The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

NYSERDA Backs Beacon In Stephentown

By

by David Flint
The Beacon Power Corporation that is planning to construct a frequency regulation plant in Stephentown announced today that it has been selected by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) for a project award valued at $2 million, subject to negotiations for the project contract. The award would provide partial funding for 1 megawatt (MW) of flywheel energy storage at the site on Grange Hall Road – the first of 20 MW that Beacon expects to build and operate on that site.
Under the anticipated contract, the NYSERDA funding will partially pay for the design, site preparation, flywheel production, installation, system commissioning, data monitoring and analysis of a 1 MW Smart Energy Matrix that would provide frequency regulation services. As part of the same award, NYSERDA is also providing partial funding for certain interconnection components of the 20 MW frequency regulation plant that Beacon plans to construct on the Stephentown site.
The 1 MW Smart Energy Matrix will be initially connected to a power line owned by NYSEG, a major state utility. A system impact study for the 1 MW project has been successfully completed, and Beacon has entered into an interconnection agreement with NYSEG. When the balance of the 20 MW plant is constructed, the 1 MW system will be switched over and the entire facility will connect to a transmission line owned by National Grid.
Beacon will receive the funding from NYSERDA in stages that will be tied to construction milestones and system performance parameters. Once built and connected, the 1 MW system will be capable of receiving a commercial regulation control signal from the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) and earning revenue by bidding into the NYISO regulation market. NYISO received approval last month from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for what is considered to be the most favorable tariff for grid-scale energy storage among any of the open market grid regions. In addition, NYISO has already completed the related technical implementation of software and control systems.