NorthWestern to have energy storage system

Beacon Power Flywheel Storage delivers 1-megawatt frequency regulation and grid stabilization for NorthWestern Energy in Montana, leasing a system at Mill Creek Generating Station, Anaconda, to balance load variability for a vertically integrated utility.

Beacon Power Corp. has reached an agreement to build its first energy storage system for a utility customer, the company said.

The Tyngsborough-based company, a maker of “flywheel” power storage systems, said it will build a 1-megawatt flywheel frequency regulation project for NorthWestern Energy in Montana, expected to be operational by the end of the year.

The flywheel systems provide frequency regulation service, with spinning flywheels helping to stabilize the electric grid by balancing power supply levels during moment-to-moment variations in demand.

Beacon Power, which has applied for DOE grants in recent years, has built its other energy storage facilities for grid operators in New York and Massachusetts. The Montana project is “the first tangible result of the second part of our business model, the sale or lease of plants and systems to vertically integrated utilities, i.e., those that must self-provide frequency regulation,” Beacon spokesman Gene Hunt wrote in an email, noting that the company had moved ahead on a second plant earlier as well.

NorthWestern Energy will lease the system from Beacon for $500,000 for the first 15 months and for the same amount for future 15-month terms. NorthWestern also has the option to buy the facility for $4 million at any point, Beacon said.

The facility will be located on the site of the Mill Creek Generating Station, a gas-fired regulating reserve plant owned by NorthWestern Energy in Anaconda, Mont.

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