Ormat Announces Commercial Operation of Rabbit Hill Battery Energy Storage System Participating in Markets Run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas
RENO, Nev., April 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: ORA) today announced the commercial operation of the Rabbit Hill Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) facility, providing required ancillary services and energy optimization to the wholesale markets managed by the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). The facility is located in the City of Georgetown, Texas, and it is sized to provide approximately 10 MW of fast responding capacity to the ERCOT market. Ormat’s wholly owned subsidiary Viridity Energy Solutions Inc. designed, built, owns and operates the lithium-Ion-based BESS, using batteries from a tier 1 supplier.
”The Rabbit Hill BESS facility is our first energy storage system in Texas” commented Isaac Angel, Chief Executive Officer. “The system provides fast responding capacity, helping ERCOT maintain grid reliability, as it copes with changes in supply and demand, driven by the growing penetration of wind and solar generation, more frequent extreme weather events and other challenges. Our state-of-the-art system was designed to be able to provide all types of ancillary services required by ERCOT, including fast frequency response. Our first BESS project in Texas and the fifth to our Energy Storage and Management Services segment, marks another milestone in our strategy to develop, own and operate energy storage facilities in several key US markets, also including New Jersey, New England and California. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to operate in new means, Ormat continues to attract new business in the energy storage market, expanding in terms of MW, operation and ownership.”LS Energy Solutions served as the system integrator, providing a state-of-the art solution that interfaces with Ormat’s on-site energy management system and remote network operations center.ABOUT ORMAT TECHNOLOGIESWith over five decades of experience, Ormat Technologies, Inc. is a leading geothermal company and the only vertically integrated company engaged in geothermal and recovered energy generation (“REG”), with the objective of becoming a leading global provider of renewable energy. The Company owns, operates, designs, manufactures and sells geothermal and REG power plants primarily based on the Ormat Energy Converter – a power generation unit that converts low-, medium- and high-temperature heat into electricity. With 63 U.S. patents, Ormat’s power solutions have been refined and perfected under the most grueling environmental conditions. Ormat has 578 employees in the United States and 830 overseas. Ormat’s flexible, modular solutions for geothermal power and REG are ideal for vast range of resource characteristics. The Company has engineered, manufactured and constructed power plants, which it currently owns or has installed to utilities and developers worldwide, totaling over 3,000 MW of gross capacity. Ormat’s current 914 MW generating portfolio is spread globally in the U.S., Kenya, Guatemala, Indonesia, Honduras, and Guadeloupe. Ormat expanded its operations to provide energy storage and energy management solutions, by leveraging its core capabilities and global presence as well as through its Viridity Energy Solutions Inc. subsidiary.ORMAT’S SAFE HARBOR STATEMENTInformation provided in this press release may contain statements relating to current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about future events that are “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements generally relate to Ormat’s plans, objectives and expectations for future operations and are based upon its management’s current estimates and projections of future results or trends. Actual future results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties.For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, see “Risk Factors” as described in Ormat’s Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 2, 2020 and from time to time, in Ormat’s quarterly reports on Form 10-Q that are filed with the SEC.These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.