EVLN(15 year, 2,500 cycle Sodium Sulfur Battery)
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--- {EVangel}
AEP Dedicates First U.S. Use of Stationary Sodium Sulfur
Battery
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- American Electric
Power and a team of world-class partners dedicated the first
U.S. stationary sodium sulfur (NAS(R)) battery today at an
AEP office park here.
Partners in the project include NGK Insulators, Ltd. (NGK),
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), ABB, the U.S. Department
of Energy/Sandia National Laboratories and EPRI. The
installation in suburban Gahanna will be operated for two
years as a demonstration of the NAS battery, an advanced
energy storage technology developed by TEPCO and NGK and
being demonstrated at many sites throughout Japan.
ABB, Inc. of New Berlin, Wisc., supplied the power
electronics package that integrates direct current (DC) from
the NAS battery with the alternating current (AC) system in
the office park. ABB's office in Wisconsin is part of ABB,
the global power and automation technology company.
Attending the dedication were representatives of the various
partners and local elected officials and professional
staff.
"The objective of this demonstration is to validate NAS
operating characteristics in a real world application in the
U.S., gain familiarity with the technology and develop
needed economic models for its use. It is already widely
demonstrated in Japan for peak shaving," said John Harper,
AEP vice president - technology development. "Ultimately,
it is our expectation that the NAS technology will become a
broadly accepted distributed resource that provides reliable
energy storage capability and power quality mitigation."
Cost of the demonstration project has not been disclosed.
NGK is on the verge of mass production of NAS battery
modules. "As a result of our exhaustive work to advance
sodium sulfur battery components and technology, we have
passed the threshold of NAS commercialization in Japan,"
said Eiji Hamamoto, managing director, NGK Insulators, Ltd.
"We expect to start production at our commercial-scale
manufacturing facility in the spring of 2003."
"Since 1992, TEPCO and NGK have collaborated to demonstrate
the practicality of sodium sulfur battery modules at various
locations, loading conditions and climates," said Sueharu
Iwashina, director, general manager, R&D Center, TEPCO. "At
this time, total installed NAS capacity in Japan is about 30
megawatts. This capacity, which is charged off peak, serves
load without placing on-peak demands or stresses on
conventional generating plants and the transmission and
distribution system." Because of the NAS battery's high
reliability, environmental friendliness and long backup
power duration, a 2000kW system was selected for emergency
power supply for the International Broadcasting Center at
this year's World Soccer Cup in Korea and Japan.
Prior to installing NAS units in Japan, TEPCO and NGK
conducted extensive safety testing that included
mishandling, dropping, exposure to fire, immersion in water
and simulated seismic events.
"Sodium sulfur battery technology offers unique energy
storage advantages where a relatively high peak load is
required to mitigate power quality events," said Chuck
Clark, senior vice president of ABB, Inc. For this
installation ABB chose a power conversion system derived
from its ACS 600 drives product platform, combined with an
ABB Industrial IT AC 800 controller that connects to the AEP
system. This low-voltage technology, which closely matches
the battery voltage, has been successfully applied by ABB
for a wide range of power quality and distributed generation
applications.
The NAS installation at Gahanna, in test operation since
late August, contains two battery modules, each rated at 50
kilowatts (kW), that are capable of supplying 375
kilowatthours of energy. As such, the installation is rated
at 100 kW for peak shaving or load leveling for about seven
hours and up to 500 kW for short-term power quality
mitigation. The batteries are expected to last 15 years or
2,500 full charge-discharge cycles. Because of its high
energy density (it requires only one-third of the area
needed by conventional lead acid batteries), it is
relatively compact. The battery operates at about 85
percent DC efficiency due to the low resistance solid
electrolyte developed by NGK.
