Beacon Power Corp. (Wilmington, Massachusetts) was recently awarded contracts by the California Energy Commission, and by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Energy Storage Research Program and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to demonstrate an advanced energy-storage solution for frequency regulation and grid stability. The contracts are expected to produce approximately $1.2 million and $645,000 in revenue, respectively.

Under both contracts, Beacon will demonstrate a one-tenth-power prototype of its planned megawatt-level system, known as the Smart Energy Matrix. The Smart Energy Matrix prototype will provide grid frequency regulation at a site located in San Ramon for the California project and at a site in Amsterdam, New York, for the DOE/NYSERDA project.

Beacon's Smart Energy Matrix is a flywheel-based energy-storage system that is intended to be a long-life, environmentally friendly solution for frequency regulation, with no fuel consumed and no emissions generated. The equipment can be located nearly anywhere, including at a substation or within the distribution system, where additional benefits such as voltage regulation, backup power or reactive power can be provided for even greater value.

The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) will take part in the New York project by providing the signaling used in the frequency regulation process. The project in California will focus on communication with and control of the demonstration-scale system by the California ISO.

In addition, Beacon Power is teaming with Connected Energy Corp. (Rochester, New York) to develop the intelligent monitoring and control systems that will be used in the projects.