You don’t usually associate a fast-food restaurant with energy projects, but a Chick-fil-A in Oceanside expects a recently installed solar, battery storage and microgrid system will reduce its electricity costs by about 10% to 15% per year.
The side-order of savings comes from a pilot program the franchise at the Quarry Creek shopping center is taking part in.
The microgrid’s processor acts as a computer that provides “the brains of the system,” said Pedon Young, principal program lead for sustainability at Chick-fil-A, Inc.
It optimizes the deployment of a 112-kilowatt solar array plus an 81 kilowatt-hour battery storage system on the site’s premises and coordinates it with the power the 5,000-square-foot eatery on Marron Road already uses from San Diego Gas & Electric.
The solar and battery components are anticipated to produce about one-third of the restaurant’s annual energy needs.
“The general strategy is that (the batteries) can be charged up when energy is at a low cost and then they can be deployed during the peak periods when energy is most expensive,” Young said, which leads to the cost savings.
Young said the system has the ability to send excess electricity back to the California power system but it will be used primarily to optimize the restaurant’s energy use.
The Oceanside location is the third Chick-fil-A in the country to take part in the company’s pilot program. Two others have already opened — both in Northern California (one in Stockton and one in Santa Rosa).
Growing in popularity in California, microgrids are most commonly constructed by utilities, such as SDG&E.
They essentially act as mini-electric grids that can supply power to a defined area while operating independently of the conventional electric power system for hours in what’s called “island mode” during emergencies, such as power outages.
“We can island using a battery for some key circuits like refrigeration” at the Chick-fil-A site, said Kirk Edelman, CEO of SolMicroGrid, the New York-based company that owns and operates the energy systems at the Oceanside, Stockton and Santa Rosa locations. SolMicroGrid is owned by Morgan Stanley Energy Partners.
A spate of recent fires have raised safety concerns about battery storage facilities. On Jan. 16, a fire at the 300-megawatt portion of Vistra Energy’s Moss Landing facility near Santa Cruz led to the evacuation of 1,200 residents.
Lithium-based batteries can experience “thermal runaway” — a condition in which the batteries overheat, ignite and spread from one battery to another, making it difficult for emergency crews to fully extinguish.
The batteries storage system at the Oceanside Chick-fil-A uses a lithium ferrite phosphate (LFP) technology supplied by Pennsylvania-based Fortress Power that’s touted as safer and more efficient than the most commonly used battery chemistries.
“The fire suppression system in here would handle any sort of thermal event long before it became a fire,” Edelman said, “so this is a very sophisticated system in that regard.”
Some 36 photovoltaic solar modules cover the canopy of the restaurant’s drive-through and another 168 are mounted on the ground on sloped terrain next to the parking lot.
Chick-fil-A and SolMicroGrid officials would not disclose how much the solar/battery storage/microgrid project cost, saying it’s proprietary information.
Los Angeles-based American Solar Power constructed the solar array in Oceanside. The company’s director of operations, Steve Roseborough, thinks that in time, other businesses will put up similar solar/battery/microgrid systems.
“It’s a way for them to shift the load during their peak times,” he said. “It’s something that can really help with these high-demand spots to offset their energy costs.”
While the energy system may not directly impact everyday customers, Chick-fil-A officials said lower utility bills can lead to indirect benefits.
The company on Wednesday made a $25,000 donation to the Brother Benno Foundation, an Oceanside nonprofit that serves the homeless, the working poor and seniors in North County.
“Knowing that we’re going to be saving a little bit of money on utilities,” said Heather Beaubien, director of sustainability at Chick-fil-A, Inc. said, “we’re really just taking that money and pouring it right back into the community to honor folks that are doing such great work here in Oceanside and beyond.”
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