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New York Affordable Housing Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations8
System facts19
Sources reviewed9
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

The generic archived name refers to the Marcus Garvey Apartments/Village distributed-energy system at 353 Chester Street in Brooklyn. NYSERDA's current DER registry identifies 479.7 kW of solar PV, two 210 kW Bloom natural-gas fuel cells and a 300 kW/1,200 kWh lithium-ion battery. The assets are coordinated for demand-charge management and Consolidated Edison's Brooklyn-Queens Demand Management program, while selected community/management spaces can be supplied during outages. Rounded case studies often say 400 kW solar and 400 kW fuel cell; those are nominal marketing figures, not additional assets.

Research status
Operational asset with public evidence extending beyond its 2017 commissioning, though recent device-level operating data is limited. NYSERDA's registry records the three technologies and their commercial dates; a state climate case study retrieved in 2024 continues to present it as an operating resilience project. NYSERDA monitoring windows ended in March 2020 for fuel cells and March 2021 for solar, so neither those dates nor the current registry prove continuous output after them. No 2024-2026 battery state-of-health, availability, outage-islanding result or annual energy balance was found.
Historical classification
Building
Reported capacity
1,100 kW
Coordinates
40.66341, -73.90989
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in New York Affordable Housing Microgrid?

8 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Bloom Energy

Supplier of the two natural-gas solid-oxide fuel-cell systems. [3][8]

Organization

Bright Power

Solar developer/energy-efficiency partner listed by NYSERDA. [3][4]

Organization

Consolidated Edison

Distribution utility and provider of approximately $540,000 in Brooklyn-Queens Demand Management incentives for peak reduction. [3][6]

Organization

Demand Energy

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Demand Energy / EnerNOC / Enel X

Battery developer and energy-services provider and supplier of the DEN.OS distributed-energy operating platform; corporate ownership/name changed after commissioning. [3][6]

Organization

L+M Development Partners / Marcus Garvey Partners LLC

Property developer/owner and project host; Marcus Garvey Partners is identified as the power-purchase-agreement counterparty. [4][6]

Organization

New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation

Provided a $1.2 million, ten-year loan toward the approximately $1.3 million battery project, closing in December 2016. [7][6]

Organization

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority

Maintains the authoritative DER registry and published a project case study. [3][4]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
400 [1]
KW Fuel Cell
400 [1]
Storage
300/1200 KW/KWH [1]
Solar PV
479.7 kW in NYSERDA's detailed registry (displayed as 480 kW); project narratives commonly round this to 479 or 400 kW [3][4][5]
Fuel cells
420 kW total in NYSERDA's registry: two 210 kW Bloom Energy ES5-BABAA0 units using natural gas and configured without export; case studies round the total to 400 kW [3][8][5]
Battery energy storage
300 kW / 1,200 kWh lithium-ion, a four-hour nameplate ratio, commercially operating from June 2017 [3][4]
Site and load boundary
625 apartments in 32 buildings across nine blocks; state case material gives roughly 1.5 MW summer and 3 MW winter peak demand, so the approximately 1.1 MW DER portfolio does not make the property normally grid-independent [5]
Reported peak-demand result
NYCEEC reports an average 207 kW peak reduction, approximately 15%, and $26,268 annual savings for the battery financing case. The case material does not publish interval data or distinguish clearly between forecast and post-commissioning measurement for every figure. [7][6]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Fuel cells

Bloom Energy — ES5-BABAA0

Two 210 kW natural-gas units. NYSERDA records them as non-exporting resources. [3]

02

Battery storage

Model not publicly disclosed

Three outdoor lithium-ion battery blocks are shown in the commissioning-era operations dashboard. The archived record names LG Chem, but the current NYSERDA registry and reviewed case studies do not provide a cell/rack model or independently verify that manufacturer. [6][3][9]

03

Energy management system

Demand Energy — DEN.OS (Distributed Energy Network Operating System)

Coordinates battery charging/discharging and site DER for demand-charge and grid-program value. Public sources do not disclose controller hardware, optimization source code or communications/cybersecurity architecture. [6]

04

Solar equipment

Model not publicly disclosed

Rooftop PV is distributed around the property. Reviewed sources do not identify module, inverter, racking or rapid-shutdown models. [3][4]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Generation

    400 KW Fuel Cell from Bloom Energy [1]

  • Generation

    400 KW Rooftop Solar [1]

  • Economic dispatch

    The battery generally charges during lower-cost/off-peak periods and discharges during higher-demand periods. It also participates in Con Edison's Brooklyn-Queens Demand Management program; NYSERDA lists demand-charge reduction as the other principal value stream. [3][6]

  • Resilience service

    During a grid outage the project is designed to support a security office, management office and community room, providing heat, light, phone charging and medicine refrigeration for up to about 12 hours. That duration applies to selected critical loads, not all 625 apartments. [4][5]

  • Commissioning significance

    NYSERDA described the 2017 system as New York City's first permitted outdoor lithium-ion installation and a pioneering low-income multifamily microgrid. Historical-first claims do not themselves establish current performance. [4]

  • Observed dispatch example

    NYSERDA's case study shows material reduction of the property's evening peak between roughly 8 p.m. and midnight on a peak summer day in 2018, but does not provide a full-year interval dataset. [4]

  • Open evidence gaps

    No current battery capacity test, cycle count, fuel-cell availability/fuel use, annual PV output, outage-islanding event report, tenant bill dataset or 2024-2026 operating-cost statement was located. [3][5]

Provenance

9 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
    www.demand-energy.com

    demand-energy.com · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  3. [3]
  4. [4]
  5. [5]
    Marcus Garvey Village Microgrid

    New York State Climate Impacts Assessment · Primary source

  6. [6]
    Marcus Garvey Apartments Battery Storage Case Study

    New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation · Primary source

  7. [7]
    Deal Spotlight: Marcus Garvey Apartments

    New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation · Primary source

  8. [8]
    2020 Sustainability Report

    Bloom Energy · Primary source

  9. [9]
    Archived New York Affordable Housing Microgrid record

    MicrogridProjects.com via Internet Archive · Archived source

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