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Beacon Power: Energy Storage Pilot Program
Beacon Power Corporation (Nasdaq: BCON), a company that designs and develops advanced products and services to support more stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid operation, announced that the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL), the group of electric utilities, generators, and service providers within the ISO New England region, has voted unanimously in favor of a pilot program for alternative technologies, including energy storage, to provide regulation service. The program's schedule would allow service providers to be paid as early as mid-November. Beacon Power is currently building flywheel-based energy storage systems in Tyngsboro and intends to participate.
The "Alternative Technologies Regulation Pilot Program" allows for up to 13 megawatts of alternative technologies to be connected to the grid by various suppliers to provide regulation services. Beacon Power, which is the only company that has yet publicly announced its participation, plans to connect up to five megawatts of energy storage adjacent to the Company's headquarters, beginning later this year. The requisite environmental and building permits for that new facility have already been received from the town of Tyngsboro.
On August 5th, ISO New England and NEPOOL jointly submitted market rules to establish the program to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for approval. FERC's decision is expected within 60 days.
"We're very pleased that the NEPOOL decision-making committees have taken this important step in voting to move forward with a pilot program this year," said Bill Capp, Beacon Power president and CEO. "Not only does Beacon intend to participate under the program's guidelines, we will also be able to earn revenue from the regulation services we provide."
"We applaud ISO New England's commitment to fostering alternative technologies through market development," said Judith Judson, Beacon Power's director of regulatory and market affairs. "This pilot program is a major step toward allowing new technologies to participate fully in the regulation market in a way that's comparable to traditional generating resources."
The pilot program was submitted to FERC as part of ISO New England's efforts to comply with FERC Order No. 890, which was issued in 2007. Order No. 890 is intended to promote greater competition in electricity markets, strengthen the reliability of the grid, and allow so-called "non-generation" resources (which include Beacon's flywheel technology), to participate in regulation markets on a non-discriminatory basis. The pilot program is designed to evaluate and lead to permanent market rules that will allow Beacon to continue to provide regulation service based on terms and conditions comparable to those under which other market participants operate.
About Beacon Power
Beacon Power Corporation designs, develops and is taking steps to commercialize advanced products and services to support stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid operation. The Company's primary business strategy is to commercialize its patented flywheel energy storage technology to perform frequency regulation services on the grid. Beacon's Smart Energy Matrix, now entering production, is designed to be a non-polluting, megawatt-level, utility-grade flywheel-based solution that would provide sustainable frequency regulation services. Beacon is a publicly traded company with its research, development and manufacturing facility in the U.S. For more information, visit www.beaconpower.com.
Safe Harbor Statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This Material contained in this press release may include statements that are not historical facts and are considered "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect Beacon Power Corporation's current views about future events and financial performances. These "forward-looking" statements are identified by the use of terms and phrases such as "believe," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," and similar expressions identifying forward-looking statements. Investors should not rely on forward-looking statements because they are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Beacon Power Corporation's expectation. These factors include: a short operating history; a history of losses and anticipated continued losses from operations; a need to raise additional capital combined with a questionable ability to do so; the complexity and other challenges of arranging project financing and resources for one or more frequency regulation power plants, including uncertainty about whether we will be successful in obtaining DOE loan guarantee support for our New York facility; conditions in target markets, including the fact that some ISOs, such as New York ISO, have been slow to comply with the FERC's requirement to update market rules to include new technology such as the Company's; our ability to obtain site interconnection or other zoning and construction approvals in a timely manner; no experience manufacturing any product or supplying frequency regulation services on a commercial basis; limited commercial contracts for sales to date; the dependence of sales on the achievement of product optimization, manufacturing and commercialization milestones; the uncertainty of the political and economic climate, and the different electrical grid characteristics and requirements of any foreign countries into which we hope to sell or operate, including the uncertainty of enforcing contracts, the different market structures, and the potential substantial fluctuation in currency exchange rates in those countries; dependence on third-party suppliers; intense competition from companies with greater financial resources, especially from companies that are already in the frequency regulation market; possible government regulation that would impede the ability to market products or services or affect market size; possible product liability claims and the negative publicity which could result; any failure to protect intellectual property, including the effect of the patent litigation recently initiated against us; retaining key executives and the possible need in the future to hire and retain key executives; the historical volatility of our stock price, as well as the volatility of the stock price of other companies in the energy sector. These factors are elaborated upon and other factors may be disclosed from time to time in Beacon Power Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Beacon Power expressly does not undertake any duty to update forward-looking statements.
