Advanced energy storage systems and service provider Beacon Power Corp. received news that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will issue the company a fundamental smart grid patent. The patent will be the underlying technology of the new Beacon Power SmartLink™ system, which, according to the company, may be used in a broad range of existing and future distributed generation (DG) applications.
The Beacon Power SmartLink™ system may be useful whenever grid instability occurs during an outage or in support of a broad range of customer markets and applications. Currently, the majority of DG resources automatically turn off when a power grid fails. Beacon’s invention immediately creates a DG-powered microgrid, stabilized by energy storage, which continues to operate without support from the primary grid.
Bill Capp, Beacon president and CEO, commented, “Inspiration for the Beacon Power SmartLink™ system came directly from the major northeast blackout of August 2003. People were surprised and businesses adversely affected when sites with DG were left without power, even though they had on-site generation. We are pleased to have been granted broad claims for what could become an important source of revenue in addition to frequency regulation. We also expect this patent to lead to many more discussions with potential industry partners.”
According to the U.S. PTO, Beacon’s new patent is number 7,834,479. The original application can be accessed at http://bit.ly/adzUWA.
Let us hear your thoughts below:
