7-Eleven is the first fuel retailer in the New York City area to offer fast charging services for electric vehicle (EV) drivers. Green Charge Networks (GCN) energy storage solutions worked with 7-Eleven as well as the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and several utility companies to leverage local solar generation and energy storage. This enables them to use high-powered electric equipment, including EV fast chargers, while avoiding or creating peak energy times and high energy prices.

“Even when the New York City electric grid experienced an all-time peak on July 19 during the recent heat wave, the GreenStation allowed for EV fast charging while reducing peak demand by 56 percent,” said Vic Shao, Green Charge Networks’ CEO.

Green Charge Networks’ energy storage system, GreenStation, manages the power consumption at the 5820 Francis Lewis Boulevard 7-Eleven location in Flushing, N.Y. It monitors the store’s load on a second-by-second basis and counteracts peaks and valleys by discharging and charging from an internal ion battery bank.

“Convenience retailing in today’s world increasingly requires the use of high-powered electrical devices, including foodservice equipment and EV fast chargers,” adds Tom Brennan, 7-Eleven’s vice president of infrastructure services. “Meeting our customers changing needs while keeping demand charges and thus our electricity costs in check is a very attractive value proposition for us.”

According to CGN, the GreenStation enables industrial and commercial ratepayers to manage power consumption and rising demand charges. The root technology is a stochastic controller with sophisticated software that flattens the power load curve during peak consumption periods.