Capstone Green Energy Corp (fka CGRNQ)

[Seasound]

DJ referred to this topic in a not to distant Q&A session. He mentioned that Air Bearings have a poor shelf life or something to that effect. I suppose he was speaking about the air bearing taking a "set" if left idle too long. I'll post a link to the comment when I find it.

I see no reason that this issue would preclude a Capstone Turbine being used as a back-up power supply as long as the customer adheres to a strict testing program. A good preventative maintenance plan would include a provision that the stand-by emergency power system be started and run under load at least once a week or whatever period Capstone recommends for maintaining the integrity of the air bearings.

While there may be some question about running the stand-by system under load, by switching off the grid (especially in a hospital or other power critical environment) I'm confident hat this situation could be addressed by simply paralleling the Capstone in an base loaded configuration and then slowly transferring a portion of the grid load to it. The grid would still handle any variations in load. This of course could all be automated. In a sudden power failure there would be a short lag time prior to the Cappy starting up and taking care of the electrical load, unless the customer opted in for a 24/7 CHP system or out of prudence transferred the load to the emergency before hand.

One situation in lower Manhattan that I noted was the power supply to the NYSE trading floor. They had a diesel gen-set and some quantity of diesel fuel stored on-site. Supply trucks were bringing in and pumping up the on-site storage tank. One thing that many building engineers may fail to note is that bacteria love diesel, especially that stored for a long time. If careful attention is not paid to the preservation of the stored diesel fuel microbial growth and bio-degradation of diesel will occur and the operators will quickly find out that the DG sets fail due to clogged filters and injectors.

Again, back to Hurricane Sandy...I've read that the natural gas supply infrastructure remained intact. Perfect storm for a Capstone CHP system or emergency back-up power system.