Beacon Power Installs Flywheel Energy Storage System At California Wind Farm

Published: 15-Mar-2010

Beacon Power has installed and connected a Smart Energy 25 (Gen 4) flywheel energy storage system at a wind farm in Tehachapi, California. The system is part of a wind power/flywheel demonstration project being carried out for the California Energy Commission.

The company said that the primary goal of the project is to demonstrate that advanced control technology with energy storage can help expand the delivery of wind energy by effectively increasing the capacity of constrained transmission facilities in the area. Tehachapi, California, is a high-potential wind resource area where, according to a report from the California ISO, up to 4,200MW of wind power may be added in the coming years.

Bill Capp, president and CEO of Beacon Power, said: “This is the first Gen 4 flywheel that we’ve shipped, installed and operated outside of Beacon’s facility, and it went very smoothly. It’s also the first of our systems intended to show how energy storage can help optimize the output of a wind farm.

“We’re pleased with the continuing good relationship we have with the California Energy Commission and the California ISO as they address the challenges of deploying intermittent renewable energy resources.”

The project will incorporate 'intelligent agent' controls and Beacon’s flywheel energy storage technology to demonstrate how to enable as much wind-generated electricity to be delivered as possible without exceeding the limits of the locally constrained transmission system. Energy storage and intelligent agent control technology have been identified as key elements of the smart grid.

Under the scope of this project, the Smart Energy 25 flywheel will normally provide frequency regulation. However, during times when the local sub-transmission line becomes constrained due to lack of reactive power or thermal overload, intelligent agents will override the regulation function and direct the flywheel to take action that in a full-scale commercial system will help alleviate the constraint.

Once the constraint is resolved, the system will return to its primary function of performing frequency regulation, the company said.

In addition to the California Energy Commission, which is funding the project, and Alternative Energy Systems Consulting (AESC), the prime contractor, other stakeholders include the California Independent System Operator (ISO) and Southern California Edison.

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