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Beacon Power Flywheel Energy Storage Plant Approved for Construction by New York State Public Service Commission
17 October 2009
The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) has granted the Beacon Power Corporation a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) for its proposed 20 MW flywheel frequency regulation plant in Stephentown, New York, and approved the project’s overall financing. (Earlier post.)
Last month the PSC affirmed that Beacon’s Stephentown plant had met all relevant PSC environmental requirements. With the PSC’s last two decisions now in place, Beacon is authorized to apply for applicable permits, submit any final plans and drawings to PSC for review, and prepare to construct and operate the plant.
Conventional approaches to frequency regulation—balancing grid power generation with load—vary the power output from fossil-fuel or hydro generators connected to the electric grid. A flywheel system is a storage-based approach, and thus is of particular interest for use in conjunction with renewable power generation (wind, solar) where the primary power output is variable.
The facility’s flywheels are designed to store excess energy when the generated power supply exceeds demand and conversely deliver it back to the grid when demand exceeds supply. This project will help fully utilize electricity generated from renewable power sources, which is often generated at times when demand is low.
—Commission Chairman Garry Brown
October 17, 2009 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: HarveyD | October 17, 2009 at 07:44 AM
20 MW is the power capability; how much energy does it store? Their website is not clear.
Posted by: richard schumacher | October 17, 2009 at 08:46 AM
The capacity storage of flywheel is quite small so it is more used as a stabilizer to smooth out over and undershoot. See flywheel more like a supercapacitor than a battery
Posted by: Treehugger | October 17, 2009 at 09:41 AM
@richard schumacher
about 5000Kwh
Posted by: dursun | October 17, 2009 at 10:20 AM
The old school power engineer dude tells of these flywheel systems in subways, city grids and telephony U.P.S.etc.
Were these once common, or just concepts 50 years ago when supply guarantee was more of an issue?
Or they are talking bigger and better and a different set of issues.As stated 'frequency control'.
Posted by: arnold | October 17, 2009 at 05:19 PM
Arnold,
The older system of flywheels were low speed systems operating in air with conventional bearings. Modern energy storage flywheels are very high speed, operate in vacuum and use magnetic bearings.
The modern flywheels are much more efficient at energy storage albeit more expensive.
Bill
Posted by: Bill Young | October 18, 2009 at 03:51 AM
We just bought land in stephentown,ny, we are scared to find out that this fly wheel will take state land from stephentown,plus be a eyesoar and will be sending off byproducts into the air. We are trying to get away from corporate take overs by moving to stephentown. Could someone tell me where this will be built in stephentown (street,route, etc.).
Posted by: Alix Nimphius | November 03, 2009 at 06:24 PM
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A very effective, proven and scalable way to stabilize power distribution from variable interruptible sources.