Flywheel Energy Storage Gets Some Business and Funding

High power electric grids have an answer with flywheel energy storage to the fluctuation of the frequency or reversal of electron flow.  In the U.S. the frequency is at 60 cycles per second while in Europe it’s at 50. The cycles are  known as “hertz”.  It’s an important part of using alternating current.  Keeping the frequency in good form requires power, too.  Some 1% or so of the generating capacity is used in managing the frequency.  Clean smooth power for sensitive and frequency reliant devices is a highly desired grid operation.  Now not all generation methods are good at meeting that frequency, it requires a variation of power output.

Quick variation causes greater wear and tear on equipment, and fossil fuel generators that perform frequency regulation incur higher operating costs because of increased fuel consumption and maintenance costs. They also suffer a significant loss in “heat rate” efficiency and produce greater quantities of CO2 and other unwanted emissions when throttling up and down to perform frequency regulation services.

Flywheel technology fits the frequency regulation problem about as well as any idea because of the instant response potential.  Batteries rely on chemicals reacting so are not only huge, expensive, require maintenance, and wear out – they are slow.  A flywheel can repeatedly cycle, essentially endlessly, with a minimum of expense and maintenance.

Beacon Power of Tyngsboro, Mass., has designed and began building a frequency regulating flywheel system.  Last Thursday the Department of Energy said that it has awarded a conditional $43 million loan guarantee to Beacon Power to help with construction of a 20 MW flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, N.Y. — the first full-scale commercial deployment of the company’s technology.  That should help boost momentum for flywheel technology as well as the company, which has scored a few key deals in recent months after a rocky end to 2008.

Beacon uses large spinning discs contained in a vacuum to keep electricity flowing over the power grid at a steady frequency to helping stabilize the grid and allowing it to run more efficiently. Beacon’s Smart Energy 25 flywheel is a 4th-generation advanced energy storage solution designed to meet the requirements of demanding utility grid applications. It features a long-life, low-maintenance design, highly cyclic (charge-discharge) capability, and zero fuel consumption or CO2 or other emissions. An array of Smart Energy flywheel units can be configured to form a Smart Energy Matrix plant, which can store and return megawatts of energy to maintain grid reliability and stability.

The Smart Energy 25 flywheel momentum system is built with a rotating carbon-fiber composite rim, levitated on hybrid magnetic bearings operating in a near-frictionless vacuum-sealed environment. The rim itself is fabricated from a patented combination of high-strength, lightweight fiber composites, including graphite and fiberglass combined with resins, which allow the flywheel to rotate at high speeds (16,000 rpm) and store large amounts of energy as compared to flywheels made from metals. To reach its operational speed, the system draws electricity from the grid to power a permanent magnet motor. As the rim spins faster, it stores energy kinetically. The flywheel can spin for very extended periods with great efficiency because friction and drag are reduced by the use of magnetic bearings in a vacuum-sealed environment. Because it incurs low friction, little power is required to maintain the flywheel’s operating speed.

The Beacon frequency projects are interfaced with the power operator’s grid such that when a grid operator sends a signal that requests the system to absorb power taking frequency down, the Smart Energy Matrix uses power from the grid to drive the motor/generator, which in turn spins up the flywheel. When a signal is sent for electrical power to be provided pushing the frequency up, the momentum of the spinning flywheel drives a generator and the kinetic energy is converted into electrical energy for release to the grid.  Smooth, quick and nearly energy input free.  A grid wide application of such a system would release about 1% of the generating capacity back to saleable power operation.

That scenario is Beacon’s pitch.  It should work if their costs to the grid operators are in line and a little below generating investment and fuel costs.

Beacon Power’s grid-scale Smart Energy Matrix is made up of multiple integrated systems of (10) Smart Energy 25 flywheels, interconnected in an array, or matrix, to provide energy storage for certain utility applications. The Smart Energy Matrix is can absorb and deliver megawatts of power for minutes, providing highly responsive frequency regulation capabilities for increased grid reliability.

That’s the solid install business so far.  Meanwhile Beacon has begun providing contract services for a wind-related R&D project co-funded by the California Energy Commission. The main objective of the project is to find better ways to coordinate and maximize energy production and delivery from wind generation resources located in the Tehachapi area of California, an area that has insufficient transmission capacity to handle the projected increase in new wind generation. Another goal of the project is to identify potential options for commercializing any new application that might be developed from this effort.  The project includes one of Beacon’s 25 kWh Smart Energy 25 flywheels, as well as the application of “intelligent agent” controls. The primary goal of the project is to find a way to deliver as much wind energy as possible without exceeding the dynamic rating limits of the locally constrained transmission system. Results will be scaled to assess the possible impact of installing a much larger energy storage resource.

Beacon is also finishing a multi-phase R&D project with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Bonneville Power Administration, the California ISO, and the California Energy Commission with a certain installation of a 100 kW, 25 kWhr flywheel that could build out into the megawatts of total flywheel installation.

There are other ideas cooking, such as power leveling for solar due to clouds, similar service for wind, a hybrid design using renewables, conventional fossil fuels, and flywheels and others.

Flywheel technology has been pretty low key.  It doesn’t produce power or use much – it just stores energy.  At scale, at a storage level where intense friction reduction is practical, flywheels look to have a future.  The efficiency ratios have to be superb.  Beacon’s main unit today is 25 kW/hrs so maybe more scale up is needed. But for today, the main groundbreaker is Beacon and they’re doing well.

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