Flywheel Test at the Energy Technology Center

Monday will begin commissioning work on several subsystems will be combined to an energy storage system to aid in frequency and voltage control of high penetration hybrid-diesel systems. Engineers from ABB, Hatch, and Williams will be on site, supported by the ACEP Power Systems Integration (PSI) Team. Over the last few months the PSI team has been working to get the laboratory ready for the upcoming tests.  The team has installed the flywheel energy storage device, a Williams product, the inverter that provides the grid interface, an ABB product, and the control system coordinating the two, a Hatch product.  The team has also upgraded the data acquisition and logging system and integrated a state-of-the-art diesel generator control interface. The coming week will see wrap-up work by Hatch (the primary project partner), Williams, and ABB, and then commissioning.  Commissioning will consist first of single components (flywheel, inverter, controls), then their interaction with each other, and later, their interaction with the full hybrid-diesel laboratory. The commissioning phase will be followed by testing of the flywheel-inverter testing under scenarios typically found in high penetration hybrid-diesel systems. This will allow to adjust controls for maximum grid stabilization services provided by the system. The ACEP PSI team will support all aspects of testing from operating the laboratory, ensuring quality baseline data collection, documentation, and advice for engineering and operational improvements. 

Photo: Energy Technology Center.  Photo courtesy T. Paris UAF.