Helix Power crowned Orcelle Award Winner at 2023 Ocean Exchange

Helix Power, a Massachusetts-based company, develops high-powered kinetic battery systems that weakens power surges by recovering regenerative breaking energy and recycling it for demand peaks. Their technology can serve as a key enabler to allow our marine terminals and ports around the world to accelerate the transition towards electrifying their operations.

Roger Strevens, VP Governmental Affairs, and Ocean Exchange board member, believes that Helix Power can positively contribute towards delivering on our overall decarbonization strategy and reaching our emission-reduction targets – specifically as we work to replace all our land-based equipment with electric alternatives.

“The Ocean Exchange is of amazing strategic importance to our business. Decarbonization is both the challenge and opportunity of our lifetimes. It’s a challenge that’s extremely ambitious to take on, but also humbled because we don’t have all of the answers and can’t do this by ourselves, says Roger. “With the wealth of ideas at the Ocean Exchange amongst the delegates and the finalists, the possibility of achieving our vital targets is all the greater.”

Roger also identified a unique fit between the 2022 Orcelle Winners – Bee Planet – and Helix Power. For example, any new electric forklifts used at one of our facilities could benefit from a fast-charging solution using both technologies in tandem. Spanish-based startup Bee Planet won the 2022 Orcelle Award with its innovative energy storage systems that create a second life for electric vehicle batteries.

Helix Power’s 1-megawatt ‘flywheel’ units have 20-year lifespans and can be installed individually or in groups within a port. The flywheel serves as the mechanism to store and distribute power.

Kevin Blackman, Cofounder of Helix Power, explained that many ports rent diesel generators – or “gen sets” – to supplement the power they cannot access from the electric grid they are tapped into.

“We think there are real benefits to electric infrastructure that will allow ports to reduce the number of generation assets and start to decarbonize,” says Kevin.

The Orcelle Award comes with a $100,000 grant that Helix Power will use to continue assembling and testing its first full-scale system. Once completed, Kevin and his team will seek a partner to set up their first demonstration in a port environment. “Meeting a variety of contacts that are involved in ports that I wouldn’t have met otherwise can really advance how we improve port infrastructure, There are a lot of benefits in hearing the different ideas and views from others,” says Kevin. “What we really want to do is get our unit in the ground and show what we can do.”