ComRent Load Banks Help U.S. Wind Farms Meet 2012 Tax Credit Deadline

OWINGS, MD--(Marketwire - Mar 22, 2012) - ComRent today announced that it has developed a load bank testing solution that enables the full commissioning of U.S. wind farms in order to meet the December 31, 2012 Alternative Energy Federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) deadline. The company's purpose-built fleet of load banks and alternative energy expertise enables wind farm developers to fully commission wind turbines prior to interconnection to the utility grid in order to ensure their projects qualify for the PTC.

Wind turbines in the U.S. must be fully commissioned to government and manufacturer specifications in order to qualify for the PTC incentives, which are set to expire at the end of this year. The U.S. PTC grants an incentive worth 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the first ten years of a renewable energy facility's operation. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, more than 9 Gigawatts of turbines may be constructed by the close of 2012, making the stakes for PTC qualification higher than ever. ComRent's custom-engineered load banks enable wind farm developers to meet federal guidelines and qualify for crucial PTC construction credits prior to interconnection to the transmission grid. As a result, these companies not only qualify for tax credits but they are also able to start generating electricity and revenue immediately, when interconnection to the grid is completed.

"ComRent is relied on as a trusted partner to accurately, cost-effectively and safely validate the generating capacity of wind turbines with the necessary resistive and reactive loads required to fully commission large wind farm projects," said Clayton Taylor, President and CEO of ComRent. "Our specially engineered load bank fleet is the only one with the flexibility to accommodate the large voltage and power factor fluctuations that are inherent to commissioning wind turbines. Simply put: Our custom-engineered load bank solutions accelerate time-to-revenue by fully commissioning wind farms, without relying on the transmission grid to provide the necessary start-up back feed and load during the test."

Unlike pre-commissioning, which validates the turbines' rotation, the ComRent solution enables wind turbines to be fully tested and commissioned under the load specified by the turbine manufacturer. Turbines can be tested individually at the tower, or in strings at the collection point or substation. Resistive and reactive test loads can range from as little as 25% to 100% of rated turbine output.

ComRent owns and manages the largest load bank rental fleet in North America, with the alternative energy expertise needed to guide wind farm developers through the commissioning process. ComRent's patent-pending load bank control module enables their resistive and reactive load banks to operate under the wide range of Power Factors (PF) and Voltages inherent to wind turbine start up. As a result, ComRent's load banks are able to provide the resistive and reactive loads necessary to fully commission wind turbines before they are connected to the utility grid.

For more information, download this free overview on speeding time-to-revenue for wind farm projects, send an e-mail to WindTest@comrent.com, or click here to request a consultation from a ComRent wind farm commissioning expert.

About ComRent International

Since 1997, ComRent International has been providing construction professionals and facility engineers with reliable, simulated electrical and thermal load banks, transformers, cables and switchgear to commission and test mission-critical electrical and mechanical systems in high-performance structures such as data centers, healthcare facilities, nuclear power plants, municipal wastewater treatment plants and commercial cruise ships. ComRent offers North America's largest inventory of load banks, transformers, switchgear and cables. Its load bank rental solutions and value-added consulting services help construction managers and facility engineers validate designs, installations, total system performance and even LEED compliance. With 20 global distribution centers strategically located across the U.S., Canada, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, ComRent makes it possible to quickly and cost-effectively identify potential power and performance issues in these environments -- where uptime is paramount to continued operation. For more information, please visit www.ComRent.com.