American Superconductor Corporation has added a news release to its Investor Relations website.
Title: AMSC Commences Fault Current Limiter Project for Southern California EdisonDate: 10/9/2007 7:30:01 AM For a complete listing of our news releases, please click here
-- Company Receives Cooperative Agreement Award from Department of Energy -- Transmission-Voltage FCL System to be Powered by AMSC's 2G Wire and Deployed in California GridWESTBOROUGH, Mass.& ROSEMEAD, Calif., Oct 09, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a leading
energy technologies company, and Southern California Edison (SCE), an
Edison International company (NYSE: EIX) and California's largest
electric utility, announced today a cooperative agreement award from
the Department of Energy (DOE) on a project to develop and perform
in-grid testing of a transmission-voltage fault current limiter (FCL)
solution. The FCL will utilize a design from Siemens AG that
incorporates AMSC's proprietary second generation (2G) high
temperature superconductor (HTS) wires. Fault current limiters act as
high-voltage surge protectors for the power grid, increasing system
reliability and overall efficiency.
"Superconductor technologies hold great potential for improving
the capacity, reliability and efficiency of the nation's transmission
grid," said DOE Secretary Samuel W. Bodman. "Fault current limiters
are among the most promising of these technologies given their
potential to suppress the increasing power surges that are threatening
our electrical infrastructure."
As project manager, AMSC will lead the effort to develop a
three-phase, 115 kilovolt (kV) stand-alone FCL. This FCL will feature
a proprietary low-inductance coil technology from project partner
Siemens that makes the FCL invisible to the grid until it switches to
a resistive state upon the detection of a fault current. The
demonstration will occur at a location operated by team member SCE. In
addition to Siemens and SCE, AMSC's project partners include Nexans,
the University of Houston and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
"Today's high-tech world can no longer afford yesterday's low-tech
electricity grid," said Southern California Edison Vice President of
Engineering James Kelly. "That's why Southern California Edison is
pleased to be working with the U.S. Department of Energy and companies
like AMSC and Siemens to develop and deploy a smarter grid to meet our
customers' changing needs."
The project will be conducted in two phases. The first phase will
focus on customizing approximately 7,500 meters of AMSC's 2G HTS wire
for the FCL application, developing an advanced switching module,
designing terminations, and manufacturing and testing a single-phase,
transmission-voltage FCL in a laboratory setting. The second phase of
the project will focus on manufacturing and testing the three-phase,
115-kV FCL in SCE's grid.
The DOE, through its National Energy Technology Laboratory, is
expected to provide AMSC with approximately $3.1 million in federal
funding through completion of the first project budget period,
expected to end in September 2008. Upon successful completion of key
project milestones and sustained execution of a viable business
strategy, as much as $9.7 million in additional DOE funding may be
made available to AMSC for continued implementation of this five-year
project through September 2012, subject to availability of funds
appropriated by the U.S. Congress.
Earlier this year, AMSC and Siemens announced they had achieved
commercial-grade performance levels for a medium-voltage FCL. The test
was conducted on a single-phase, 2 mega-volt-ampere (2 MVA) FCL that
operated at a voltage of 7.5 kilovolts (kV), which corresponds to a
13-kV class of three-phase power equipment. The FCL suppressed the
current during a fault by up to twenty-five times. AMSC and Siemens
formed a strategic business alliance in February 2005 to develop HTS
fault current limiter technology.
"We are excited to commence work on this project with our
international team of business and technology leaders," said AMSC
founder and Chief Executive Officer Greg Yurek. "Having achieved
commercial-grade success with Siemens on a medium-voltage FCL earlier
this year, we are ready to take the next step toward commercialization
by developing a transmission-voltage system and demonstrating its
advanced capabilities in Southern California Edison's grid. We
continue to view stand-alone fault current limiters as one of the
largest potential market opportunities for our AMSC Superconductors
business."
AMSC's unique manufacturing process enables it to rapidly
customize the dimension, lamination and current carrying capacity for
its 2G HTS wire to suit a broad array of applications. High
temperature superconductor materials are "smart" because they possess
unique physical properties that allow them to conduct electricity with
no resistance under normal operating conditions, while also being able
to recognize and then instantaneously suppress large surges of
electrical current by switching to the resistive state. Suppressing
spikes of electrical current is important because it prevents
blackouts by preventing damage to expensive electrical equipment in
power grids.
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California
Edison is California's largest electric utility, serving a population
of more than 13 million via 4.8 million customer accounts in a
50,000-square-mile service area within central, coastal and Southern
California. SCE's 50,000-square-mile grid utilizes 16 utility
interconnections, and 4,990 transmission and distribution circuits.
The system is maintained and operated by 425 transmission and
distribution crews and 13,000 employees with over a century of
experience.
About American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC)
AMSC is a leading energy technologies company offering an array of
solutions based on two proprietary technologies: programmable power
electronic converters and high temperature superconductor (HTS) wires.
The company's products, services and system-level solutions enable
cleaner, more efficient and more reliable generation, delivery and use
of electric power. AMSC is a leader in alternative energy, offering
grid interconnection solutions as well as licensed wind energy designs
and electrical systems. As the world's principal supplier of HTS wire,
the company is enabling a new generation of compact, high-power
electrical products, including power cables, grid-level surge
protectors, Secure Super Grids(TM), motors, generators, and advanced
transportation and defense systems. AMSC also provides utility and
industrial customers worldwide with voltage regulation systems that
dramatically enhance power grid capacity, reliability and security, as
well as industrial productivity. The company's technologies are
protected by a broad and deep intellectual property portfolio
consisting of hundreds of patents and licenses worldwide. More
information is available at www.amsc.com.
American Superconductor and design, Revolutionizing the Way the
World Uses Electricity, AMSC, Powered by AMSC, SuperVAR, D-VAR, DVC,
PQ-IVR, PowerModule, PQ-SVC, Secure Super Grids, Windtec and SuperGEAR
are trademarks or registered trademarks of American Superconductor
Corporation or its subsidiaries.
Any statements in this release about future expectations, plans
and prospects for the company, including our expectations regarding
the future financial performance of the company and other statements
containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects,"
"will" and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those indicated by such
forward-looking statements. Such factors include: uncertainties
regarding the company's ability to obtain anticipated funding from
corporate and government contracts, to successfully develop,
manufacture and market commercial products, and to secure anticipated
orders; the risk that a robust market may not develop for the
company's products; the risk that strategic alliances and other
contracts may be terminated; the risk that certain technologies
utilized by the company will infringe intellectual property rights of
others; and the competition encountered by the company. Reference is
made to these and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors"
section of the company's most recent quarterly or annual report filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the
forward-looking statements included in this press release represent
the company's views as of the date of this release. While the company
anticipates that subsequent events and developments may cause the
company's views to change, the company specifically disclaims any
obligation to update these forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing
the company's views as of any date subsequent to the date this press
release is issued.
SOURCE: American Superconductor Corporation
American Superconductor Corporation
Jason Fredette, 508-621-4177
Director of Investor & Media Relations
jfredette@amsc.com
or
Southern California Edison
Gil Alexander, 626-302-7835
Corporate Communications, Media Relations
Gil.Alexander@sce.com
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