Mobile power-storage units unveiled at KORE Solutions facility
Aug. 5, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
Nomad Transportable Power Systems and KORE Power unveiled three new mobile battery-storage units made in Waterbury. The first customer is Green Mountain Power. Photo by Gordon Miller
Nomad Transportable Power Systems, a company founded by the U.S.-based battery manufacturer KORE Power, unveiled multiple models of its mobile energy storage systems at a ceremony in downtown Waterbury this week.
The new units were built at KORE Solutions in the Pilgrim Park commercial complex. Formerly Northern Reliability, KORE Solutions is part of Idaho-based KORE Power battery manufacturing operation which acquired the Vermont company earlier this year.
Northern Reliability began its relationship with KORE several years ago to develop mobile energy storage units. From that partnership, the NOMAD company was formed. Jay Bellows, of Waterbury, now heads up the effort as CEO of NOMAD and president of KORE Power.
At Monday’s event, Bellows hailed the arrival of mobile lithium-ion storage as a new opportunity to reduce pollution and deliver reliable power backup in a variety of settings and circumstances.
“Today, we are proud to announce a trio of NOMAD products to meet this demand; with these transportable power systems, which are made right here in Waterbury with KORE Power cells, we open the door to a new day in clean energy solutions,” he said.
The company unveiled three mobile units of varying sizes: the Traveler which stores up to 2 MWh of power, the Voyager at 1.3 MWh, and the Rover which can store up to 660 kwh.
Officials at the Nomad Transportable Power Systems event do a ceremonial ribbon cutting inside the KORE Solutions facility in Waterbury. Left to right: Jay Bellows, NOMAD chief executive and KORE Power president; Mari McClure, chief executive of Green Mountain Power; Lindsay Gorrill, KORE Power co-founder and chief executive; U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-VT; and Kerrick Johnson, chief innovation and communications officer for VELCO. Photo by Gordon Miller
“Today’s unveiling shows what is possible when you put the experience of 50 years of designing energy storage solutions towards tackling the challenges of today,” said Lindsay Gorrill, KORE Power CEO and co-founder. “The NOMAD is safe, efficient, plug-and-play energy that can be dispatched to wherever it is needed, for as long as it is needed.”
The units have a wide range of uses from power back-up and emergency response to peak demand management and seasonal load mitigation, company officials said.
NOMAD was founded to meet demands for flexible, transportable battery energy storage systems in the utility, commercial and industrial-scale energy storage sector. The units are built on a fully enclosed trailer chassis with a standardized docking platform capable of connecting with any distribution or transmission utility. Their size and portability provide customers with energy storage capacity without the cost and construction of traditional permanent energy storage infrastructure.
Because they can be easily moved, a single unit can serve multiple locations for seasonal, intermittent or temporary uses, company officials explained. They can be deployed during a power outage, for example, or set up as additional storage to defer new storage construction.
According to a 2019 report from the U.S. Energy Administration, Vermont electricity customers experience about 8 hours of power outages per year. Typically, this means power is out for a couple of hours in a specific section of the grid. Bellows noted that in these situations, NOMAD could be used to bridge the gap while power is restored.
Another scenario may be to supplement power supply when utilities anticipate spikes in demand such as during a heat wave or holiday. Using a NOMAD unit as a backup would reduce the need to rely on expensive real-time power purchasing. “The added benefit here is that the unit can then be recharged when demand drops,” Bellows said. “This flexibility is one of the greatest attributes of the product.”
NOMAD’s first customer is Green Mountain Power. Chief Executive Mari McClure was there and said the utility was immediately interested in the units when they learned about their development.
Jay Bellows, chief executive of Nomad Transportable Power Systems and KORE Power president, addresses the gathering inside the production facility in downtown Waterbury. Photo by Gordon Miller
“At Green Mountain Power, we are always on the lookout for innovations that will help Vermonters and continue to build on the clean, reliable energy system we have here. Mobile storage will add to our fleet of existing storage, increasing resiliency as we address climate change, while also cutting costs and carbon for customers,” McClure said.
Also in attendance was Kerrick Johnson, chief innovation and communications officer with VELCO, who said the flexibility offered by the NOMAD units is essential. “We have communities across Vermont whose populations swell seasonally, so their electricity demand surges at very particular times,” Johnson explained. “Having an energy product that we can dispatch to meet these seasonal spikes, will enable us to better ensure demand can be affordably met without straining the grid.”
Bellows said these needs of utilities are exactly what led to the development of the NOMAD units. “The story of NOMAD has always been a partnership between KORE and what was then [Northern Reliability Inc.],” he explained.
Bellows said he and KORE Solutions Vice President of Sales and Development Greg Noble brainstormed the concept after conversations with utility customers who were looking for a way to handle uneven electricity demand over the course of a year.
“They didn’t need a permanent fixed storage solution when their need was only at specific times,” Bellows said. “So, we wondered, what if we could put a battery on wheels so that you could bring the power to where the demand is?”
The answer was the creation of Nomad Transportable Power Systems.
Now, company officials said that NOMAD is on track to deliver 10 units by the end of 2022. There also are discussions with potential industrial and commercial customers regarding the option to lease a NOMAD unit, which would make them attractive to multiple users, Bellows said.
U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., addresses the gathering inside the KORE Solutions manufacturing facility. Photo by Gordon Miller
On Monday, KORE officials were joined by Vermont’s Congressman Rep. Peter Welch who praised the development and production team who built the units. “This project is grounded in Vermont’s values: working hard to strengthen our communities, protecting our environment, and innovating right here in our state,” Welch said. “I look forward to continuing to work with the incredible KORE Power and NOMAD teams to help them thrive as they develop solutions to our energy challenges.”
About 75 people including company employees attended the ribbon-cutting. In addition to Welch, other elected leaders in the audience included local Democratic state Reps. Theresa Wood and Tom Stevens and Washington County state Sen. Ann Cummings. Waterbury’s Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk also was in attendance.
“We are lucky that in Waterbury we have support that goes all the way from Town Hall to Capitol Hill,” Bellows remarked.