A lease agreement with NorthWestern Energy has been signed by Beacon Power Corporation. Under this agreement, NorthWestern Energy will lease a one-megawatt or 1 MW Beacon Smart Energy Matrix flywheel energy storage system.
An announcement in this regard has been made by Beacon Power, a provider of fast-response energy storage systems and services.
Beacon Power will be responsible for installation of the system. In conjunction with Mill Creek Generating Station also known as MCGS, the system will be operated by Beacon Power.
NorthWestern Energy-owned MCGS is a gas-fired regulating reserve plant recently commissioned in Montana. By the end of 2011, the system is expected to be operational.
While the initial lease term is for 15 months, NorthWestern Energy has the option to extend up to two additional 12-month terms. For the first 15-month term, Beacon will receive $500,000 from NorthWestern Energy. In the event of NorthWestern Energy further extending the lease, Beacon will receive $500,000 for each subsequent term. For approximately $4 million, NorthWestern Energy can opt for outright purchase of the 1 MW system at any point. Depending on when the purchase is made, a portion of lease payments already made under the agreement would be applied to the purchase.
In order to balance all loads and resources in NorthWestern Energy's balancing authority area in Montana, MCGS was recently placed in service. In a release, Bob Rowe, president and CEO, NorthWestern Energy said, "We're looking forward to testing and evaluating the integrated operation of Mill Creek with Beacon's flywheels to further optimize its performance and assess the potential value of adding more flywheel capacity on a permanent basis in the future."
According to Bill Capp, president and CEO, Beacon, the company is pleased to be working with NorthWestern Energy. This agreement shows the effectiveness of Beacon’s flywheel technology in providing regulation services. Conventional regulation assets will be also complemented with the technology’s fast-response performance.
The flywheel system's control signal algorithms will be developed by Beacon in collaboration with NorthWestern Energy. Apart from optimizing the performance of the MCGS, this will also help to evaluate the impact of the flywheel resource.
Calvin Azuri is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Calvin’s articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Janice McDuffee
