Giving Back to our Community

January 2009 through May 2009

Redding Electric Utility installed 3 Ice Energy - IB50 Thermal Energy Storage units, at two customer sites. Two units were installed at the Shasta County Office of Education (SCOE) on Magnolia Street and one unit was installed on the library at Rother Elementary School on Hartnell Avenue (photos). Combined these three TES units shift as much as 30 kW of peak air conditioning demand to the off-peak hours, having a positive impact on REU’s system Load Factor. Another unit is being installed in May at Nichols, Melburg & Rossetto (NMR) Architecture (photos), and yet another unit is being considered at Kibler & Kibler Architecture and Engineering and Gifford Construction. TES systems take a standard air conditioning condenser and shifts its operation from peak hours (2pm-6pm) to night time hours when power is at its lowest cost and is readily available. At night, the A/C condenser makes ice in a large thermal storage tank (photo). During the peak of the day, the condenser/compressor does not run to cool the space. The TES units goes into “ice melt” mode and is used to cool the building with assistance from the systems air handler (fan), effectively reducing/shifting peak demand by 95%. For more information about Thermal Energy Storage, visit the following websites:

• Ice Energy.com
• Calmac.com

May 2009

Redding Electric Utility, through the SB 1 Solar Program, funded the 2.1 kilowatt system, valued at approximately $22,000 installed, at Shasta High School. Shasta High School’s system went live with sun power in the mid May. A similar system was installed at Mountain View Middle School and in April they began utilizing the “sun” energy. Both systems are mounted on passive trackers; which means without using electricity the panels will track the sun to face direct sunshine, and generate optimum electricity output from morning until night. Each system will generate approximately 400 kilowatt hours of electricity per month. The Shasta High School project will more than offset the school’s adjacent reader board’s electricity load. More importantly, both schools will install monitoring devices so students can see how their systems are performing in real time from their desk top computers. Check out some photos.