Energy Storage Pilot Program Approved in ISO New England; Beacon Power Eligible to Participate and Earn Revenue

Beacon Power Corporation, 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.