7-Eleven Offers Electric-Vehicle Charging for New Yorkers

Deploying Green Charge Networks (GCN - http://www.greenchargenet.com/) energy storage solutions, 7-Eleven Inc. is the first retailer to offer fast-charging services for drivers of electric vehicles (EVs) in the New York City area.
7-Eleven and GCN worked with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and several large utility companies to leverage local solar generation and energy storage, which enables the use of high-powered electric equipment, including EV fast chargers. This avoids extreme consumption peaks that lead to expensive electricity-demand charges for commercial ratepayers, according to a press release.

Green Charge Networks’ energy storage system, GreenStation, manages the power consumption at the 5820 Francis Lewis Boulevard 7-Eleven location in Flushing. 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.

“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%,” says Vic Shao, Green Charge Networks’ CEO.

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.”


Source: National Association of Convenience Store (NACS), August 19, 2013