Westfield Malls to Develop Own Energy Source
Two Southern California shopping malls will be among the first in the nation to get their own power sources.
Westfield America Inc., the Los Angeles company that owns 65 Westfield Shoppingtowns in the United States, has finalized a deal with Woodland Hills, Calif.–based RealEnergy Inc. to supply power sources for 14 of its retail properties over the next two years. The mall operator will begin by installing “co-generation” power sources at its Westfield Shoppingtown Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., and at Westfield ShoppingtownWest Covina in West Covina, Calif.
Westfield is one of many retail property owners that have been looking for alternative power sources as energy prices have risen in recent years.
RealEnergy operates similar generators for the state of California, Arden Realty Inc. and Trammell Crow Co.
RealEnergy will install 200-kilowatt generators powered by natural-gas-fired internal combustion engines, a 348-ton absorption chiller and a cooling tower with related pump equipment.
RealEnergy Chief Executive John Paul said the engines are about 6 feet by 10 feet in size and are enclosed in sheet metal. The units will provide about 60 percent of the electricity for the malls at a construction cost of between $1.5 million and $2 million per mall, Paul noted.
“These technologies ... are an excellent energy alternative for large retail sites,” he said. “Distributed generation systems are environmentally friendly, more reliable, less costly and take the strain off already overloaded power grids.”
Similar systems have been implemented at industrial and commercial properties during the past few years, Paul noted.
RealEnergy’s generators provide electrical and thermal (hot and chilled water) power and the opportunity to defer or reduce capital expense while increasing energy capacity at no cost to the owner.
RealEnergy will rent space from Westfield to place its generators on the shopping mall property. RealEnergy contracts with the property owner and sells multiple outputs, including electricity, hot water, steam and chilled water.
“The opportunity to enhance conditions and services on site with no capital or operating risk is an attractive model to our company and all of these important constituencies,” said Westfield’s joint chief operating officer, John Schroder. “Co-generation supports public infrastructure and reduces the environmental impact of commercial establishments such as ours through increased efficiency.”
Westfield America is a subsidiary of Australian company Westfield America Trust. —Robert McAllister
