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Sycuan Casino Resort Adds Smart Electric Vehicle Charging and Battery Energy Storage to Its Landmark Location in San Diego
August 30, 2022
Sycuan has partnered with PowerFlex to install 45 Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations and a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)
Sycuan Casino Resort today announced the addition of low-carbon technologies at its iconic casino location in San Diego. The project includes 40 Level 2 chargers, 5 DC fast chargers (DCFC), and a 250 kilowatt (kW)/560 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery energy storage system (BESS) in progress. This project supports California’s goals of achieving five million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030 and 250,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2025. Additionally, a project of this size is estimated to deliver approximately 490,000 electric miles, which is equivalent to saving 22,000 gallons of gas each year and thereby avoiding 431,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
This project is just another step the organization has taken in an effort to support a sustainable future. In 2008, Sycuan formed a volunteer group of dedicated team members called The Sycuan Green Team, which leads the charge to educate and promote their mission to reduce, reuse and recycle. Over the years, The Sycuan Green Team has hosted Earth Day events, organized E-Waste collection drives and partnered with local nonprofit I Love a Clean San Diego for several cleanup events throughout the San Diego community. Additionally, Sycuan actively works with a recycling company to divert as much of its waste stream as possible to reduce the impact on the environment.
To complete this project, Sycuan partnered with PowerFlex, a national provider of intelligent onsite clean energy solutions. The EV chargers are integrated into a network that utilizes PowerFlex’s patented Adaptive Load Management (ALM) technology—software that dynamically balances the total system load by controlling the output of individual chargers in real-time to mitigate peak energy spikes. By utilizing ALM, the project can accommodate a greater number of chargers than could otherwise be supported by the existing utility infrastructure. Through this project, Sycuan is helping achieve California’s rapid transition to electric vehicles without overtaxing the grid.
The BESS and EV charging stations are managed and co-optimized by PowerFlex X, software and hardware that provides real-time insights and intelligent control over the onsite energy systems. By integrating the battery energy storage system with the DCFCs, Sycuan can avoid high demand charges from the surge in electricity consumption that fast chargers bring. The BESS can further reduce costs and carbon emissions by powering the chargers with cheaper energy stored in the battery instead of expensive on-peak grid power.
“We are very excited to partner with PowerFlex to provide our guests with additional EV charging options at our casino resort,” said Rob Cinelli, general manager at Sycuan Casino Resort. “As we continue to see more and more people adopt this technology, it was important for us to stay ahead of the curve and provide this free amenity for our guests and team members. We remain committed in finding ways to help reduce our environmental impact and in the future, we have plans to install additional charging stations enterprise-wide.”
“We applaud Sycuan’s continued efforts towards sustainability,” said Steve Morris, Executive Director at I Love A Clean San Diego. “Sycuan’s community support extends beyond their facilities, mobilizing volunteers at cleanup events across the region and by sponsoring this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day.”
“We are proud to work with Sycuan to equip their historic location with technology to make their operations more sustainable,” said Raphael Declercq, CEO of PowerFlex. “The unique ability of our software to co-optimize storage and EV charging will help sustain California’s growing EV charging demand and increase Sycuan’s onsite energy resiliency. They are taking an important step to support the state’s air quality and climate change targets.”
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