Sizing Advanced Flywheel Energy Storage

Clay S. Hearn *, Michael C. Lewis, and Dr. Robert E. Hebner

Center for Electromechanics
The University of Texas at Austin
www.utexas.edu/research/cem
August, 2012

Introduction

The Center for Electromechanics (CEM) at the University of Texas at Austin is working under a program
sponsored by Stanford University through Global Climate & Energy Project (GCEP) to develop the next
generation of flywheel energy storage for the grid. The overall goal of this program is to develop
technologies to store half of the grid’s energy in 50 years. CEM believes advanced flywheel energy
storage can be a significant part of the solution. Given that nearly all electricity in the world is produced
from generators and about 60% of the world’s power is used in motors, it makes sense to look at
rotational energy storage.

Flywheels store energy mechanically by spinning high strength composite rotors at high speeds. The
primary limiting factor to energy storage potential for flywheels is due to the maximum allowable
material stress that current materials can achieve. The theoretical maximum energy density for
potential flywheel materials is a simple ratio between maximum allowable material stress and density.
Current high strength graphite composites can achieve up to 600 kJ per kg (or 170 Wh/kg). One key to
developing flywheels with higher energy densities is to develop lighter materials with increased
strength.

Another key aspect of flywheel energy storage, which separates it from other devices such as batteries
or ultracapacitors, is that the rated power capability is not directly tied to energy storage capacity.
Energy transfer, to charge and discharge a flywheel, is provided by motor-generators. Therefore, energy
storage capacity and power capability can be tailored to meet specific grid requirements. Flywheels can
also be implemented in modular fashions to meet net storage and power requirements.

*
Contact info - email: hearn@cem.utexas.edu, //www.utexas.edu/research/cem/

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

Several past flywheels from CEM are noted in Figure 1, which was adapted from the Electricity Storage
Association. Figure 1 compares power and discharge time at rated power of various storage
technologies. Typically flywheels are considered to be pulse power devices which compete well with
ultracapacitors or high power lithium ion batteries. However, CEM has also developed flywheels which
can provide longer term energy storage needs. The first example is shown as item number 3, which was
a 130 kWh flywheel to provide energy storage for an advanced hybrid locomotive train. Second, item
number 4 was a flywheel system developed for NASA that was designed to provide energy storage to
the International Space Station. This latter system would charge and discharge over the 90 minute
day-night cycle that the station experiences in orbit.

No. Project
1 CHPS
4 2 ATB Bus
3 ALPS Locomotive
4 NASA FESS System
3

Figure 1. Comparisons of energy storage technologies and CEM flywheels (1)

This document will present a methodology for evaluating energy storage requirements at different
levels in the grid. By using real world home usage data provided by Pecan Street, Inc., flywheel energy
storage was sized at the home, transformer, and community level of the Mueller development in Austin
TX. The presented technique utilizes parametric sweeps through an optimal control law to develop
sizing curves which show trade-offs between energy storage size and power requirements.

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

Sizing with an Optimal Controller

For the utility grid, storage will act as a buffer between the grid supply and the load demand. This buffer
gives the system an extra degree of freedom and level of controllability to shift either load demand, or
power generation, which did not exist before. The total demand can be represented as a combination
of electricity loads and renewable generation, Figure 2.

Figure 2. Expressed control loop for flywheel energy storage

To properly size energy storage for a given load demand, or power generation source, a controller
should be selected which will determine the real time grid power requirements to maintain the stored
energy, 𝑄𝑓𝑤 , or state-of-charge of the storage device. For flywheel energy storage, the change in
𝑑𝑄𝑓𝑤
stored energy with respect to time, , will equal the grid power into the flywheel, 𝑃𝑔 , minus the
𝑑𝑡
load demand, 𝐷𝐿 , and minus losses which may come from windage or bearings. For flywheels, the
losses can be estimated by using a linear time constant, 𝜏𝑓𝑤 , as shown in [eqn. 1].

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

There are many different options available for designing and selecting an appropriate controller, which
can range from simple heuristic control laws to more complicated control techniques.

𝑑𝑄𝑓𝑤 1
= 𝑃𝑔 − 𝐷𝐿 − 𝑄 [eqn. 1]
𝑑𝑡 𝜏𝑓𝑤 𝑓𝑤

One possible control technique is to select an Optimal Controller which will minimize a given cost
function for a known load demand profile.

This technique provides a consistent controller which is easy to implement and solve for a known load
profile. The cost function in [eqn. 2] is used for the minimization routine. The first term in the cost
function is an end constraint which requires the flywheel stored energy at the end of the simulation,
𝑄fw (T) to be equal to the initial amount of flywheel stored energy, 𝑄0 . The integral portion of the cost
function seeks to minimize the sum of the grid power, 𝑃𝑔 , and the deviation of flywheel stored energy,
𝑄𝑓𝑤 (t), from the initial stored energy, 𝑄0 , subject to weighting factors 𝑎 and 𝑏. Given the cost
function in [eqn. 2], parameter sweeps of weighting variables, 𝑎 and 𝑏 can be performed to assess
trade-offs between energy storage capacity, flywheel power capability, and end grid power
performance.

