|
New
Release -- Superconductor Week does not edit or endorse the following
news release:
California Energy Commission
awards Zenergy grant for the installation of innovative grid stability device
Rheinbach, Germany, 2 April 2007:
Zenergy Power plc (AIM:ZEN.L),
the specialist manufacturer and developer of commercial applications for
high-temperature superconductive (`HTS‘) materials, is pleased to announce that
the California Energy Commission (`CEC‘) has notifi ed the Group‘s wholly owned
subsidiary, SC Power Systems (`SC Power‘), San Mateo, California that it has
been awarded a US$500,000 grant to install and test the Group‘s Fault Current
Limiter (`FCL‘) - a ground breaking power and proprietary grid stability device
- in the Californian electricity grid.
The test is to take place in the grid of Southern
California Edison (`SCE‘) which is California‘s largest utility. The CEC and SCE
will oversee the testing process and are anticipated by the directors to
subsequently produce standardised performance guidelines, based on the results
of those tests, which are accordingly expected to form the benchmark of
performance criteria for all future FCL‘s in the United States. The award
follows an extensive submissions period during which SC Power and others
responded to requests from the CEC for such a device. The Group is the fi rst
recipient of the award which is expected to be formalised by May 1st 2007.
The FCL is a scaled up version of previously
constructed prototypes, built and successfully tested by the Group, and is being
constructed by Delta Star Inc, a leading manufacturer of quality transformers
and the sole manufacturer of mobile transformers in the United States.
Construction, installation and testing are expected to be completed by the end
of 2007.
The global market for FCL‘s is expected to be worth
up to US$5bn per annum. As evidenced by the blackouts in August 2003, which
spread across a huge area of North East America from New York to Ohio and up to
parts of Canada, national power grids are subject to sustained and increasing
pressure resulting from 25 years of underinvestment and a persistent growth in
energy demands. Accordingly, problems with power quality Press Release
April 2nd 2007 · California Energy Commission ·
Zenergy Power Plc 2/4 issues now affect all aspects of daily power usage,
adversely impacting industrial productivity and resulting in energy wastage,
widespread blackouts and frequent infrastructure damage. Related economic loss
is escalating. The generally accepted conclusion in the United States is that
there is an unacceptably high risk that a relatively isolated natural disaster
or terrorist attack could cause widespread failure of the electricity grid,
blacking out huge regions of the United States jeopardising public order and
security. In this regard, it is noted that the blackouts of August 2003 affected
over 50 million people.
The failing grid system in the United States has
become a central issue for the American administration and a report to Congress
produced by the Department of Energy (`DOE‘) in August 2006 (responding to the
2005 Energy Policy Act), stressed the importance of procuring a number of mobile
electric grid substations as a Homeland Security measure to improve the
country‘s emergency preparedness. Moreover, the report recommended that these
mobile substations should all be fi tted with `Saturable HTS Fault Current
Limiters‘, the type of FCL device developed by the Group and the subject of this
grant.
Following on from the installation and testing of
the Group‘s device, it is hoped that the production of standardised performance
criteria will assist in the accelerated adoptionof FCL‘s on a wide scale
throughout the United States.
The directors note that in addition to the DOE
report, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission took the landmark step of
adopting mandatory and enforceable reliability standards in relation to power
grid operation and infrastructure within the United States which commenced on
the 15th March 2007. Spurred on by record power demand levels in eight regions
of the United States during the summer of 2006, the new standards will be
enforced by the imposition of both monetary and non-monetary penalties upon
violating utility companies. The directors view this regulatory change as signifi
cant because, for the fi rst time, utility companies are now obligated to adhere
to high technical and consistency standards of delivery requirements directly
addressed by the Group‘s FCL device.
The timing of the award is also pertinent given
Zenergy‘s announcement on the 20th of February 2007 that the Group had received
Notice of Allowance from the US Patent Offi ce for the issuance of its core
patent covering the FCL device, which has been developed over a number of years
in conjunction with several of the major utility companies in the United States.
The directors believe that this close association has enabled the Group to
produce a device specifi cally dealing with the concerns of utility companies by
incorporating a number of features distinguishing it from other available
solutions. Furthermore, it is the belief of the directors that these attributes
have cultivated the support from the CEC to expediting the testing and
implementation of the Group‘s solution.
Michael Fitzgerald, Chairman, commented:
`The stability, reliability and effi ciency with which power grid systems
distribute electrical energy is a pressing and key issue for the CEC and for
utilities around the globe. We are delighted that we have been able to work so
closely with the CEC to understand their needs and concerns. We are equally
thrilled that, having extensively reviewed the technical capabilities of our FCL
solution, they have elected to provide us with further fi nancial assistance and
collaborative project work to ensure the timely availability of our FCL device.‘
Return
to industry news releases |
