Power firm wins $4m contract on 5th Ave.

Northern Power Systems, a subsidiary of Distributed Energy Systems Corp, has been awarded a $4.1 million contract for a 1.6 MW on-site combine heat and power (CHP) system at 717 5th Avenue, a Class-A office building managed, owned and leased by Equity Office.

The project will represent the first system of its kind to be synchronously interconnected to the critical midtown network grid of utility provider Con Edison.

The system will handle 60% of the 450,000 s/f building's electric usage, and 65% of its cooling and heating needs.

The project is supported by a $745,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

"This project's energy savings, reliability and economics will provide the building with improved power reliability, cleaner electric power, below market energy rates and back-up power for customers throughout the building," said Thomas W. Smith of Equity Office. "Furthermore, the NYSERDA grant was instrumental to ensure that we stayed within our financial objectives for the project."

Designed and built by Northern on a turnkey basis, the system will generate electric power during on- and mid-peak hours, and provide chilled water in the summer and hot water in the winter.

It is sized to provide nearly two-thirds of the building's peak summer electric demand.

In addition, the new system is capable of providing additional backup power in the event of a blackout, in 2conjunction with the building's existing diesel generator, which covers fire and life safety systems. Whenever the system operates, the building remains connected to Con Edison, running in parallel operation with their grid.

By capturing the waste heat from the engine generators and using it to drive both heating and cooling systems for the building, the system will achieve a combined efficiency of over 73%, more than double the efficiency of power supplied by the grid.