City of Huntington Beach Partners with Stem, Inc. for AI-Powered Energy Storage Services

California Municipal Leader Adopts Innovative Technology Services to Improve Taxpayer Savings While Contributing to Sustainability and Grid Relief

The City of Huntington Beach, California announced that it has selected Stem, Inc., the global leader in energy storage, for its first artificial intelligence (AI)-powered energy storage systems.

Stem will build a 235 kilowatt-hour (kWh)-sized system at the City of Huntington Beach’s Civic Center, to begin operations early in 2019. Stem’s energy storage system, powered by their AI, Athena^TM, will predict the facility’s energy demand, helping to avoid a “demand charge” that can comprise over fifty percent of a customer’s monthly bill. The City’s use of AI-powered energy storage complements a suite of municipal energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives, pairing energy storage with 2 MW of solar photovoltaic generation at the Civic Center, City Library, and City Yard.

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“The City of Huntington Beach has robust community sustainability goals and a responsibility to control our operating costs,” said Mayor Mike Posey, City of Huntington Beach, California. “We were attracted to Stem’s track record with automated customer savings while also using their storage networks to help integrate more renewable energy into the local grid.”

The site’s system joins Stem’s network of energy storage systems, the largest in the world, which enables the City of Huntington Beach to participate in a marketplace of additional revenue opportunities when the system is not needed onsite. When extreme weather like heat waves and wildfires strain the grid, Stem’s systems are dispatched in real time, providing Southern California Edison additional power needed in the highly-congested West Los Angeles basin.

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“California’s cities are leading the way in adopting innovative technology services that enhance their sustainability plans while maximizing taxpayer returns, but they expect proven experience from their vendors,” said John Carrington, CEO of Stem, Inc. “With Stem’s AI-powered services, The City of Huntington Beach can take advantage of dramatic energy bill savings and access new revenue opportunities by contributing to local grid reliability.”

Stem has the largest project finance pool among its peers, now over US$650 million, enabling Stem’s 900+ energy storage systems under management across six states and three countries (U.S., Japan, and Canada). Athena, Stem’s cutting-edge AI, is the first of its kind for customer-sited energy storage, performing real-time energy optimization that reduces onsite peak demand and enabling customers to participate via Stem’s networks to access additional services and value streams.

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