Saint-Gobain and Stem, Inc., the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered energy storage, announces the commencement of Saint-Gobain’s first investments in intelligent energy storage services in the U.S., starting at its Garden Grove, California manufacturing facility.
Saint-Gobain, one of the world’s largest building materials companies and manufacturer of innovative material solutions, has been a technology leader in a wide array of engineered materials since it was founded outside of Paris, France in 1665. AI-powered energy storage will form a growing strategy within Saint-Gobain’s corporate energy and sustainability strategies in the U.S., one that stretches from its operations to its products.
In fact, products of Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics (SGPPL), a member of Saint-Gobain’s family of companies, serve the renewable energy markets, providing highly innovative engineered solutions to meet global energy demand growth. At this first installation site, SGPPL’s Garden Grove location, Saint-Gobain will use Stem’s 500 kilowatt (KW) AI-powered energy storage system to anticipate the facility’s energy demand, helping to avoid a “demand charge” that comprises nearly fifty percent of a site’s monthly bill. The corporate sustainability leader plans for Garden Grove to be the first of many additional AI-powered energy storage systems across its U.S. facilities.
Stem’s artificial intelligence, backed by long project development experience, is in line with the innovative technology spirit that we celebrate at Saint-Gobain, which helps us adapt to changing electricity rates and markets. Stem’s automated services leads to an easy and intuitive savings technique to help us better control our energy use while contributing to community sustainability goals.
Ryan Spies, Manager of Energy and Sustainability, Saint-Gobain
Eduardo Martinez, Facilities Manager at the Garden Grove site, said, “As a global manufacturing site that is focused on environment, health and safety, we are always looking to make sustainable changes to protect the environment and Stem’s artificial intelligence is a key part of our energy conservation initiatives.”
The Garden Grove site houses the Seals, Process Systems and Sekurit businesses, which manufacture sealing and polymer products, tubing products and automotive glazing products respectively. The site’s system joins the world’s largest network of energy storage systems, owned by Stem, which enables customers like Saint-Gobain to participate in a marketplace of additional utility-facing services when the system is not needed onsite. When heatwaves and wildfires strain the grid, Stem’s systems are dispatched repeatedly, providing Southern California Edison additional power needed in the highly-congested West Los Angeles basin. Since commencing the energy storage operation in July 2018, the Saint-Gobain Garden Grove site has participated numerous times in heat wave relief in addition to performing onsite energy bill savings.
Saint-Gobain is a recognized leader in sustainability planning and innovation. We’re proud to support industrial leaders like these who want to strategically invest in Stem’s Athena AI platform to enhance their energy management—without intervention in their operations—allowing them to focus on what they do best.
John Carrington, CEO of Stem, Inc.
Stem has the largest project finance pool among its peers, now over US$650 million, enabling Stem’s 900+ energy storage systems under management across six states and three countries (U.S., Japan, and Canada). Athena TM, Stem’s cutting-edge AI, is the first of its kind for customer-sited energy storage, performing real-time energy optimization that reduces onsite peak demand and enabling customers to participate via Stem’s networks to access additional services and value streams.