Boston, MA General Electric has been awarded a grant of $221,000 for the design and installation of an ice storage system at its headquarters. The new, state-of-the-art headquarters is expected to be complete in 2019. Twenty-five other projects were awarded grants, for a grand total of $20 million. 

The grant comes from the Baker-Polito Administration’s Energy Storage Initiative (ESI), administered by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) and the Department of Energy Resources (DOER). This grant will help fund an ice storage system, which will work alongside a photovoltaic (PV) system to help reduce the energy costs and expenditure of the new facility. The combination of ice storage and PV generation represents a “better together” configuration wherein each element enhances the utility of the other. The PV system generates clean renewable energy while the ice storage system actively counteracts volatility in PV production. The PV system in turn helps the ice storage system to increase its capacity, providing greater peak demand savings on sunny days than a similar-capacity ice storage system could provide on its own. The combined system generates renewable electricity, alleviates grid congestion, and minimizes volatility in electricity demand. 

RDK Engineers, an NV5 Company, AECOM, and Suffolk Construction combined efforts to make up the application team for this grant. RDK Engineers, an NV5 Company, is performing MEP/FP, Telecommunications, Electronic Security and Energy engineering services for the new headquarters located in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood.