INDUSTRIAL A PPLICATIONS OF F LYWHEELS

Abstract

This article examines the technical and economic factors behind the
application of a flywheel system to an industrial application to alleviate
the damaging and costly effects of electrical sags and momentary power
interruptions. The article examines an industrial customer who was los-
ing production through sag and momentary power outage events. In a
single 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 the
extruder application. Now industry has a new tool that can be employed
to add security to the process through the use of kinetic energy stored in
a flywheel. It is very clear from the results of this demonstration project
that there are many industrial applications that would gain from this
form of low-speed flywheel energy storage system.