Flywheel UPS Maintains the Servers That Control the Gensets

Virtua Health, located in southern New Jersey, needed a short-term backup for its emergency backup power system. They found it in a flywheel energy storage system, which they installed at their data center.

The UPS system was installed and has been in operation since mid-December, and protects servers from utility power disturbances. Automatic transfer switches (ATS) that detect loss of utility power command generator sets on the site to automatically start during power outages. The UPS provides ride-through power while the generator starts during a power loss or disturbance, keeping the servers on-line. The flywheel UPS operates in parallel with lead acid batteries.

In this application, the flywheel system is the first line of defense, designed to be discharged before the batteries, therefore providing power to the UPS during most power disturbances. The battery DC source is discharged only if the generator does not start and in effect reduces the cycles the batteries are subjected to, extending battery life. Initial tests and actual power outages

at the site have shown that during transfers to generator, the flywheel system has performed as expected providing ride-through power.

For more about flywheel technology from Vycon, click here .

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