A Brief History of EPC from Elpipes to Ballistic Breakers

I prepared an earlier version this brief history of EPC to help orient the judges in the CleanTech Open, and explain the major "pivot" that I have made since forming Electric Pipeline Corporation. I edited the document and uploaded the link to this new version on June 10, 2015.

I made my MassChallenge Qualifier Round Pitch this Morning

It went well...I was pretty calm. I am confident that I will progress to the finals. There was a great, highly qualified team of judges.

Just completed CleanTech Open submissions last night

The closer I got to perfection, the more I got motivated to make it as perfect as possible. The last document I uploaded at 2:32 AM was a Brief History of EPC; after that I tried to go in and tweak things, but I was locked out. I wonder whether others also experienced that premature lockout? It prevented me uploading my capitalization table, but I'm not sweating it.

Data Center DC Power as an Opportunity for Ballistic Breaker™

Schneider Electric Study of Data Center Efficiency
GE-Validus Study on DC data Centers

Great GE video on a primary competitive product for Ballistic Breakers

This GE website shows how the Gerapid (TM) breaker works. This is one of the major makes of DC circuit breakers that we will go up against in trying to build a market for Ballistic Breakers (TM).

Ballistic Breaker Company (BB Co.)

After my last meeting with my CleanTech Open + MassChallenge mentor team at Deloitte's conference room in Waltham (Thanks, Zam!), I got clarity on what to do about the fact that I have two different inventions, elpipes and Ballistic Breakers in my portfolio. I already know that elpipes will not be VC financeable, and I don't want to throw them into the BB deal if they are not seen for the jewels they are. I liked Mark Haddad's idea to just grant EPC a permanent license to practice any BB technology patent developed by BB Co at voltage > 300kV, DC only, non-exclusive, and subject to a minimum ownership interest in EPC for me. I'm working out the details now.

Update from the CleanTech Open

I made several great contacts at the CleanTech Open. One of the difficult issues with which I have been dealing is deciding what to do with elpipes. The business plan competitions I have entered are helping me to make this decision. It is now abundantly clear that Ballistic Breakers are fundable, and the low resistance route is to simply drop elpipes. I choke on that, though. I am keeping Clay Taylor (my CTO) focused on Ballistic Breakers while I continue to spend some of my time trying to find a way to raise money to move elpipes forward, or at least to follow up on my elpipe PCT patent application.

On my way to West Coast CleanTech Open events tomorrow

I am a semifinalist in the CleanTech Open, and I'm coming to San Jose for their Investor Conference on July 14 (http://www.cleantechopen.com/app.cgi/events/346/view) and the Entrepreneur Academy (7/15-7/17). The near term focus of my business plan is on the Ballistic Breaker (TM), but I am also keeping elpipes in the plan as a gen-II product. My new CTO Clay Taylor was planning to come to the conference with me, but he had to stay at his University job (Research Professor at Mississippi State University) because someone else got sick. My long time friend and fellow entrepreneur, Colin Felton will attend the CleanTech Open events with me instead. We are each nominally involved in the other's ventures, and the conference & academy will be more fun doing it with him!

It is very interesting to simultaneously my a CleanTech Open semifinalist and a MassChallenge finalist. In a future post, I'll talk about how these two business plan competitions are different yet complementary.

Moved into the MassChallenge Incubator Space Today

Today was the first opportunity to move into the MassChallenge incubator at One Marina Park Drive, and I was there before 9:AM. This is going to be fun!

I was "discouraged" on pursuing ARPA-E funding for Ballistic Circuit Breaker

This was a blow. I think my proposal to study Ballistic Breakers for HVDC was strong. I know I was stepping into an area with many unknowns, but also one that is very important. Multi-terminal HVDC systems require HVDC circuit breakers, and I doubt the economics of IGBT-based approaches.

Thank God I am clear that the Ballistic Breaker is important, and that it has introductory markets that do not depend on HVDC.

Note added September 14, 2011:
I recently found out that General Atomics and Professor Mike Mazzola (http://www.ece.msstate.edu/people/profile.php?mazzola) of Mississippi State University were encouraged in the same Round #4 ARPA-E solicitation where I was discouraged. Fair enough, and good luck on solving this important problem. Watch out for those on-state losses and switching transients. 

I am now a semifinalist in the CleanTech Open

We were all notified a few days ago, but asked to keep quiet about it. I think the CleanTech Open + MassChallenge business plan competitions will be synergistic for me...I visualize a true entrepreneurial bootcamp (Mass Challenge uses that word, even!). I am honored, and I feel certain I am now on the road to financing for Ballistic Breakers (TM).

Ballistic Breaker Subsidiary makes it to final round of MassChallenge

I learned yesterday that I made it to the final round of MassChallenge. This has some important advantages, including downtown Boston office space in an incubator environment; entrepreneur boot camp; and great mentoring. I also will finalize my CleanTech Open application by Friday.

It is a little painful to set aside elpipes for the moment so I can focus on Ballistic Circuit Breakers. One thing that is amply clear to me is that the DC circuit breaker problem must be solved before elpipes will be practical: in fact, HVDC circuit breakers are an enabling technology for elpipes.

