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Stephen Byrd to Become President and CEO of Energy Storage & Power (ES&P)

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 June 2009, 12:00 CDT

Randall Mehrberg named chairman of ES&P and president of PSEG Energy Holdings

NEWARK, N.J., June 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PSEG and Energy Storage & Power, LLC (ES&P) jointly announced today that Stephen C. Byrd will become president and chief executive officer for ES&P, effective June 22. Byrd will oversee ES&P's efforts to bring the advanced, second generation compressed air energy storage (CAES 2) technology and related power augmentation to the market. The move is driven by PSEG's belief in the value and need for energy storage technology and an increased commitment to see it successfully added to the nation's energy mix.

Byrd had been senior vice president of finance, business development and M&A for PSEG, as well as president of PSEG Energy Holdings. Prior to joining PSEG, Byrd had been executive director of the global energy and utilities group at Morgan Stanley.

In related moves, Randall (Randy) Mehrberg, executive vice president of strategy and development for PSEG, will become chairman of ES&P and president of PSEG Energy Holdings.

ES&P is a joint venture between PSEG and Dr. Michael Nakhamkin, chief technology officer of the joint venture, the world's leading CAES technology expert and the holder of patents on the second generation of CAES technology and related power augmentation technology.

"As a former investment banker and with experience developing renewable energy projects as the head of PSEG Energy Holdings, Stephen is the right person to lead this exciting joint venture," said Ralph Izzo, president, chairman and CEO of PSEG.

"Large-scale energy storage is a critical missing piece of the energy puzzle; as renewable generation sources become an increasingly large source of power supply, the importance of energy storage will increase dramatically," Izzo said. "This game-changing technology greatly enhances the value of renewable generation sources, particularly wind generation, by addressing the intermittent nature of these sources, as well as by shifting wind energy from the evening to peak day time hours. ES&P's CAES 2 product is low-cost, large scale, highly reliable and flexible. It uses less fuel and emits less carbon. We believe it will play a strong role in the continued growth of renewable generation and in the nation's efforts to reduce carbon emissions."

ES&P's patented technology stores off-peak energy, in the form of compressed air in underground or above ground reservoirs, and releases this energy during peak hours. 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 exclusively markets, licenses and supports the development and supervises project execution of the second generation of compressed air energy storage technology. In addition to energy storage, ES&P possesses a related power augmentation technology that can increase power output of a variety of fossil fuel-fired plants for a fraction of the cost of constructing a new power plant. This power augmentation technology provides an attractive alternative for power plant owners that are considering expansion of their generation fleets.

"We already have proven CAES 2 technology that is based on existing and tested components, ensuring high reliability and availability. We have unique expertise in development and execution of the first generation CAES plant. With Stephen, we gain an executive with the experience and skills to grow our business," said Dr. Nakhamkin. "With the rapid growth of wind power, energy storage will be vital to ensuring the reliability of the electric grid as well as maximizing the economic value of wind generation and base load power plants. Stephen's strong financial and project management experience will help ensure that ES&P succeeds in bringing the second generation of CAES to the market."

Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) (NYSE: PEG) is a publicly traded diversified energy company with annual revenues of more than $13 billion, and three principal subsidiaries: PSEG Power, PSEG Energy Holdings, and Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G).

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SOURCE Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG)

Source: PR Newswire

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