The UK is to become home to Europe’s largest battery flywheel system in a first for the country which will provide fast acting frequency response services and aid the integration of renewables. Contact online >>
The UK is to become home to Europe’s largest battery flywheel system in a first for the country which will provide fast acting frequency response services and aid the integration of renewables.
The €4 million (US$4.51 million) project is being brought forward to support the project which will be delivered by a consortium of engineers from the University of Sheffield, flywheel specialists Schwungrad Energie and Adaptive Balancing Power, and product supplier Freqcon.
Almost two thirds (€2.9 million/US$3.27 million) is coming from the European Union’s Horizon2020 scheme, and the system will be connected to the Irish and UK grids to help respond to energy demand and stabilise pressure on existing infrastructure.
Dr Dan Gladwin, from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Sheffield, said: “The UK national grid is becoming increasingly volatile due to the rising share of intermittent renewable energy sources. This manifests itself in deviations from the nominal 50Hz frequency as demand outweighs supply or vice versa.
“Battery and flywheel technologies can offer a rapid response, and can export and import energy enabling this technology to respond to periods of both under and over frequency.”
In the first stage of the project, the flywheel facility will be installed in Ireland, piloted by Schwungrad Energie at its hybrid flywheel battery facility, which has already hosted a demonstration project in collaboration with Ireland’s transmission operator EirGrid.
At first the flywheel system will be capable of a peak power of 500kW and able to store 10kWh of energy. It will then be installed at the University of Sheffield’s 2MW battery facility where it will be upgraded to provide 1MW of peak power and 20kWh of energy storage, and used as a hybrid energy storage systemwith the batteries providing frequency response services.
Jake Bracken, from Schwungrad Energie, said: “The existing Hybrid Flywheel-Battery Facility has concluded a trial with EirGrid, successfully demonstrating the technology’s capability to rapidly inject power following a frequency event.
“When implemented at commercial scale the technology will assist in overcoming the challenges of operating a power system with increased levels of renewables.
“The adaptive flywheel and multi-source inverter being demonstrated by this project have the potential to increase the competitiveness of the solution.”
Flywheels work by accelerating a rotor to high speeds using electrical energy, storing rotational energy to be converted back to electricity when required. The group behind the project say combining flywheel technologies with batteries will enable the storage system to operate more efficiently than other systems and reduce costs over the system’s lifetime.
The project is the latest in a growing number of innovative schemes taking place in the UK, which is widely considered to be one of the most advanced markets for energy storage. Prior to the calling of next week’s general election, the government had placed the development of battery technologies at the heart of its industrial strategy.
In addition, the transmission operator National Grid has been holding regular tenders for grid services, included the first Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) tender last year which attracted over 1GW of tenders for a 200MW competition.
Developed by Professor Keith Pullen, the Levistor flywheel system has secured a £545k grant from the UK Office for Zero Emissions Vehicles, in partnership with Innovate UK.
By Mr John Stevenson (Senior Communications Officer), Published
Thanks to a £545k grant from the UK Office for Zero Emissions in partnership with Innovate UK, technology developed out of City could be a game changer for electric vehicles and the environment.
The Levistor flywheel energy storage system (FESS), developed by Professor Keith Pullen in the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, has been designed to provide a short-term power boost to the electricity grid when extra energy is required to give a fast charge to the next generation of electric vehicles (EVs).
Levistor’s mechanical batteries store energy in a rotating shaft. Electrical energy is added through an electric motor (speeding up the shaft) and then taken out through a generator (slowing down the shaft). An EV would needhalf an hour to add 100 miles of range on a “rapid” 50kW charger but this can be done in under 5 minutes with the Levistor products buffering energy and increasing power to 350kW as can be absorbed by the latest EVs.
Professor Pullen is excited about the potential of FESS and welcomes the grant award:
“Our securing of a substantial grant from the UK Office for Zero Emissions Vehicles in partnership with Innovate UK will greatly boost our work in speeding up the roll-out of super-fast charging of EVs across the UK. We believe we have a sustainable solution: flywheels release energy rapidly, like lithium-ion batteries, but do so without the limitations of batteries such as the need to be heated or cooled. Flywheels also don’t degrade over time like battery cells.”
This technology is currently commercialised by City spinout Levistor Ltd. Tom Andrews, Levistor’s Commercial Director, said:
"The team at Levistor is delighted to be working on this flywheel technology developed at City by Professor Pullen. We are going to be using the flywheels to provide a boost to the grid for electric vehicle charging.Our aim is to enable 350kW charging which would mean that 5 minutes of charge would give a driver over 100 miles.We are going to be launching a Crowdcube campaign later this month to enable us to get our first prototypes out into the market."
S4 Energy, a Netherlands-based energy storage specialist, is using ABB regenerative drives and process performance motors to power its KINEXT energy-storage flywheels, developed to stabilize Europe''s electricity grids. In a 9-megawatt energy storage project, six flywheels have been installed in combination with a large battery to create an innovative hybrid storage system in Heerhugowaard, around 35 kilometers from Amsterdam. This system, in full operation since April 2022, can release and store energy with a fast response to keep the grid frequency within tightly controlled limits to ensure network stability.
In addition to stabilizing the grid, the storage system also offers active support to the local Luna wind energy park. Here it acts as a short-term damper to prevent imbalance in the output of the turbines and prevent curtailment of production. S4 Energy''s aim for this pilot project is to demonstrate that the net revenues of wind energy can be significantly improved by incorporating an energy storage system, in turn making wind energy projects less dependent on subsidies.
Each KINEXT unit contains a flywheel with a high mass (5,000 kg) and large diameter (around 2.6 meters), which spins relatively slowly with a peak speed of around 1,800 rpm. The ABB motor and drive takes excess electrical energy from the grid and uses it to speed up the rotation of the flywheel, so it is stored as kinetic energy. When a fast injection of power is needed to maintain frequency stability, the regenerative capability of the drive converts the flywheel''s kinetic energy back into electricity within milliseconds.
"The Heerhugowaard facility is our latest energy storage system, but our first to actively support a wind park. We are now set to accelerate our business and expand our services, and ABB''s expertise in pairing flywheels with drives and motors has been critical in helping us to achieve this position," said Dominque Becker Hoff, Director of Projects, S4 Energy.
"This project with S4 Energy is a great example of ABB''s commitment to helping decarbonize power utilities," said Marcel Zevenbergen, Sales Manager, System Drives at ABB Motion Netherlands. "The combination of flywheels and batteries offers the best of both worlds with good potential to further increase the viability of renewable energy projects such as wind and solar. Moreover, flywheels are a great solution in many other electrification and industrial applications."
ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB''s success is driven by about 105,000 talented employees in over 100 countries.
ABB Motion keeps the world turning - while saving energy every day. We innovate and push the boundaries of technology to enable the low-carbon future for customers, industries and societies. With our digitally enabled drives, motors and services our customers and partners achieve better performance, safety and reliability. We offer a combination of domain expertise and technology to deliver the optimum drive and motor solution for a wide range of applications in all industrial segments. Through our global presence we are always close to serve our customers. Building on over 130 years of cumulative experience in electric powertrains, we learn and improve every day.
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