However, unlike elpipes, the ballistic circuit breaker has several near term markets that are much easier to break into than HVDC, including:

—MVDC introductory market (0.5- 10kV)

—High power AC market (15-765kV)

—Electric vehicle market (includes hybrids)

—HVDC supergrid enabling technology

Just Entered the CleanTech Open

I have decided that participation in both MassChallenge and the CleanTech Open are well worth the time and effort. In both cases, I am pitching the "Ballistic Circuit Breaker" rather than elpipes, though elpipes and more generally, an HVDC supergrid remain the long term goal of all my efforts. Before elpipes can be widely implemented it is essential to solve the problem of a a HVDC circuit breaker. Electric Pipeline Corporation per se has a new motto:

Enabling Technology for DC Power TransmissionTransmission

.

Clayborne Taylor, Junior Joins Ballistic Breaker Company as Chief Technical Officer

Clayborne Taylor Junior is a recent PH.D. graduate, and a Research Professor at Mississippi State University. Clay was my primary partner on the ARPA-E Concept Paper on using Ballistic Breakers in multi-terminal HVDC systems:

DOE ARPA-E Concept Paper

Responsive to: DE-FOA-0000473: Green Electricity Network Integration (GENI)

title: HVDC Transmission Ring with HVDC Circuit Breakers to Assure Redundant Linking of Regional Generation and Storage for Grid Stabilization

This proposal is based somewhat on the realization that loops are self-redundant, since any two points on the loop are connected in both the clockwise and the counterclockwise direction. Steve Eckroad of EPRI has a recent patent on this concept, applied on a smaller scale than what would be needed to make renewable energy practical.

I applied today for ARPA-E funding for Ballistic Circuit Breaker

Excerpts from the Application I filed today:

title: HVDC Transmission Ring with HVDC Circuit Breakers to Assure Redundant Linking of Regional Generation and Storage for Grid Stabilization

Abstract

HVDC rings have the desirable property that they have intrinsic redundancy; any two taps are connected in both directions. Eckroad (US patent 7,518,266) shows only three DC/DC choppers in his ring buss (containing 17 total taps). This requires blacking out multiple power taps between the choppers in a fault. We propose a DC ring as suggested by Eckroad, but with DC ballistic circuit breakers on the main loop, between each pair of taps.

MassChallenge Round 2 Presentation on Ballistic Breakers

I presented today to a highly qualified panel of judges for the Mass Challenge business plan competition:

• Tim French, Managing Partner for Fish & Richardson (patent law)
• Barbara Jones, Partner Greenburg Taurig (business law)
• Ben Litauer (Boston Harbor Angels, Tech investor)
• Jim Woodward (Launch Pad, networking)

It felt good for a change to be promoting a technology that has stepping stone products on the way up to  to HVDC voltages that will ultimately be be needed for long distance transmission. Commercial success for ballistic breakers will be easy compared to elpipes, which has been very character building so far.

Presentation to IEEE Electric Ship Technical Symposium (ESTS)

I presented my paper "Electromechanical Ballistic DC Breaker for Use on Ships" to ESTS on April 12. Here is the presentation I made, which was very well received. Although there are several known prior art methods to open a high current carrying DC circuit, none is sufficiently compact, economic, and reliable enough for deployment on ships. The US Navy (and many others) is interested in a DC grid architecture on board future ships, for many reasons, including weight savings, ease of interfacing with high power radars and directed energy weapons, and damage tolerance in battle; however these benefits are stymied by the lack of a simple yet effective DC circuit breaker.

This presentation lead to several new contacts which I am now following up on. Figure 1 of my paper shows the simplest version of my ballistic DC circuit breaker, which is based on a movable "breaker core" that slides between brushes to open the circuit.

Electric Pipeline Corporation has been chosen as a semi-finalist and "Top 15 Utility Technology"

Text of the Invitation to participate in the Utility Technology Challenge:

Sent: Thu, March 24, 2011 12:01:09 PM
Subject: Utility Technology Challenge: Application Status
Dear Roger,

Thank you for applying into the Utility Technology Challenge. Among a pool of 100 applicants, Electric Pipeline Corporation has been chosen as a semi-finalist and "Top 15 Utility Technology" by a committee comprised of Austin Energy, National Grid, Lockheed Martin, the City of Anaheim, and Northeast Utilities. Congratulations! You made it through a competitive and extensive review process, and we believe that your company is very strong in its concept and ability to succeed in the marketplace.

Moving forward, we invite you to present in Boston, Massachusetts on June 14 at the TechConnect World Conference & Expo. 

This will be my first presentation to a cleantech business audience  about the ballistic circuit breaker.

My Paper & Presentation to the IEEE Energy Conference in Waltham

I presented my paper, "Massive Underground HVDC Transmission via Elpipes:Implications for Grid Evolution" at the 2010 IEEE Conference on Innovative Technologies for an Efficient and Reliable Electricity Supply). It was well received, but I was low on enthusiasm because I had just got back from Zurich without making a deal with ABB. Ron Todd was kind enough not to tell be he quit as CTO until after the Conference was over. I remained at the nadir, and frankly depressed, until last night (actually at 3:30 this morning) when i was wakened from my sleep by a new invention that came to me. I think I have a solution to the HVDC circuit breaker problem.