Energy Storage Association Honors Innovative Energy Leaders With Two Awards At Annual Conference

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Energy Storage Association (ESA) is pleased to announce the 2014 recipients of two separate awards. The ESA's annual Phil Symons Energy Storage Award recipient is former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff and the inaugural Brad Roberts Outstanding Industry Achievement Award recipient is AES Energy Storage.  Both awards were presented at the ESA's 24^th Annual Conference, held in Washington, DC June 4-6.

Mr. Wellinghoff was recognized for his decades of experience in energy, where he has worked tirelessly to create a more resilient grid infrastructure that can serve as a platform for innovation.  While serving as Chairman of the FERC, Mr. Wellinghoff was instrumental in leading efforts for the implementation of regulatory practices that ensure a fair and competitive energy market – and allow technologies like energy storage to provide valuable services to the grid.  In addition to his distinguished service at FERC, Mr. Wellinghoff has worked to advance renewable energy and energy efficiency standards around the country, and was the primary author of Nevada's Renewable Portfolio Standard.

"Mr. Wellinghoff's focus on developing open and competitive markets so that consumers and customers could reap the full benefits of advanced energy technologies has played a critical role in shaping the opportunities for energy storage.  While leading FERC, Jon was instrumental in developing Order 755 – creating competitive markets for fast-responding energy resources -  and created the Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, ensuring his legacy will further advance progress on the grid for years to come," said Matt Roberts, Executive Director of ESA.

AES Energy Storage was selected amidst a very competitive group of deserving companies as the recipient of the inaugural Brad Roberts Outstanding Industry Achievement Award. AES's energy storage projects are deployed around the world in diverse applications and their leadership role in the industry as a whole displays a substantial commitment to advancing storage that has paved the way for innovative projects of all sizes.

"AES's long track record in energy storage and continued advancement of technologies and projects over the past year continues to raise the bar and illustrates for other companies how to play a leading role in the continuing evolution of the energy storage industry. We are thankful to have energy leaders like AES working to expand the commercial deployment of energy storage," said Troy Miller of S&C Electric, when presenting the award at ESA's 24^th Annual Conference. 

The Phil Symons Energy Storage Award is given each year at the annual event, and the recipient is selected by the Chair of ESA's Board of Directors with input from previous winners. The award was created in 2006 in honor and remembrance of the leadership and vision of Dr. Phil Symons in the development and growth of ESA and the energy storage industry. Dr. Symons was the Chairman of the ESA during a transitional time for the organization. If it were not for his leadership and guidance, ESA would not have grown into what it is today.

The Brad Roberts Outstanding Industry Achievement Award was presented for the first time this year – in remembrance of the contributions of the former ESA Executive Director.  The award was named this year in honor of Mr. Roberts' passion for innovation and technology in energy and service to the energy storage industry as a whole.  Each year, this award will highlight the accomplishments of a member company or organization in the storage marketplace and will recognize comprehensive industry commitment and participation.

About ESA –
The Energy Storage Association is the national trade association for the energy storage industry whose mission is to promote, develop and commercialize competitive and reliable energy storage delivery systems for use by electricity suppliers and their customers. ESA members represent a diverse group of entities, including electric utilities, energy service companies, independent power producers, technology developers deploying advanced batteries, flywheels, compressed air energy storage, thermal storage, pumped hydropower, supercapacitors and component suppliers, such as power conversion systems.

For more information on energy storage, please visit www.energystorage.org.

Contact: Matt Roberts, 202-293-0537, [email protected]

SOURCE Energy Storage Association