American superconductor books additional order for wind farm voltage regulation system

American Superconductor Corporation (Nasdaq: AMSC), a leading electricity solutions company, announced the sale of its D-VAR(R) voltage regulation system to the prime contractor for a Nebraska-based wind farm - the seventh time customers have chosen AMSC's products to reliably and safely interconnect major wind-generated power facilities to the electrical transmission grid. The Ainsworth Wind Turbine Project will be located south of Ainsworth, Nebraska, and is owned by Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD). The project will comprise 36 Vestas V82 wind turbines with an installed capacity of 60-megawatt (MW), and will be constructed on behalf of NPPD by RES America Construction Inc. of Austin, Texas.

The D-VAR system, slated to be commissioned this summer, constantly monitors voltage where the wind turbines connect to the transmission grid. Instead of allowing voltage to vary as the wind fluctuates, the D-VAR system and its ancillary equipment dynamically regulate the voltage at the point of connection to the transmission grid to a desired level. Overall, this is the sixth wind farm in North America and the seventh worldwide to incorporate AMSC's advanced voltage control technologies. These projects bring the total wind-generated electric power served by AMSC's D-VAR systems to more than 550 MW (or enough clean, zero-emission energy to meet the needs of more than a quarter million homes). It is also the third North American wind farm to pair AMSC's D-VAR systems with Vestas wind turbines.

AMSC is a world-leading supplier of dynamic reactive power grid stabilization products and the world's principal vendor of high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire and large rotating superconductor machinery. AMSC's power electronic converters and HTS wire are at the core of a broad range of new electricity transmission and distribution, transportation, medical and industrial processing applications, including dynamic reactive power grid stabilization solutions, large ship propulsion motors and generators, smart, controllable, superconductor power cables and advanced defense systems. The company's products are supported by hundreds of patents and licenses covering technologies fundamental to Revolutionizing the Way the World Uses Electricity(TM). More information is available at http://www.amsuper.com