GRIDPOINT

Xcel Energy Selects GridPoint Software Platform for Wind-To-Battery Project

Project Extends Xcel Energy and GridPoint Business Relationship

ARLINGTON, VA – Nov. 18, 2008 – GridPoint, Inc., a leading clean tech company whose smart grid software platform benefits electric utilities, consumers and the environment, announced today that Xcel Energy selected GridPoint’s software platform to control the flow of power between the grid and a NGK Insulators’ sodium-sulfur battery storing wind energy. When fully charged, the one-megawatt battery will hold approximately 7.2 megawatt-hours of electricity, potentially powering 500 homes for over seven hours. This is the first U.S. application of the battery as a direct wind energy storage device.

The GridPoint Platform applies information technology to the electric grid to provide utilities with an intelligent network of distributed energy resources that controls load, stores energy and produces power. It will allow Xcel Energy to explore using real-time grid conditions and energy pricing to determine when the battery charges or discharges. Based on system regulation and pricing signals received by the software platform, the battery’s charging behavior will be adaptively controlled. When the demand for electricity is high, as an example, stored wind energy could be automatically discharged to the grid, supplementing the power flow. When demand is low, the software platform could issue commands for the battery to store the available energy.

“Dispatching stored energy according to the real-time needs of the grid is essential to increasing our use of renewable energy,” said Frank Novachek, Xcel Energy’s director of corporate planning. “Incorporating GridPoint’s software in the wind-to-battery project is in line with our ongoing efforts to modernize and upgrade the grid to allow easier integration of variable renewable energy sources.”

The project will take place in Luverne, Minn., about 30 miles east of Sioux Falls, S.D., adjacent and connected to the nearby 11-megawatt wind farm owned by Minwind Energy, LLC. S&C Electric Company will install the battery and all associated interconnection components. The battery is expected to go on-line in January 2009.

“We are pleased to be extending our work with Xcel Energy beyond SmartGridCity to this groundbreaking wind-to-battery project,” said Peter L. Corsell, CEO of GridPoint. “Xcel Energy continues to demonstrate leadership in developing a Smart Grid, and we are very excited to build upon a relationship with such a forward-thinking utility.”

GridPoint’s software platform will also be logging performance data from the battery and associated metering equipment for analysis by the University of Minnesota, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Great Plains Institute.

GridPoint is a member of Xcel Energy’s Smart Grid Consortium, which is providing guidance, products and services needed to implement SmartGridCity, a $100 million effort in Boulder, Colo., to modernize the electricity grid and bring it into the digital age. GridPoint is featured in the first SmartGridCity home, the University of Colorado’s Chancellor’s Residence, where its software platform provides Xcel Energy with a single interface to manage a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, solar panels, advanced storage technologies and household devices such as thermostats. Additionally, the GridPoint platform provides the Chancellor’s family with online energy management to automatically control energy consumption according to their preferences, track solar production and view environmental data about their conservation efforts.

A 2008 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, GridPoint was also named the overall winner by AlwaysOn GoingGreen 100 Top Private Companies 2007 and winner of the 2007 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Green Excellence. GridPoint has been featured in several books including the newly released Perfect Power: How the Microgrid Revolution Will Unleash Cleaner, Greener, More Abundant Energy, by Robert Galvin and Kurt Yeager, as well as Earth: The Sequel and The Clean Tech Revolution. Corsell is profiled in this month's issue of MIT's Technology Review magazine as one of the world's top innovators under the age of 35. He also serves as chairman of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Alternative Energies.