Flywheel UPSs Help Move Data and Cargo

Jul 23, 2008 4:46 PM

Flywheel-powered UPSs continue to be adopted as a source of backup power in data center and industrial applications as evidenced by recent orders received by Active Power and Vycon. Active Power just announced an order from a Malaysian distributor for the company’s Integrated Continuous Power System, while Vycon reported a cargo terminal in China has agreed to buy additional units of the company’s REGEN Crane Energy Storage systems.

Project contractor Atlas CSF has placed an order for Active Power’s PowerCentre solution, a fully integrated turnkey power system. PowerCentre will be deployed at a mission critical IT facility for a Malaysian government department located in Cyberjaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Installation is scheduled for August 2008.

For this particular deployment, PowerCentre will be anchored by Active Power’s flywheel-based CleanSource 1500iC uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The system will also contain a standby generator, engine controllers, switchgear and GenSTART, which delivers redundant starting power for generators, significantly increasing system availability. Because of Active Power’s flywheel energy storage technology, the system provides customers significant energy savings due to its high efficiency (up to 98%) and minimal maintenance requirements – as compared to conventional battery-based UPSs.

Meanwhile, Vycon, a designer and manufacturer of high-speed flywheel based, environmentally friendly energy storage systems, announced that Yantian International Container Terminal (YICT) located in Shenzhen, China and a part of the Hutchison Wampoa Port, has agreed to buy additional units of Vycon’s REGEN Crane Energy Storage systems due to favorable test results.

Test results conducted at YICT show that retrofitting a Rubber Tired Gantry (RTG) crane with the Vycon REGEN system and optimizing the generator can provide up to 38% in fuel savings. At the operational rates found at YICT of approximately 10 moves per hour, the REGEN system reduced fuel consumption by 30%. In addition, the REGEN system has proven to reduce emissions by up to 90% during the lift cycles and 35% during overall operation.

RTG cranes are mobile cranes designed for the movement of shipping containers once they are placed into the distribution channels from the ship. Vycon 's high recycling capabilities optimize the crane's diesel generator operation by storing energy during lowering cycles (regeneration) and quickly releasing this regenerated energy for lift cycles. The transitions are seamless and instantaneous.

Hutchison Port Holdings has been using the YICT port operation to evaluate the REGEN system technology and based on these positive results will encourage their other 40 worldwide operators to implement the REGEN system in their yard.

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