ES&P is a joint venture between PSEG and Michael Nakhamkin. Mr Nakhamkin is ES&P’s chief technology officer and a compressed air energy storage (CAES) technology expert. He holds patents of CAES (CAES2) and power augmentation (PA) technology.
Prior to this, Mr Kraft was employed with Florida-based Power Systems Manufacturing (PSM). Mr Kraft helped start PSM in 1999, selling the company to Calpine in December 2000. He stayed on as vice president of engineering where he developed low-emission combustion systems and turbine components. He assisted Calpine in selling PSM to Alstom in 2007 and continued as president.
Mr Kraft will oversee ES&P’s efforts to help bring the potential of the CAES2 and PA technologies to the market. Two CAES2 projects that will utilize ES&P patented technology have received DOE stimulus grants of $54m, PG&E for a more than 300MW plant in California and NYSEG for a more than 150MW plant in New York State.
ES&P markets, licenses and supports the development and supervises projects execution based on the CAES and PA technologies. The company’s patented technology is well-suited for plants ranging from 15MW (using above ground air storage system) to over 400MW (using below ground geologic formations storage).
CAES technology plants are designed to store inexpensive off-peak energy and return energy to the grid during higher priced on-peak time periods. CAES can be used for load management of intermittent renewable energy resources, to increase the load factor of base load plants, or as a stand-alone intermediate generation source for capturing energy arbitrage, capacity payments and ancillary services.
ES&P patented power augmentation technology provides the high power augmentation with a heat rate reduction of combustion turbine/combined cycle power plants, at a fraction of the cost of constructing a new power plant.
