Beacon Power Demonstrates Scale-Power Smart Energy Matrix
Wilmington, MA - Beacon Power Corporation, a company that designs and develops advanced products and services to support more stable and reliable electricity grid operation, has announced that its first scale-power Smart Energy Matrix system, recently installed in California, was demonstrated on October 19, 2005, as part of an international energy storage conference. More than 70 attendees of the International Electrical Energy Storage Applications and Technologies (EESAT) conference toured the installation in San Ramon and were able to get a close look at Beacon's new system in operation.
The attendees, representing electric power utilities from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, as well as government agencies, universities, industry analysts, and manufacturers, witnessed performance tests whereby the system successfully received and automatically responded to pre-recorded signaling, transmitted remotely from Beacon Power's Massachusetts facility. The test signals that were used reflected a wide range of possible ISO-generated commands, requiring that the flywheel matrix be fully charged and fully discharged multiple times, with various steps in between. In addition, the system's operating interfaces, data acquisition capabilities, and remote monitoring software were also graphically demonstrated.
"This was a great opportunity to show a highly informed audience the potential for flywheel energy storage to play a key role in grid reliability," said Bill Capp, Beacon Power president and CEO. "This first Smart Energy Matrix thus far has been running well and operating as expected, and we're very pleased with its responsiveness and performance. We look forward to the next major milestone: live ISO-generated signaling and formal acceptance testing with the customer in December."
Beacon's scale-power flywheel-based energy storage system, which was built under contract to the California Energy Commission, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the California ISO, is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of providing highly responsive and cost-effective frequency regulation services for the electricity grid. This demonstration Smart Energy Matrix has all the functionality of the planned commercial system at a 1/10th power scale. The system is installed at the Pacific Gas & Electric Distributed Utility Integration Test (DUIT) site, where the country's first integration testing of commercial-grade, utility grid-interactive distributed energy resources is being conducted, including Beacon's system.
Beacon Power continues to make progress building a second scale-power Smart Energy Matrix demonstration system, under contract to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). This system, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and the New York ISO, is planned for delivery to a grid-connected industrial site in Amsterdam, New York, before the end of 2005.
SOURCE: Beacon Power