WindLogics Wins Nearly $2 Million in Key Wind Energy and Weather Forecasting Contracts.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Escalating Need for Sophisticated and Reliable Wind and Weather Forecasting to Reduce Risk and Cost

WindLogics Inc. has won two wind forecasting research projects from Xcel Energy and contracts from the U.S. Army and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The four contracts have a total value to WindLogics(TM) of nearly $2 million. WindLogics is an established leader in providing advanced wind resource analysis, long-term wind variability and weather forecasting services.

"These new contracts reflect the escalating need to accurately project the available wind resources and weather forecasting for a wide range of users," said Mark Ahlstrom, CEO of WindLogics. "WindLogics has the most sophisticated combination of weather data archives, modeling methodology and scientific expertise in the industry. This unique capability enhances operational decision making and substantially minimizes investment risks."

Utility-Scale Wind Energy Forecasting - The largest of the recent contract awards comes from the Xcel Energy Renewable Development Fund for developing and demonstrating a utility-scale wind energy forecasting system. As wind power becomes a significant contributor to the generation assets of Xcel Energy, the need to understand and predict available energy from wind on a real-time basis is essential to making daily financial and operational decisions.

"This is the only project, to our knowledge, that will provide a 'utility-scale' look at accurately projecting the available energy expected from multiple wind plants over a large geographic region," stated Lee Alnes, Vice President of Marketing for WindLogics. "We are very pleased that our project proposal achieved the highest scores possible on all three of the primary criteria, including Soundness of Technical Basis."

Wind forecasts will be integrated into the utility control room environment, harnessing complex energy need projections with available power from all sources. Forecasts will be provided on time scales of one hour to seventy-two hours and will reduce the net load forecast uncertainty in the operations planning and real-time operations of the utility.

WindLogics has engaged the services of several other industry leaders including EnerNex Corporation who will contribute extensive technical wind generation experience with wind turbine technology, plant design, power system operations and interconnection. The Utility Wind Interest Group has been retained to assist with system analysis work and to assure continuity with previous and ongoing wind analysis studies. AREVA T&D, a leading provider of Energy Management System software, will bring world-class knowledge, experience and simulation tools for power system operation and control.

Reducing Uncertainty in Wind Power Project Estimates to Reduce Risk - The second award from the Xcel Energy Renewable Development Fund is for research in reducing risk in wind energy investment by analyzing uncertainty in long-term mean wind speeds resulting from inadequate statistical techniques or poor long-term reference data sources. Global Energy concepts, LLC, an engineering and technology consulting firm specializing in the analysis, design, testing and management of wind energy systems and projects is the prime contractor and has engaged WindLogics to assist with the project.

"Reducing investment risk in the wind energy industry is a core objective of WindLogics," said Ahlstrom. "This project is a perfect fit for us and offers the opportunity to further demonstrate the superiority and reliability of the advanced statistical, scientific and modeling techniques we've developed at WindLogics." This research will be critically important to wind project developers and financiers seeking to reduce risk and thereby reduce the cost of capital while minimizing upfront development costs.

"In addition to these major wind industry contracts, we have also recently been awarded contracts to supply two major federal government agencies, the US Army and the Federal Aviation Administration," said Alnes. "The need for a high-quality, reliable weather forecasting system within each of these two agencies is paramount and WindLogics leadership in this area will substantially improve their operations."

US Army "Future Combat System" - Under contract with IPS MeteoStar of Aurora, CO, WindLogics has recently been selected to supply numerical weather forecast modeling and three-dimensional visualization technology for the US Army "Future Combat System" (FCS). Under the multi-year agreement, WindLogics will supply a complete custom high-resolution weather forecasting system to be deployed within the Army "system of systems" using advanced technologies developed by WindLogics.

The WindLogics custom forecasting system will employ a rapid update cycle forecast model with a sophisticated four-dimensional data assimilation process for initialization. The WindLogics process incorporates all available real-time field weather observations and infrared weather satellite data. The data assimilation process runs continuously and is capable of providing high-resolution analyses of the current weather and meteorological conditions across the area of interest on approximately 15 to 30-minute intervals.

FAA Weather Forecasting - WindLogics has recently been selected to supply numerical weather forecast modeling for the FltWinds(TM) Flight & Weather Information Decision Support System, under a contract with IPS MeteoStar of Aurora, CO.

The FltWinds system, jointly developed by Lockheed Martin and IPS MeteoStar, Inc., is an Aeronautical Operations Center (AOC) support system used by the Federal Aviation Administration to combine sophisticated aviation weather processing and forecasting tools with an advanced aircraft tracking and display capability. WindLogics was selected to supply detailed custom weather forecasts over the entire United States, with particular emphasis on the busy east coast air corridor.

About WindLogics

WindLogics Inc. (formerly SSESCO) is a leader in advanced wind resource analysis, long-term wind variability and weather forecasting services. Using weather data and advanced computer modeling techniques, WindLogics services help wind project developers, owner/operators, financiers and utilities reduce their financial risk and maximize their return through a better understanding of the wind at their exact location. The company's products, which include WxPortal(R) and Environmental WorkBench(TM), help customers make better and faster business decisions using complex environmental and meteorological data.