While Ford Motor Company developed the basic principle in
the 1960s and used sodium sulfur batteries in electric
vehicles in the 1990s, it was NGK, a world-class developer
and supplier of ceramics-based technology and products, that
developed the key component of the NAS battery - a beta
alumina electrolyte material that separates the positive
sulfur and negative sodium electrodes. Ions of sodium
shuttle back and forth between positive and negative
electrodes depending on whether the battery is charging or
discharging.
AEP tested and accumulated performance data for a 12.5-kW
NAS battery at its Dolan Technology Center in Groveport,
another Columbus suburb, during 2001. The battery was
tested for its peak shaving ability, that is, the ability to
store a charge off-peak and discharge the stored energy on
peak to meet demand. In addition, the battery was put
through staged power quality tests to determine its overload
capability. The NAS battery provides increased reliability
by supplying uninterrupted power during short-term
fluctuations and interruptions. Depending on their
capacity, NAS batteries can supply more than five times
their nominal rating for up to 30 seconds. The batteries can
supply lesser multiples of their capacity for longer
periods, for example, four times capacity for 15 minutes.
This flexibility allows a broad range of applications.
American Electric Power is a multinational energy company
with a balanced portfolio of energy assets. AEP, the United
States' largest electricity generator, owns and operates
more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the
U.S. and select international markets. AEP is a leading
wholesale energy marketer, ranking among North America's top
providers of wholesale power and natural gas with a growing
wholesale presence in European markets. In addition to
electricity generation, AEP owns and operates natural gas
pipeline systems, natural gas storage, coal mines, and the
fourth-largest inland barge company in the U.S. AEP is also
one of the largest electric utilities in the United States,
with almost 5 million customers linked to AEP's wires. The
company is based in Columbus, Ohio.
TEPCO (www.tepco.co.jp/index-e.html), based in Tokyo, serves
some 27 million customers in the metropolitan Tokyo area,
making it the largest investor-owned electric utility in the
world. TEPCO supplies approximately one-third of the
electric demand in Japan. Its subsidiaries are engaged in
fuel supply, property management, construction,
telecommunications, information technology and environmental
protection.
NGK Insulators Ltd. (www.ngk.co.jp), headquartered in
Nagoya, Japan, is the world's largest maker of electrical
insulators. NGK produces ceramic insulators and other
equipment for power transmission and distribution lines and
substations, makes fine ceramic components for automobiles,
printers and semiconductors and manufactures cast aluminum
auto wheels. NGK's engineering group designs and constructs
water and sewage treatment systems.
ABB (www.abb.com), headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, is
a leader in power and automation technologies that enable
utility and industry customers to improve performance while
lowering environmental impacts. ABB is a world leader in
power electronics for electrical energy storage and has
gained worldwide experience in successfully applying many
technologies for energy storage. The ABB Group of companies
operates in more than 100 countries and employs about
150,000 people.
Sandia National Labs (www.sandia.gov), with headquarters in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, conducts an Energy Storage System
(ESS) program for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. As part of its ESS
program, Sandia will collect, analyze and disseminate NAS
project data that are relevant to energy storage
applications, systems and products. This effort is to
increase the collective knowledge of energy storage systems,
their operations, uses, benefits and potential issues. It
is intended to accelerate the growth and maturation of the
energy storage industry.
EPRI (www.epri.com), based in Palo Alto, Calif., was founded
in 1973 as a non-profit energy research consortium for
utility members, their customers and society. EPRI provides
science and technology-based solutions to its customers by
managing a program of scientific research, technology
development and product implementation. EPRI is the only
science and technology consortium serving the entire energy
industry - from energy conversion to end use - in every
region of the world.
News releases and other information about AEP can be found
on the World Wide Web at http://www.aep.com . SOURCE
American Electric Power CO: American Electric Power; NGK
Insulators, Ltd.; Tokyo Electric Power Co.; ABB; U.S.
Department of Energy/Sandia National Laboratories; EPRI ST:
Ohio SU: http://www.prnewswire.com 09/23/2002 15:00 EDT
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