The Challenge

SunLux, a clean energy solutions provider in Southern California, was developing a battery energy storage system solution for a large plastic fabrication company. This energy-intensive process involves repeated heating and cooling cycles and sustained biaxial rotation to evenly coat molds with plastic polymers. This type of production can incur heavy demand charges, especially under Southern California Edison’s TOU-GS-2-D-CPP rate schedule. The company is committed to sustainability, recycling over 200,000 lbs of plastic waste every year, and wanted an energy storage system that could reduce their costly demand charges, work in tandem with their 198 kW PV array, and further improve their environmental footprint.

The Solution

Energy Toolbase procured a Chess 2h 120/258 (9540A) BYD battery energy storage system for SunLux thanks to our longstanding partnership. The battery was integrated with ETB Controller with Acumen AI®, and programmed to charge the battery with PV generation only to reduce reliance on the grid and maximize the value of the PV array. Energy Toolbase also provided vital services and features for the system, like a cellular data kit, control center, and metering kit, and ETB Monitor that enables real-time insights into system performance and savings. A future rate switch to rate schedule GS-2-TOU-E, which has significantly reduced demand charges at the cost of higher energy charges, was recommended after favorable modeling based on the site’s load profile was shown in ETB Developer.