1 2 1 2
𝐽(𝑡0 ) = 𝑆𝑞 �𝑄𝑓𝑤 (𝑇) − 𝑄0 � + � �𝑎�𝑄𝑓𝑤 (𝑡) − 𝑄0 � + 𝑏𝑃𝑔2 (𝑡) � 𝑑𝑡 [eqn. 2]
2 2

Flywheel Sizing Analysis

To understand how location affects energy storage sizing, home and solar generation data provided by
Pecan Street, Inc. was used to study flywheel sizing at different levels throughout the grid. Pecan Street
is an active R&D effort in Austin TX to implement and evaluate smart grid technology in the new
Mueller Development. There are 741 homes in this development and 25% of these homes have solar
installations, which translates into 1 MW of generation capacity.

A thorough analysis was performed which studied locating flywheel energy storage throughout
different locations in the Mueller community. These locations include flywheels at the individual home
level, at the local transformer level (supports approximately eight homes), and the community level (all
741 homes). Sample load data for an individual home, transformer level, and the entire community are
shown in Figure 3,Figure 4, and Figure 5, respectively. The data corresponds to an arbitrary day in the
summer of 2011. These plots show the net power consumption throughout the day (red), the solar
power generated (green), and the net grid power required (black) which is the difference between the
net power consumed and the power generated by the PV arrays.

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

At the individual home, power usage is characterized by high pulse loading of the air-conditioning
system, as shown in Figure 3. The load profiles at the home level vary immensely due to individual
customer use and preferences.

Figure 3. Example power profile for individual home (2)

At the transformer and community level, Figure 4 and Figure 5 respectively, aggregation of the
individual home profiles starts to replicate the traditional grid energy use profile, with peak loads
occurring in the evening. Further aggregation and smoothing of the power profile is achieved at the
community level for all 741 homes, with a peak power usage of 2.5 MW.

Figure 4. Power profile for transformer (2)

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

Figure 5. Power profile for 741 home community (2)

Results of Sizing at Single Residence

An initial analysis evaluated flywheel energy sizing for 13 individual homes in the Mueller community.
An optimal controller was defined to minimize the cost function presented earlier in [eqn. 2]. A sweep
of weighting values, 𝑎 and 𝑏, in the cost function was performed to generate sizing curves which
show tradeoffs between flywheel storage capacity and peak power from the grid. This procedure is
performed by holding the weight value of 𝑏 equal to one and increasing the value of 𝑎, starting from
zero. At 𝑎 = 0, the flywheel will be sized for diurnal energy storage to average the net home load
throughout the day. As 𝑎 is increased in value, the flywheel energy storage size is reduced, and
transitions to smoothing and peak shaving the net load demand.

Tradeoffs between flywheel size and decrease in peak grid power consumption are shown in Figure 6
assuming a flywheel with a time constant of 50 hours. For each individual sizing curve, the end point on
the right represents diurnal energy storage requirements to average the total load over the 24-hour
period. Flywheels would need to deliver between 10 and 25 kWh of energy, with power levels up to 9
kW.

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

The curves in Figure 6 show that for 2.0 kWh of delivered energy, the flywheel can reduce the peak grid
power load between 30 to 60% for the majority of the home cases. The flywheel peak power for the
power smoothing case is 6.5 kW.

Flywheel Energy Storage Sizing for Individual Homes

25
Home 1412
Flywheel Energy Delivered [kWh]

Home 1420
20 Home 1421
Home 1422
Home 1423
15 Home 1424
Home 1425
Home 1426
10
Home 1427
Home 1439
5 Home 1446
Home 1458
Home 1463
0
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Percent Decrease in Peak Grid Power
Figure 6. Flywheel sizing curves for individual homes

An example of the diurnal power smoothing is shown in Figure 7 for data from Home 1424. For this
case, a flywheel with 10.5 kWh delivered energy and 6 kW power capability is required. The optimal
grid power covers the average net load demand and flywheel losses. The power fluctuations throughout
the day are handled by the flywheel. For the same home data, a smaller flywheel will provide a net
power smoothing capability as shown in Figure 8. This flywheel delivers a net energy of 2.4 kWh and
power capability of 6.2 kW. Again, this smaller flywheel still handles the daily power fluctuations, but
the smaller size equates to lower losses for an equivalent time constant. This reduced size flywheel
saves 2.6 kWh of energy consumption over the entire day compared to the larger flywheel for diurnal
energy storage.

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

Figure 7. Flywheel energy storage sized for diurnal load averaging of an individual home (2)

Figure 8. Flywheel energy storage sized for power smoothing of individual home (2)

Results of Sizing at Transformer and Community

A similar study was performed for sizing flywheel energy storage at the transformer level, which
services eight homes on average, and for the entire 741 home community. This analysis also
investigated the impact of flywheel losses on grid performance by evaluating loss time constants of 50
and 200 hours.

Flywheel sizing curves for the local transformer level are shown in Figure 9 for loss time constants of 50
and 200 hours. The first point on the far left of the curves represents peak grid power and energy
storage requirements for the 24-hour diurnal energy storage case.

