ESS and Portland General Electric Reach Agreement to Demonstrate ESS Energy Center™ Long-Duration Storage System

Utility-scale platform will inform PGE’s work to meet clean energy targets

ESS Tech, Inc. (“ESS,” “ESS Inc.”) (NYSE: GWH), a U.S. manufacturer of long-duration batteries for utility-scale and commercial energy storage applications, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Portland General Electric (PGE) in Oregon to test and demonstrate the ESS Energy Center^™ platform.

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ESS Energy CenterTM (Graphic: Business Wire)

The 3 MWh Energy Center is expected to come online in mid-2022 and be used to demonstrate multiple use cases, including frequency response, contingency reserve, voltage and VAR support, demand response and resource optimization. The project will be located on land adjacent to ESS’ factory headquarters in Wilsonville, Oregon.

“Building a reliable, affordable clean energy future requires us working together with industry innovators,” said Darren Murtaugh, Senior Manager of Grid Edge Solutions at PGE. “Our collaboration with ESS on the Energy Center will provide important learnings on our path to meeting our greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.”

“As an American manufacturer of safe, sustainable long-duration energy storage technology for a growing global market, I couldn’t be happier that the first Energy Center deployment will be right here in our backyard with Portland General Electric,” said Eric Dresselhuys, CEO of ESS. “The Energy Center platform has been developed as a flexible long-duration storage solution with a planned 25-year operating life, and this project will help PGE work towards its renewable energy targets.”

The Energy Center is the ESS “battery-in-a-building” platform designed for utility-scale, front-of-meter applications that decouples power and storage capacity to enable up to GW-scale projects with variable storage durations ranging up to 12 hours. Its environmentally benign chemistry – composed of iron, salt and water – make this solution one of the easiest to permit, deploy and maintain. Power (rate of electricity flow) and capacity (total amount of energy held) operate independently, providing the flexibility to use the battery for multiple uses simultaneously.

This announcement demonstrates the growing interest in the market for longer-duration energy storage and iron-flow technology specifically. In recent months, ESS has announced projects with many leading global energy companies including Enel Green Power, San Diego Gas and Electric, GRUPO SAESA, SB Energy and others.

About ESS Inc.

ESS Inc. (NYSE:GWH) designs, builds and deploys environmentally sustainable, low-cost, iron flow batteries for long-duration commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications requiring from 4 to 12 hours of flexible energy capacity. The Energy Warehouse^™ and Energy Center^™ use earth-abundant iron, salt, and water for the electrolyte, resulting in an environmentally benign, long-life energy storage solution for the world’s renewable energy infrastructure. Established in 2011, ESS Inc. enables project developers, utilities, and commercial and industrial facility owners to make the transition to more flexible, non-lithium-ion storage that is better suited for the grid and the environment. For more information, visit www.essinc.com.

About Portland General Electric

Portland General Electric (NYSE: POR) is a fully integrated energy company based in Portland, Oregon, with operations across the state. The company serves approximately 900,000 customers with a service area population of 2 million Oregonians in 51 cities. PGE owns 16 generation plants across Oregon and other Northwestern states and maintains and operates 14 public parks and recreation areas. For over 130 years, PGE has delivered safe, affordable and reliable energy to Oregonians. Together with its customers, PGE has the No. 1 voluntary renewable energy program in the U.S. PGE and its 3,000 employees are working with customers to build a clean energy future. In 2020, PGE, employees, retirees and the PGE Foundation donated $5.6 million and volunteered 18,200 hours with more than 400 nonprofits across Oregon. For more information visit portlandgeneral.com/news.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains certain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding ESS’ and its management team’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. The words “anticipate”, “believe”, “continue”, “could”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intends”, “may”, “might”, “plan”, “possible”, “potential”, “predict”, “project”, “should”, “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements are based on ESS’ current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on ESS. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this presentation. There can be no assurance that the future developments affecting ESS will be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond ESS’ control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, ESS is not undertaking any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Source: ESS Inc.

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