December 21, 2005—Beacon Power Corporation, a company that designs and develops advanced products and services to support more stable and reliable electricity grid operation, was featured in a press briefing organized in collaboration with the California Independent System Operator (ISO) on December 6 at a PG&E facility in San Ramon, California. Beacon demonstrated the performance of its scale-power Smart Energy Matrix for journalists from statewide television, radio and print outlets, as well as industry and wire service reporters.
“This was a great opportunity to share the story of Beacon’s flywheel technology, and the promise it holds for making California’s power grid more reliable,” said Bill Capp, Beacon Power president and CEO. “We are pleased to see the enthusiasm of visitors to the facility, who can walk inside this scale-power Smart Energy Matrix and see for themselves that this integrated group of flywheels can switch easily and repeatedly from full power charge to full power discharge in a few seconds. They come away with a good understanding of the technology and its performance.”
According to Beacon, one benefit to having the full-power Smart Energy Matrix, which Beacon is looking to build in 2007, is that it may free up other conventional generation assets from being used for this purpose. This would enable the state’s grid operator (the ISO) to reallocate valuable power plants to deliver power that will help avoid shortages.
In addition, California’s commitment to wider statewide deployment of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, will necessitate even more regulation services because of their inherently variable output, says Beacon.
Beacon Power is also building a scale-power Smart Energy Matrix demonstration system for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
For more information, visit the company’s Web site.
