Glumac Helps Clients Earn Utility Rebates and Tax Credits at Record Levels

by Glen Kuromoto, P.E., Mechanical Project Engineer and Ryan Boughey, LEED AP, Mechanical Department Design Engineer

Extron Electronics

When Extron Electronics, a rapidly expanding electronics manufacturer based in Anaheim, California, decided to build a new world headquarters – a six-story, 194,000 sf building that includes a steakhouse, concert venue and data center – they turned to Glumac for help identifying energy efficient design solutions that would maximize utility rebates and tax credits.

Glumac began by researching various savings options with refunds, credits and rebates via incentive programs through the City of Anaheim public utilities. One particular incentive that caught our eye was $2,000 for every kW of energy demand shifted from peak time to off-peak time using thermal storage.

After collaborating with the owner, Glumac designed a chilled water system for the building that incorporates thermal energy storage (TES) using ice storage tanks. The design includes a 300 nominal ton air-cooled chiller to make ice during the night and a 210 ton chiller for any daytime loads that exceed what the ice can handle during mid-peak periods. Title 24 typically prohibits the use of air-cooled chillers when the building load is more than 300 tons - but there is an exception for thermal energy storage. The TES system consists of five ice tanks, each with a capacity of 435 ton-hours.

Once the system was designed, the next step was to determine how much kW of demand was actually being shifted. Trane’s Trace 700 program was utilized to create an in-depth load calculation and simulate the possible shift using thermal storage. We found that during the peak period, the TES system could handle the entire cooling load, which shifts the complete electrical demand of the chillers to the off-peak period. We also found that the TES system is also able to handle the cooling load for the entire building during the day for spring, fall, and winter months; the secondary chiller would only need to be turned on during the day in the summer months.

The most challenging part of securing the rebate was to prove to the City of Anaheim that the system would indeed shift the demand load kW that the calculations predicted. We explained how the Trane Trace program produces its calculation of the shifted load. Though the city representatives are not mechanical engineers and had no knowledge of the Trace program, Glumac was able to break down the data and provide them with a thorough explanation of the energy usage.

As the Trace calculation demonstrated a demand shift of up to 307.5 kW during the month of September, we were able to successfully obtain a rebate of $615,000 for our client.