PHOS Global Energy Solutions of Stony Brook pursuing flywheel energy to provide stable grid power and backup

One Long Island company’s vision for the future of electric-grid power storage seeks to improve on decades-old technology known as flywheel energy to provide stable grid power and backup at a time when big lithium-ion batteries are facing homeowner resistance.

PHOS Global Energy Solutions, a Stony Brook company launched six years ago, is finalizing the first chemical-free production prototype system at its research and development facility, which is sandwiched between fast-food joints at a strip shopping center across from the Smith Haven Mall.

There, company cofounder Victor Bica demonstrates how the system, by turning a barrel-size steel drum inside a magnetized steel casing, can both store power by turning the flywheel drum at nearly frictionless high-speeds, and deliver a steady output to the grid by spinning separate generating motors attached to the drum.

At the height of the demonstration, Bica switched off power from the LIPA grid and showed the system capable of powering the shop from the kinetic energy of the spinning drum alone. The plan is to expand the test to all nearby shops and have it available for widespread demonstration by early next year.

The company's Advanced Magnetic Kinetic Energy Storage System can integrate "seamlessly with renewable energy sources."

During the demo, the system spinning at around 1,000 rpm sounded like an industrial washing machine at the height of its spin cycle. Faster speeds of up to 10,000 rpm would theoretically increase the noise, but the PHOS team says it's been balanced and designed to prevent mishaps that have challenged some previous flywheel systems.

Chief mechanical engineer Eugene Rudolph said one system the size of a refrigerator could provide enough steady energy to power a home for 40 hours. Compared with lithium-ion batteries that can take eight hours or more to fully recharge, the PHOS system recharges the flywheel in 30 minutes to an hour. And unlike chemical batteries, the flywheel systems can provide energy even while they’re being charged, Rudolph said.

On a much larger scale, a series of the modular PHOS systems could handle and store excess energy from wind energy or solar power arrays, spinning a series of flywheels to "charge up" the system for days at a time, while using that power when it’s needed to keep the grid load steady amid intermittent wind and solar production.

The steady output of the system could also help balance the load for the level stream of energy needed for data centers and other industrial, utility and commercial uses, Bica said. The system would work with a gas generator to keep the flywheels turning if the grid experienced a systemwide failure.

Flywheel energy solutions have had a rocky history. NASA developed one of the first systems, boasting that flywheel systems have 50 times the capacity of typical lead acid batteries used in cars. One of the largest, by a company known as Beacon Energy, experienced financial problems soon after it first began supplying energy to the New York grid at Stephentown in 2011. The plant also experienced a mishap shortly after it was commissioned when one of its 200 flywheels malfunctioned, according to the Eastwick Press. Calls to Beacon weren’t answered.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, in response to Newsday questions, noted that it supported the Beacon project as part of its Smart Grid program but said without explanation that the agency has "not continued to fund this project." 

NYSERDA, said spokeswoman Kristin Legere, is "aware of the PHOS's flywheel storage system," but declined to comment on it specifically.

Bica said the company had been working for months to show that its new take on a proven technology could be useful for the grid and power utilities and companies on a larger scale. Were the system to receive acceptance on Long Island, PHOS could manufacture enough of the modular units to spread them out over five sites across Long Island and deploy them in around two years, Bica said.

LIPA didn't immediately respond to questions about the technology.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.