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

The impact of the higher losses can be clearly viewed in this case with a 24% higher grid load power
requirement to cover the losses. As energy storage size is decreased, the performance difference with
the lower loss flywheel becomes less pronounced.

Transformer Energy Storage vs. Peak Grid Power

100
FW Delivered Energy [kWh]

10

1
Time Constant 200 Hrs
Time Constant 50 Hrs
0.1
10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0
Peak Grid Power [kW]

Figure 9. Sizing of flywheel energy storage at the transformer

For daily power averaging at the transformer location, the flywheel must deliver 70 kWh of energy with
a power capability of 16.3 kW. For the flywheel with a 200-hour time constant, this results in a 52%
decrease in peak grid power requirement with a 2% increase in net grid energy. For power smoothing
operating, a flywheel with 6 kWh delivered energy and 12 kW power capability could reduce peak grid
power by 19%, as shown in Figure 10. The increase grid energy requirement for this case falls to 0.14%
for the 200-hour flywheel loss and 0.6% for the 50-hour flywheel loss.

Figure 10. Flywheel energy storage sized for power smoothing transformer loads (2)

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

Similar results are achieved with flywheel sizing for the community level of 741 homes. The sizing
curves for the entire community are shown in Figure 11. For diurnal energy storage of the entire
community, a flywheel system with 5.9 MWh of delivered energy and power capability of 1200 kW is
required. A reduced-size flywheel for power smoothing would need to deliver 450 kWh with a power
rating of 300 kW, as indicated in Figure 12. Compared to the transformer and home locations, the
natural aggregation of the community reduces the power-to-energy storage ratio of the flywheel for
power smoothing. The power smoothing flywheel reduced peak grid power by 8%.

Community Energy Storage vs. Peak Power

10000
FW Delivered Energy [kWh]

1000

100

Time Constant 200 Hrs

10
Time Constant 50 Hrs
1
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Peak Grid Power [kW]
Figure 11. Sizing of flywheel energy storage for 741 home community

Figure 12. Flywheel energy storage for smoothing power at the community level

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

A summary of the flywheel sizing options is shown in Table 1 for different levels of storage throughout
the community. As the flywheel is placed at higher levels throughout the community, the effective
C-rate, or ratio between power and energy, decreases for both diurnal storage and power smoothing
operations. For diurnal storage, the flywheel should be designed between 0.5 to 0.2 C-rate, whereas for
power smoothing, the flywheel should be capable of 3 to 1 C-rate.

Table 1. Summary of storage results

Peak Demand Diurnal Power

Location
Power Storage Smoothing
5.7 KW
Single Home 15 kWh / 6 kW 2 kWh / 6.2 kW
(average)
Transformer
30.7 kW 70 kWh / 16.3 kW 6 kWh /12 kW
(8 homes)
Community
2500 kW 5.9 MWh /1200 kW 450 kWh / 300 kW
(741 homes)

Another observation from Table 1 is that the aggregation of flywheels located in the homes would
oversize the energy storage needs at the transformer by 71% and 150% for diurnal and power
smoothing, respectively. A reduced amount of oversizing, 10% and 23%, is observed between the
transformer and community level, respectively.

Summary

This sizing analysis shows how flywheel energy storage can be sized for grid level energy storage
considering a wide variety of applications. This methodology applies an optimal control law to the load
profile and flywheel model. The advantage of this method is that it removes uncertainties due to
selection of the energy storage controller, and important dynamics, such as spinning loss rates, can be
included by a time constant in the analysis model. A parametric sweep of weighting factors within the
cost function can be performed to view tradeoffs between energy storage size, power capability, and
resultant grid power consumption in the form of sizing curves.

Based on data provided by Pecan Street, Inc. for an active smart grid in Austin, TX, flywheel energy
storage was sized for different levels in the community. For diurnal energy storage, this analysis
suggests flywheels should have power to energy storage ratios of 0.5 to 0.2. For power smoothing,
higher power flywheels with power to energy storage ratios of 1 to 3 would be required. Overall, as the
flywheel energy storage is moved to higher levels in the grid, the power to energy storage ratio
decreases for all applications.

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 The University of Texas at Austin The Center for Electromechanics
1 University Station 10100 Burnet Rd., EME 133
Austin, TX, USA 78712 Austin, TX, USA 78758

A key point in this study is the impact of spinning losses on flywheel sizing and performance at
long-term energy storage levels. Large flywheel capacities will require reduction in frictional spinning
losses to be viable options for grid energy storage. Development of low loss bearing using high
temperature superconductors may be a key technology to achieving this goal. For power smoothing and
short-term storage applications, reduced size flywheels are less sensitive to spinning losses. The high
cycle life and power requirements for these applications make flywheels an attractive option.

References

1. Electricity Storage Association. Storage Technologies: Technology Comparison. Electricity Storage

Association Web Site. [Online] [Cited: August 20, 2012.]
http://www.electricitystorage.org/technology/storage_technologies/technology_comparison.

2. Pecan Street Inc. Use, Grid and Solar Data: Pecan Street, Inc. Pecan Street Inc. Web Site. [Online]
[Cited: August 20, 2012.] http://www.pecanstreet.org.

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