Technology
Beacon Power is a pioneer and technology leader in the design, development, and commercial deployment of grid-scale flywheel energy storage. Beacon''s proprietary designs are at the
A flywheel-storage power system uses a flywheel for grid energy storage, (see Flywheel energy storage) and can be a comparatively small storage facility with a peak power of up to 20 MW. It typically is used to stabilize to some degree power grids, to help them stay on the grid frequency, and to serve as a short-term compensation storage.
Beacon Power operates three flywheel energy storage plants that provide frequency regulation service in three different US markets. There are more than 400 flywheels in commercial operation today helping grid operators in NYISO, PJM and ISO-NE safely and efficiently balance power grid supply and demand to ensure reliability.
The flywheel system offers an alternative. Beacon Power reports that 18-megawatts from the new flywheel storage system are already online, and the system will be operating at full capacity by the end of June. Flywheels are an ingenious way to store energy. Essentially, a giant rotor is levitated and spun in a chamber by way of magnets.
They can be installed at the transmission or distribution levels or even in remote connected or isolated grids. The modular and distributed architecture of Beacon flywheel energy storage systems allows flexibility in power capacity as well as siting. A single flywheel module easily connects to others, allowing for incremental storage expansion.
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