Vancouver: Ballard Power Systems announced November 6 that, during the difficult circumstances presented by Hurricane Sandy in the Bahamas, the company's ElectraGen™-ME methanol fuel cell systems performed exactly as designed, providing critical electricity to the island's mobile telephone network when the storm downed power lines and cut off grid power.
Ballard's 17 ElectraGen™-ME systems, installed in the local telecom network, began operating automatically as grid power was lost when the storm hit October 25th. During the three days that Hurricane Sandy passed over the Bahamas, each of the 5 kilowatt systems operated flawlessly, Ballard said, as needed to maintain consistent power. As a group, the 17 systems provided the equivalent of one month of backup power over a concentrated 7 day period during and after the storm; producing more than 1,200 kilowatt-hours of electricity.