer.
When Con Edison and its customers do not need the batteries, the units will be stored at the generating station and the partners will sell peak-shaving, contingency support and other services into the New York Independent System Operator wholesale market.
While Con Edison plans on deploying the units during the summer, the batteries will also be available at other times of the year when an electrical network needs short-term support.
In its other storage demonstration project, filed in January, Con Edison will work with microgrid developer GI Energy to place "front-of-the-meter," 1 megawatt/1 megawatt hour batteries at the properties of four customers. Con Edison will make quarterly lease payments to those customers.
The company would charge the batteries during off-peak times and discharge them during peak times to support Con Edison's system or in wholesale markets.
One site will also include an Urban Electric Power 200 kilowatt/400 kilowatt hour zinc manganese dioxide battery system that may provide increased flexibility at indoor battery sites.
That project, if successful, would provide an alternative to more traditional "behind-the-meter" batteries. Those batteries are owned by customers who store power in the units and then use that power to reduce their peak demand.
But those batteries make economic sense for only a small number of commercial customers -- those who pay demand charges and have highly fluctuating needs for power.
New York State's Reforming the Energy Vision program, or REV, encourages energy companies to use new technology to provide reliable, resilient service and to offer customers more access to products and services like energy efficiency, smart usage programs and renewables.