CONTACT: Beacon Power Corporation
James Spiezio, 978-694-9121
[email protected]
or
Gene Hunt, 978-661-2825
[email protected]
SOURCE: Beacon Power Corporation
The "Alternative Technologies Regulation Pilot Program" allows for up to 13 megawatts of alternative technologies to be connected to the grid by various suppliers to provide regulation services. Beacon Power, which is the only company that has yet publicly announced its participation, plans to connect up to five megawatts of energy storage adjacent to the Company's headquarters, beginning later this year. The requisite environmental and building permits for that new facility have already been received from the town of Tyngsboro.
On August 5th, ISO New England and NEPOOL jointly submitted market rules to establish the program to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for approval. FERC's decision is expected within 60 days.
"We're very pleased that the NEPOOL decision-making committees have taken this important step in voting to move forward with a pilot program this year," said Bill Capp, Beacon Power president and CEO. "Not only does Beacon intend to participate under the program's guidelines, we will also be able to earn revenue from the regulation services we provide."
"We applaud ISO New England's commitment to fostering alternative technologies through market development," said Judith Judson, Beacon Power's director of regulatory and market affairs. "This pilot program is a major step toward allowing new technologies to participate fully in the regulation market in a way that's comparable to traditional generating resources."
The pilot program was submitted to FERC as part of ISO New England's efforts to comply with FERC Order No. 890, which was issued in 2007. Order No. 890 is intended to promote greater competition in electricity markets, strengthen the reliability of the grid, and allow so-called "non-generation" resources (which include Beacon's flywheel technology), to participate in regulation markets on a non-discriminatory basis. The pilot program is designed to evaluate and lead to permanent market rules that will allow Beacon to continue to provide regulation service based on terms and conditions comparable to those under which other market participants operate.
About Beacon Power
Beacon Power Corporation designs, develops and is taking steps to commercialize advanced products and services to support stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid operation. The Company's primary business strategy is to commercialize its patented flywheel energy storage technology to perform frequency regulation services on the grid. Beacon's Smart Energy Matrix, now entering production, is designed to be a non-polluting, megawatt-level, utility-grade flywheel-based solution that would provide sustainable frequency regulation services. Beacon is a publicly traded company with its research, development and manufacturing facility in the U.S. For more information, visit www.beaconpower.com.
Safe Harbor Statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This Material contained in this press release may include statements that are not historical facts and are considered "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect Beacon Power Corporation's current views about future events and financial performances. These "forward-looking" statements are identified by the use of terms and phrases such as "believe," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," and similar expressions identifying forward-looking statements. Investors should not rely on forward-looking statements because they are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Beacon Power Corporation's expectation. These factors include: a short operating history; a history of losses and anticipated continued losses from operations; a need to raise additional capital combined with a questionable ability to do so; the complexity and other challenges of arranging project financing and resources for one or more frequency regulation power plants, including uncertainty about whether we will be successful in obtaining DOE loan guarantee support for our New York facility; conditions in target markets, including the fact that some ISOs, such as New York ISO, have been slow to comply with the FERC's requirement to update market rules to include new technology such as the Company's; our ability to obtain site interconnection or other zoning and construction approvals in a timely manner; no experience manufacturing any product or supplying frequency regulation services on a commercial basis; limited commercial contracts for sales to date; the dependence of sales on the achievement of product optimization, manufacturing and commercialization milestones; the uncertainty of the political and economic climate, and the different electrical grid characteristics and requirements of any foreign countries into which we hope to sell or operate, including the uncertainty of enforcing contracts, the different market structures, and the potential substantial fluctuation in currency exchange rates in those countries; dependence on third-party suppliers; intense competition from companies with greater financial resources, especially from companies that are already in the frequency regulation market; possible government regulation that would impede the ability to market products or services or affect market size; possible product liability claims and the negative publicity which could result; any failure to protect intellectual property, including the effect of the patent litigation recently initiated against us; retaining key executives and the possible need in the future to hire and retain key executives; the historical volatility of our stock price, as well as the volatility of the stock price of other companies in the energy sector. These factors are elaborated upon and other factors may be disclosed from time to time in Beacon Power Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Beacon Power expressly does not undertake any duty to update forward-looking statements.
CONTACT: Beacon Power Corporation
James Spiezio, 978-694-9121
[email protected]
or
Gene Hunt, 978-661-2825
[email protected]
SOURCE: Beacon Power Corporation