NEWPORT BEACH—The Irvine Company has plans to become the world's first major real estate company to create a fleet of hybrid-electric buildings powered by state-of-the-art energy storage systems from Tesla Energy. The company recently signed a memorandum of understanding for the ground-breaking environmental initiative with San Francisco-based Advanced Microgrid Solutions.

The Irvine Company—with properties throughout coastal California—will institute a portfolio-wide program to install energy storage systems that will reduce peak-energy consumption from local utilities, ease the need for additional power plants, reduce electricity costs and provide back-up power during grid outages.

Large battery systems at each building, which take up the equivalent of about five parking spaces, will be charged during nonpeak hours and be used, when needed, for peak daytime use or in the event of a power failure. Stored energy initiatives such as this one are part of Southern California Edison's (SCE) grid modernization plan.