DEVENS, Mass., Oct. 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AMSC (NASDAQ:AMSC), a global energy solutions provider serving wind and power grid industry leaders, today announced that multiple utilities in the United States have ordered pre-production VVO™ pilot units, under commercial terms, for evaluation purposes. 

Introduced to the utility market in 2017, AMSC's VVO™ has completed extensive and rigorous third party standard utility testing, including testing at KEMA Laboratories—the international utility indicator of a product's reliability and safety in the industry. The VVO™ systems are expected to cost-effectively address acute and systemic distribution grid challenges ranging from large photovoltaic intermittent power generation to capacity challenges across the distribution grid.

AMSC's VVO™ is a new, unprecedented offering with three times the power density of other STATCOMS. AMSC's VVO™ is specifically designed to mitigate power quality issues on the distribution power grid for increased distributed generation capacity and to support conservation voltage reduction management. Distributed generation, or DG, is electricity generated within the distribution system itself, as opposed to the stream of electricity generated from centralized power plants. While DG is becoming ubiquitous as a result of the green energy movement, legacy power grids were not built to efficiently respond to certain effects of DG such as bi-directional flow, intermittent output during cloud pass, and the rapid adoption of electric vehicles.

"Our new VVO™ platform is designed to bring back order and rhythm to the growing disarray within distribution networks," said Daniel P. McGahn, President and CEO, AMSC. "VVO™ leverages AMSC's 15 years of experience in Volt/VAR innovation on the transmission network, and is now formatted to help stabilize modern distribution networks. With these VVO™ orders, we have fulfilled our commercial orders objective for this fiscal year."

D-VAR VVOä not only manages current power quality concerns, but also expands grid capacity for DG, reacting seamlessly to cloud pass or changing wind speeds across the distribution grid.

AMSC's VVO™ pilot partners are established utilities with distribution networks experiencing rapid growth of DG and electric vehicle (EV) charging capacity within their distribution networks. VVO™ optimizes power electric grids at the distribution level, by providing the essential flexibility and responsiveness needed as electric grids evolve towards a DG architecture, while maintaining efficiency and superior power quality for consumers.

About AMSC (NASDAQ:AMSC)
AMSC generates the ideas, technologies and solutions that meet the world's demand for smarter, cleaner … better energy™. Through its Windtec™ Solutions, AMSC provides wind turbine electronic controls and systems, designs and engineering services that reduce the cost of wind energy. Through its Gridtec™ Solutions, AMSC provides the engineering planning services and advanced grid systems that optimize network reliability, efficiency and performance. The Company's solutions are now powering gigawatts of renewable energy globally and are enhancing the performance and reliability of power networks in more than a dozen countries. Founded in 1987, AMSC is headquartered near Boston, Massachusetts with operations in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. For more information, please visit www.amsc.com.

AMSC, VVO, Windtec, Gridtec, and Smarter, Cleaner … Better Energy are trademarks or registered trademarks of American Superconductor Corporation. All other brand names, product names, trademarks, or service marks belong to their respective holders.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our expectations regarding VVOäand its functionality, performance and capabilities, as well as its impact on the grid industry; trends in the energy market related to the use of distributed generation; and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will" and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements represent management's current expectations and are inherently uncertain. There are a number of important factors that could materially impact the value of our common stock or cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These important factors include, but are not limited to: We have a history of operating losses and negative operating cash flows, which may continue in the future and require us additional financing in the future; Our operating results may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and may fall below expectations in any particular fiscal quarter; Our financial condition may have an adverse effect on our customer and supplier relationships; Our success is dependent upon attracting and retaining qualified personnel and our inability to do so could significantly damage our business and prospects; Failure to successfully execute any move of our Devens, Massachusetts manufacturing facility or achieve expected savings following any such move; We rely upon third-party suppliers for the components and sub-assemblies of many of our Wind and Grid products, making us vulnerable to supply shortages and price fluctuations; Many of our revenue opportunities are dependent upon subcontractors and other business collaborators; Our products face intense competition; Our success depends upon the commercial use of high temperature superconductor ("HTS") products, which is currently limited, and a widespread commercial market for our products may not develop; Third parties have or may acquire patents that cover the materials, processes and technologies we use or may use in the future to manufacture our Amperium products, and our success depends on our ability to license such patents or other proprietary rights; We may not realize all of the sales expected from our backlog of orders and contracts; We have operations in and depend on sales in emerging markets, and global conditions could negatively affect our operating results or limit our ability to expand our operations outside of these countries; We face risks related to our intellectual property; We face risks related to our legal proceedings; and the important factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in Part 1. Item 1A of our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017, and our other reports filed with the SEC. These important factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements made herein and presented elsewhere by management from time to time. Any such forward-looking statements represent management's estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

AMSC Investor Relations:
Brion D. Tanous
Phone: 424-634-8592
Email: Brion.Tanous@amsc.com

AMSC Public Relations:
Nicol Golez
Phone: 978-399-8344
Email: Nicol.Golez@amsc.com