Beacon Power公司（Nasdaq：BCOND）周一称，已就建立第一个商用客户的储能系统达成协议。本项目是为蒙大拿州的西北能源公司建立一个1兆瓦的飞轮储能系统，预计该项目将于今年年底开始运行。
Beacon Power公司发言人亨特称：“蒙大拿项目是我们商业模式的第二部分，即将储能系统销售（或租赁）给垂直一体化电力公司，例如那些必须自行提供调频服务的公司。”
西北能源公司将以15个月50万美元的费用租赁该设备，15个月后的15个月的条款相同。西北能源公司也可以选择在任何时候以400万美元的价格购买该设备。
该设施将安装于本米尔河一个用于调频服务的燃气发电厂。
Beacon Power Corp. (Nasdaq:BCOND) has reached an agreement to build its first energy storage system for a utility customer, the company said Monday.
The Tyngsborough, Mass.-based company, a maker of “flywheel” power storage systems, said it will build a 1-megawatt storage system for NorthWestern Energy in Montana, expected to be operational by the end of the year.
The flywheel systems provide frequency regulation service, which helps to stabilize the electric grid by balancing power supply levels during moment-to-moment variations in demand.
Beacon Power 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 e-mail Monday.
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.