wiredinusa March 2012

INDEX

A123 to supply the revolution

Going underground Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) will implement the recommendations in a report on the Morristown underground electrical network, recently accepted by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. According to the report, the underground network meets design, construction and reliability standards for the US electric utilities, however it outlined recommended enhancements to underground equipment and engineering, operations and inspection practices. The report recommendations include upgrading relays in the Morristown substation feeding the network - to shorten restoration times when outages occur; completing a study of a secondary portion of the network to determine if additional fuses are needed to help protect against equipment damage; and replacing two

A123 Systems is to supply six Grid Battery Systems TM (GBSs) to Northern Powergrid, an electricity distribution network operator that delivers power to over 3.8 million customers in the UK. The GBSs will be designed for peak-load shifting and to manage fluctuations in voltage on the UK’s power grid. Expected to be operational by the end of 2012, the systems will be deployed as part of the Customer-Led Network Revolution (CLNR), the UK’s largest smart grid project funded through the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets’ (Ofgem) Low Carbon Networks Fund. “The CLNR will evaluate a number of network technologies to accommodate increasing quantities of low-carbon loads and renewable generation necessary to meet the UK’s climate change goals. One aspect of this multifaceted project is to determine how the use of storage technology may reduce peak loading on our network and thereby offset the need for network reinforcement,” said Jim Cardwell, head of regulation and strategy at Northern Powergrid. The six GBSs that A123 will supply to Northern Powergrid include a 2.5MW system, two 100kW systems and three 50kW systems. Each will be designed to maintain these power capabilities for up to two hours, adding flexibility to the distribution network and helping to provide consistent delivery of reliable power to customers.

electrical switches in the underground network. The recommendations also include adding special guards at the Morristown substation to prevent animal-related power outages; conducting a pilot project to investigate available methods for securing manhole covers; and providing additional training for employees on vault inspections and data collection.

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wiredInUSA - March 2012

wiredInUSA - March 2012

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