San Diego Blood Bank project pairs rooftop solar with a battery storage, boosting the facility’s sustainability footprint, while providing significant cost savings to support the organization’s critical services provided to the local community

Enel X, the Enel Group's advanced energy services business line, continues to grow its energy storage business in California, signing an agreement to manage a battery storage system as part of a solar-plus-storage project at the San Diego Blood Bank. By combining onsite solar generation with a battery storage system, the Blood Bank will be able to self-generate, store and consume electricity, providing the facility with cost savings, while also reducing their environmental footprint.

"This project showcases the depth of Enel X's capabilities, including working with leading solar developers, as well as the economic and sustainability benefits our solutions deliver to customers," said Surya Panditi, Head of Enel X North America. "With this system, the Blood Bank can focus on providing the local community with critical services, like expanding COVID-19 antibody testing capabilities, while we maximize the organization's energy cost savings through customized, innovative solutions that translate to real value and increased sustainability for the customer."

Under the terms of the agreement, Enel X will operate the system on behalf of the Blood Bank. The 334 kW/ 668 kWh battery energy storage system will be paired with a 976 kW rooftop and carport solar photovoltaic (PV) system. This will provide shade and 100% renewable energy generated by PV and stored in the battery system to charge the Blood Bank's new electric blood mobile fleet. Once complete the system, which was designed and developed by local EPC Newport Power, is expected to generate up to more than 1,500,000 kWh annually of renewable energy. Through the integration of the PV facility with the energy storage system, the Blood Bank will be able to generate and store renewable energy to be used when electricity costs are highest. This will help reduce the organization's energy spend and enable the Blood Bank to focus its resources on the critical supply of blood to hospitals within the within San Diego, Orange, Imperial, and Los Angeles counties. Additionally, the San Diego Blood Bank recently began providing antibody tests, as it further supports the region's efforts in the fight against COVID-19.

"Utilizing solar and battery storage is simply a smart business decision," said David Wellis, CEO of San Diego Blood Bank. "It benefits our environment and our community."

Like all Enel X storage deployments, the system will utilize Enel X's Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Optimization software, and its unique capabilities to maximize the earnings potential of the project across multiple applications, including on bill savings, incentive programs, and grid services.

In California, Enel X North America deployed a 67 MW highly-distributed virtual power plant comprised of JuiceBox smart charging stations, active in California Independent System Operator (CAISO) wholesale day-ahead and real-time markets, as well as more than 3,100 JuiceNet-enabled smart chargers within local Community Choice Aggregator Sonoma Clean Power's service territory. Enel X continues to grow in California across each area of the business, currently spanning hundreds of customer sites across battery storage, demand response, and advisory solutions, in addition to supporting numerous municipalities with natural gas, power, and renewable energy purchases.

Enel X in North America has around 4,500 business customers, spanning more than 35,000 sites, representing approximately $6.3B in energy spend under management, approximately 4.7 GW of demand response capacity and over 70 battery storage projects that are operational and under contract. The company's intelligent DER Optimization Software is designed to analyze real-time energy and utility bill data, improve performance, and manage distributed energy assets across a number of different value streams and applications.

Enel X is Enel's global business line dedicated to the development of innovative products and digital solutions in sectors where energy is showing the greatest potential for transformation: cities, homes, industries and electric mobility. The company is a global leader in the advanced energy services field with a demand management capacity of more than 6 GW globally managed and assigned and 110 MW of storage capacity worldwide, advises many of the globe's largest energy users on energy management including renewable energy strategy and implementation services and is as a leading operator in the electric mobility sector, with 80,000 public and private EV charging points around the globe (as of December 31st, 2019).

Newport Power designs, finances, installs, operates and maintains state of the art renewable energy power plants. Whether it's an award-winning architectural project, facility micro-grid, developer portfolio, or your family business facility, Newport Power has the expertise to provide you with the Power you can count on. Newport Power Delivering the Power of the Sun since 2008.