Program to offer NYC grocers incentives for efficient refrigeration

Con Edison said Tuesday that it was offering incentives for certain grocery stores in the New York area to install thermal energy storage systems to help better manage refrigeration costs.

One provider, Axiom Energy, said it was set to deploy a fleet of its Refrigeration Battery systems, which use existing refrigeration systems' excess capacity to “store cooling” at night by freezing a tank of salt water. During afternoon peak hours, the Refrigeration Battery uses the frozen tanks to supply refrigeration services to the building, eliminating the need to run energy-intensive compressors and condensers, Axiom said.

Incentives are available through Con Edison's Neighborhood Program, which covers businesses in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. A spokesman for Con Ed told SN Tuesday that marketing for the program had just begun and there were no commitments from grocers yet.

“We’re thrilled to see that Con Edison is taking an innovative approach to help address surging power demand on its grid by working with grocery store and cold storage facility owners to reduce their energy bills and enhance their razor-thin profit margins,” Amrit Robbins, president and co-founder of Richmond, Calif.-based Axiom Energy, said in a statement. “By deploying Refrigeration Battery systems, these locations can convert power-hungry refrigeration systems into intelligent batteries that can respond dynamically to the needs of the facility and the grid operator, taking into account energy prices, weather patterns, and grid programs like demand response.”

According to Axiom, businesses with large refrigeration-based energy loads can reduce their peak electricity demand by up to 40% using its systems.

The fleet of Refrigeration Batteries in the Neighborhood Program will respond to Con Edison’s signals requesting electricity demand reductions, Axiom said.