Heila, SimpliPhi Power, and New Partners Community Solar add intelligent energy storage to an existing solar array to enable resilience and significant cost reductions in utility bills

Heila Technologies, an energy technology leader responsible for controlling, aggregating, and optimizing distributed energy resources (DERs), partnered with SimpliPhi Power and New Partners Community Solar to deploy an energy storage system that provides cost-effective, reliable and sustainable energy at Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School.

Ludlow-Taylor is a public school and Community Renewable Energy Facility located in an underserved community in Washington, D.C. that installed a 200 kilowatt (kW) solar array in late 2019 to meet its energy needs and sell an excess of 30kW back to the utility to reduce operating costs. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and forced the school to shift to remote learning, the excess solar being produced amounted to 90 kW - far in excess of the net metering agreement with the local utility, Pepco, for export to the grid.

In order to maximize the investment of the solar array for the school, satisfy the imposed export limit of 30 kW per day, avoid the system being shut down, as well as capture valuable excess renewable energy, SimpliPhi Power designed a 60 kWh 1200 VDC lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) battery bank to store the excess solar generation. Pepco uses the excess energy generated and stored in the SimpliPhi battery to provide additional capacity for the low-income community that surrounds Ludlow-Taylor as part of Solar for All, a program of D.C.'s Department of Energy and Environment.

"Advancing a reliable and equitable grid requires innovation, and we're proud to partner with these bold thinkers to provide the Ludlow-Taylor school with a creative and cost-effective energy system," said Francisco Morocz, CEO of Heila Technologies. "We hope this project can serve as an example of what's possible for other low-income communities looking to reap the economic and resiliency benefits of sustainable energy."

The specific system requirements and necessary capabilities were developed by the expert consultants at Amidus working alongside SUNCATCH ENERGY, the EPC installing the high voltage storage system, and SimpliPhi Power application engineers.

"SimpliPhi Power believes access to clean and affordable energy is fundamental to economic growth, social equity and environmental sustainability," said Catherine Von Burg, CEO and co-founder of SimpliPhi Power. "By turning to battery storage to solve for the cost hurdles of its existing solar array, Ludlow-Taylor Elementary can be confident its system is resilient and secure while it pays dividends to augment the school's operating budget and the greater community."

To enable advanced functionality for this impactful solar and energy storage system, SimpliPhi Power turned to the Heila Edge® platform to integrate the solar array and batteries with advanced system controls and functionality. By leveraging Heila's distributed control software, the school is able to connect, manage and optimize these DERs remotely. The decentralized approach provides Ludlow-Taylor with unparalleled automation and modularity, dramatically reducing system complexity and cost of commissioning and operation.

With the addition of an intelligent energy storage system to the existing solar array, Ludlow-Taylor can now power itself with clean energy, support the surrounding community, achieve significant cost reductions to free up critical funding for school resources, and ensure resilient operations in case of power outages.

Across the U.S., low-income households face a disproportionately higher energy burden, defined as the percentage of gross household income spent on energy costs. According to the Department of Energy, the national average energy burden for low-income households is 8.6%, three times higher than for non-low-income households.

While there is a greater opportunity for energy and cost savings for these households, low-income communities face barriers to accessing energy technologies which help make energy more affordable, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery systems. New Partners Community Solar and SimpliPhi Power have been tackling these challenges, working to bring solar capabilities to the communities—like the Washington, D.C. neighborhood surrounding Ludlow-Taylor—that need it most.

As the needs of the Ludlow-Taylor community continue to evolve, the school can easily expand its renewable energy ecosystem in the future by using the scalable nature of the Heila Edge® platform and the modular building blocks of SimpliPhi Power's battery systems.

About Heila Technologies

Heila Technologies is an MIT-born company dedicated to simplifying the integration and operation of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). Combining decades of deep theoretical knowledge and practical industry experience, Heila's mission is to transform the energy industry from the ground up using DERs as the pillars of a new clean, resilient, and equitable grid. Its decentralized optimization system provides unparalleled automation and modularity, dramatically reducing system complexity and cost. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Greentown Labs in Somerville, Massachusetts. To learn more, visit www.heilatech.com

About SimpliPhi Power

With a mission to create universal access to safe, reliable, and affordable energy, SimpliPhi Power designs and manufactures efficient, non-toxic, and enduring energy storage and management systems that utilize environmentally benign lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) battery chemistry. Based in Oxnard, California, SimpliPhi combines the non-hazardous LFP energy storage chemistry with its proprietary cell and battery architecture, power electronics, Battery Management System (BMS) and manufacturing processes to create safe, reliable, durable, and highly scalable on-demand power solutions for residential, commercial, industrial, and government sectors.

For more information, visit www.simpliphipower.com