Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Fairbanks utility tests 'most powerful' battery

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2003 17:47:18 -0500

Web posted Monday, September 15, 2003

Fairbanks utility tests 'most powerful' battery

By Robert Howk
Alaska Journal of Commerce

The Energizer Bunny
would be impressed.

What is being billed
as "the world's most
powerful storage
battery" is being
assembled in
Fairbanks by Golden
Valley Electric
Association.

Officials from four
countries and a
dozen companies
held a private
dedication ceremony
Aug. 26 for GVEA's
new Battery Energy
Storage System, or
BESS. The system is
designed to stabilize
the local electrical supply grid, and reduce the city's vulnerability to

blackouts.

The $35 million system will deliver 27 megawatts of power for 15
minutes. That is enough time, officials said, for the utility to start
local back-up generation in the event of power supply problems from
Anchorage, or if the Alaska Intertie system goes off-line.

"We are under testing for
the remainder of this year,
bringing on more
strength," said GVEA
Public Relations Officer
Corrine Bradish. "It's not
up and running, yet. It will
be fully operational on
January 1, 2004."

But the designers of the
contraption already are
claiming bragging rights.

"During acceptance
testing, the BESS was
operated with just two of
its four battery strings
installed," said project
coordinator Jim McDowall
of Saft America Corp., the
firm that developed the
nickel-cadmium battery
cells that provide the
emergency juice.

"Even so, we broke the world record by achieving 26.7 megawatts
and sustaining it for nearly three minutes," he said. "The third string
has been brought online ahead of schedule and in time for the start
of commercial operation."

The previous record-holder is a 21-megawatt BESS commissioned by
the Puerto Rico Power Authority in 1994.

Depending on load demand, GVEA buys from 50 to 75 megawatts of
power from the Intertie, Bradish said. When all four battery strings
are put in place in Fairbanks later this year, the power availability
will
increase to 46 megawatts, more than twice as powerful as the Puerto
Rico battery.

"And that is when we shall be making a formal presentation to
Guinness World Records," McDowall said. "To have the Alaska BESS
recognized officially as 'The Most Powerful Battery in the World.'"

It may also be among the world's biggest batteries.

The earthquake-proof device will eventually contain 13,760
rechargeable ni-cad cells, take up almost 3,100 square feet of space
and weigh in at 1,433 tons. The BESS also includes a converter,
manufactured by ABB Switzerland, Ltd., which turns the DC power
supplied by the battery cells into AC power ready for use in GVEA's
transmission system.

The battery cells have an anticipated life of 20 to 30 years, after
which Saft will be responsible for recycling or disposing them.

GVEA serves 90,000 residents spread over 2,200 square miles and
maintains more than 2,560 miles of power lines from Cantwell on the
Parks Highway to Fort Greely on the Richardson Highway.

Bradish said the BESS installation will not be capable of energizing the

entire local grid in the event of a total blackout, but it will have
enough punch to keep power flowing to the city's core area until
back-up generators take over.

That can make all the difference in mid-winter, Bradish said, when
temperatures in Fairbanks can plummet to minus 60 degrees
Fahrenheit, and residential water pipes can freeze solid in just a
couple of hours.
http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/091503/loc_20030915009.shtml

==========================================================================================World's biggest battery switched on in Alaska
By Edmund Conway (Filed: 28/08/2003)

The world's biggest battery was plugged in yesterday to
provide emergency power to one of the United States' most
isolated cities.

The rechargable battery, which
at 2,000 square metres is
bigger than a football pitch and
weighs 1,300 tonnes, was
manufactured by power
components specialist ABB to
provide electricity to Fairbanks,
Alaska's second-largest city, in
the event of a blackout.

Stored in a warehouse near the
city, where temperatures
plunge to -51 degrees
Centigrade in winter, the
battery will provide 40
megawatts of power - enough
for around 12,000 people - for up to seven minutes.

This is enough time, according to ABB, to start up diesel
generators to restore power, an important safeguard since
at such low temperatures, water pipes can freeze entirely in
two hours.

With no power lines between the state and the rest of
America, Alaska is often described as an "electrical island"
where tough environmental conditions and a sparse
population make power cuts a way of life.

ABB's battery, the first of its scale in the world, was
commissioned by Golden Valley Electrical Association
(GVEA) in Fairbanks, because the city suffers total
blackouts every two or three years, as well as frequent
swings in power supply.

The earthquake-proof contraption contains 13,760 NiCad
cells - bigger versions of those used in many portable
electronic appliances including laptop computers and
radios. Each cell measures 16in by 21in and weighs more
than 12 stone.

ABB, a Swiss company listed in London, is one of the
companies set to benefit from the US's decision to spend
between $50 billion and $100 billion improving its power
grid after the blackouts this month. This follows a difficult
year in which asbestos claims, corporate governance
scandals and financial and business difficulties almost tore
apart the company.

Peter Smits, head of the company's power technologies
division, said: "This battery will improve power reliability in
an area where it is vital. We have entered it for the
Guinness Book of Records."

A spokesman from Guinness World Records said: "Well this
battery certainly looks like being the biggest in the world,
but of course we will have to check all the evidence when it
comes in."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2003/08/28/cnalaska28.xml
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