INDUSTRIAL A PPLICATIONS OF F LYWHEELS

Abstract

This article examines the technical and economic factors behind theapplication of a flywheel system to an industrial application to alleviatethe damaging and costly effects of electrical sags and momentary powerinterruptions. The article examines an industrial customer who was los-ing production through sag and momentary power outage events. In asingle event, the affected customer was out of action for 11 hours follow-ing a sag in the electrical power that tripped four extrusion lines. Previ-ously, industry had considered that it is uneconomical to provide con-tinuous power ride-through for adjustable speed drive equipment in theextruder application. Now industry has a new tool that can be employedto add security to the process through the use of kinetic energy stored ina flywheel. It is very clear from the results of this demonstration projectthat there are many industrial applications that would gain from thisform of low-speed flywheel energy storage system.