- Enel X was awarded the 2022 Environment+Energy (E+E) Leader’s Top Project Award for its solar-plus-storage microgrid project with Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority (VTA), making it the company’s third win since 2020.
- E+E’s Leader Awards program recognizes excellence in projects that provide companies and organizations with environmental and energy benefits and provide cost savings.
- Other winning Enel X projects from past years include a solar+storage microgrid at the Eaton manufacturing facility in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, and a solar+storage microgrid at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Boston, MA July 19, 2022 — Enel X, the advanced energy services arm of the Enel Group, won the 2022 Environment+Energy (E+E) Leader Awards program’s Top Project Award for its solar-plus-storage microgrid installation for the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority (VTA). The E+E Leader Awards program recognizes excellence in projects implemented by companies that improved environmental or energy management and provided cost savings. Enel X’s win was attributed to the microgrid’s ability to deliver on its main goals: energy dependability, resiliency, cost viability, renewable energy access, and circularity. The win marks Enel X’s third Top Project Award from E+E Leader since 2020.
“To propel the energy transition forward, we must commit to readily available, cost effective and environmentally responsible solutions,” said Philip Martin, Vice President of Energy Storage at Enel X North America. “Our project is a prime example of how to achieve that objective and is expected to help the VTA reduce costs for their transit ridership while avoiding 36,000 tons of CO2 emissions over the next ten years.”
Completed in May 2021, the state-of-the-art microgrid includes a solar carport that charges the VTA’s fleet and a 1.5 MWh battery storage system for always-on dependability, which is crucial for island communities like Martha's Vineyard that face more extreme weather. The project, along with the 16 e-buses provided by Enel X that make up half of the VTA’s total bus fleet, will play an enabling and crucial role in the transit authority's quest to fully electrify its fleet by 2027.
The microgrid’s battery acts as a behind-the-meter resource, enabling the VTA to sell energy back to the grid. Over its lifetime, this project is estimated to generate $1 million from the battery’s market revenue. It has a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) locked in, including 30% savings for power produced over the next two decades. The project is a public-private partnership with multiple funding sources, including $2 million from a partnership between Enel X and VTA and another $2 million financed by the Federal Transit Administration, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
"With a very experienced and critical judging panel and a strict set of judging criteria, entrants faced an extremely high bar to qualify for an award in 2022," says Sarah Roberts, Environment+Energy Leader’s publisher.
Massachusetts is Enel North America’s headquarters, with offices in Boston's Seaport District and Andover. This project highlights Enel X’s commitment to providing smart value-added services and solutions that enable businesses and communities to create, store, use and manage energy more efficiently, sustainably and strategically throughout North America.
About Enel X
Enel X is Enel Group's global business line offering services that accelerate innovation and drive the energy transition. In North America, Enel X has around 4,500 business customers, spanning more than 35,000 sites and representing approximately $10.5B in energy spend under management. Enel X North America has approximately 4.7 GW of demand response capacity, over 140 battery storage projects that are operational and under contract. Enel X advises large energy users on energy procurement, sustainability, and risk management, and has completed 65,000 energy procurement events including 3,500 MW of long-term renewable energy contracts. The company's intelligent DER Optimization Software is designed to analyze real-time energy and utility bill data, improve performance, and manage distributed energy assets across a number of different value streams and applications.
About the Environment + Energy Leader Awards
For the past decade, the Environment + Energy Leader Awards have celebrated excellence in the world of environmental, sustainability and energy management. Award winners are truly buzz-worthy, and companies that sport a Top Project or Top Product of the Year Award badge are known to be the best of the best. When other companies are seeking a sustainability or energy management solution, they know that E+E Product of the Year Award winners offer a significant group of products, vetted by experts, to peruse for help in making their decisions. Project of the Year Award winners are known to illustrate how sustainability and energy management projects can successfully help other companies improve the bottom line.