The new Building Load Deferment (BLD) system, from HIGHMARK, New York City, is a pre-engineered thermal energy storage system, providing a simplified system that enables energy usage to be deferred to off-peak hours by means of ice storage and then utilizing that ice for the building’s chilled water system during peak hours, resulting in energy savings of up to 50 percent. The compact system is designed to be installed quickly anywhere in a building and to readily integrate with existing equipment.
“There’s a great need for energy storage,” noted Richard Gerbe, co-founder of HIGHMARK. “There’s a strain on the grid.” But the challenge is “to get building owners to buy into energy storage.”