Public Power - November/December 2007 - (Page 59)

NYPA Charges Forward with the NaS Battery by William Atkinson New York Power Authority has had a long commitment to energy efficiency initiatives, especially for the state’s public buildings and other facilities. From the late 1980s through the end of 2006, NYPA has invested more than $1 billion in energy efficiency and clean energy projects statewide, with projects that serve more than 2,600 public facilities. NYPA has been using a number of tried-and-true energy-saving and “green friendly” technologies over the last 20 years. It continues to assess emerging technologies that may hold promise for greater savings and improved environmental impacts. One such project is at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Long Island Bus Terminal in Garden City, N.Y. The terminal is served by a dedicated Long Island Power Authority feeder. It is home to a fleet of 220 buses that are fueled by compressed natural gas. The fueling is performed by three 600-hp electric natural gas compressors. Currently, buses are fueled at night, when demand for electricity is low. This has required the addition of a third shift of employees to do the fueling. “MTA is one of our customers, and we were looking at some different technologies to help them address their peak power issues,” said NYPA spokesman Michael Saltzman. The most interesting and promising technology for this application was the NaS batwww.APPAnet.org The tery technology. An emerging technology from Japan, the NaS battery (so named because of its main components, which are sodium and sulfur) is touted as a solution that can help utilities worldwide delay construction of new distribution lines, substations, and even power plants. The NaS battery system is a room-sized structure capable of storing energy for several hours, and recharged at night when energy demands and prices are low, and then used (depleted) during the day, reducing the need for day-time power, when prices and demands for power are higher. The battery also makes wind power more reliable. Wind tends to blow longest and hardest at night, when demand for electricity is lowest. Conversely, when demand is high during the day, winds tend to die down. A NaS battery can store the wind energy generated at night and then make it available during the day. Battery technology has been tried before. For example, lead-acid batteries, which were installed by Southern California Edison in the late 1980s, were enormous (warehousesized) and lasted only five years, largely due to corrosion problems. NaS batteries overcome these problems. They take up about 20 percent of the space of lead-acid batteries and are designed to last up to 15 years. Still, the cost is high—about $2,500 per kilowatt, which is slightly more than a new coal- fired plant. However, mass production of the battery, which is expected to begin in the next few years, should bring the price down. The NaS battery was developed jointly by Tokyo Electric Power and NGK Insulators of Japan. The batteries have been in commercial operation in Japan since 2002, with over 130 projects in place. They are used by only a few U.S. utilities (most notably by American Electric Power at its Charleston, W. Va., plant). The New York Power Authority’s NaS project is the first customer-side application in the United States. The NaS battery system installed at MTA is a collection of 6,400 battery cells, grouped into 20 modules (with each module containing 320 individual cells). When operational, it will be able to supply one megawatt of power for between six and eight hours. The $4 million project is a joint effort of the MTA, NYPA, NGK, ABB (which provides power conversion systems, controls and integration), the U.S. Department of Energy, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Electric Power Research Institute, and EnerNex (which handles data acquisition and monitoring). Half of the project is supported by outside donations. APPA’s DEED (Demonstration of Energy-Efficient Developments) program donated $75,000. Once the battery system becomes operational, MTA buses can be fueled during first and second shift, eliminating the need for a third shift of employees. The batteries will also increase backup power for the entire facility and reduce peak demand on the heavily loaded utility grid. “The unit has been installed, and we hope to have it in operation by the end of the summer,” said Saltzman. “If it operates as expected, we will begin to consider it for some additional applications.” For more information on the NaS battery, go to: www.ngk.co.jp/english/products/power/nas/index.html. ❚ Several partners, including the DEED program, have contributed to NYPA’s test of NaS battery technology at a bus terminal in Garden City, N.Y. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2007 59 http://www.ngk.co.jp/english/products/power/nas/index.html http://www.ngk.co.jp/english/products/power/nas/index.html http://www.APPAnet.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - November/December 2007

Public Power - November/December 2007 Contents Washington Focus 10 Questions Connecting with the Customer Through Automation AMR or AMI? The High Court’s Antitrust Thunderbolts California’s Push for Demand-Response Plug-In Partners Get Plugged In Wiring Up for Double-Digit Growth For Engineers Safety Community Broadband For Governing Boards DEED Customer Service Hometown Connections Index to Advertisers Parting shot

Public Power - November/December 2007

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