Simple Flywheel Energy Storage

using Squirrel-Cage Induction Machine

for DC Bus Microgrid Systems
Jae-Do Park
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
University of Colorado Denver
Denver, CO
Email: jaedo.park@ucdenver.edu

Abstract—A simple flywheel energy storage using a squirrel-

cage induction machine is proposed in this paper. The suggested
motor/generator system operates with an open-loop Volt/Hertz
control scheme and utilizes only the nameplate data as machine
parameters. Therefore complex controller tuning or machine
parameter measurement is not required. Also, any communi-
cation between storage units or with other controllers is not
necessary because the system uses bus voltage information for
charge/discharge operations. The proposed system has an advan-
tage on parallel operation because adding/replacing of units are
straightforward. Hence it can easily operate with different types
of storage or distributed energy sources in DC bus microgrid
systems. Moreover, the proposed control scheme improves the
overall stability of the DC bus system. The proposed system has
been validated with Matlab simulation and an experimental setup
is under construction for verification.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Distributed generation systems have recently been inten-
sively researched and developed, especially in conjunction
with renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and Fig. 1. Conceptual diagram of a DC-bus microgrid system.
photovoltaic systems. The advantages of distributed generation
systems include the capacity relief of transmission and distri-
bution, better operational and economical efficiency including
effective use of waste heat, and improvement of reliability, storage systems including batteries, flywheels and superca-
eco-friendliness and power quality [1]–[3]. Considering the pacitors are also included. The energy storage capability is
current energy situation and the energy policy of governments important for microgrid operations because the stored energy
worldwide, the penetration of distributed generation using the can be utilized for different purposes such as load support,
renewable energy sources is expected to increase rapidly. frequency control, power compensation, and voltage leveling.
As a way to realize the distributed generation system, a This is especially true for systems using a high portion
”microgrid” system that combines distributed energy sources of sustainable energy sources; for example, for a microgrid
and loads as a small-scale power system can be used. The system that is operating in a remote area isolated from a
microgrid approach reduces or eliminates central dispatch and power grid, storage devices play a critical role because of the
enhances the power quality to sensitive loads [4], [5]. A intermittent and uncontrollable nature of the renewable energy
microgrid is controlled and operated quite differently than a sources.
conventional power systems: the distributed energy sources A flywheel energy storage system using a squirrel-cage
are connected through power electronics converters and the induction machine is proposed in this paper. The proposed
islanded operation is required as well as grid-connected oper- system utilizes the squirrel-cage induction machine, which is
ation [6]. widely available and inexpensive, and the simple Volt/Hertz
Various kinds of dispachable and non-dispachable prime control technique with just nameplate data as machine param-
movers can be included in a microgrid system, such as diesel eters. Therefore no complex parameter measurement is nec-
generators, microturbines, fuel cells, wind turbines and photo- essary and the system has an advantage on parallel operation
voltaics, to support different types of loads. Distributed energy because adding/replacing units are straightforward. Hence it
can easily operate with different types of storage or distributed
energy sources in DC bus microgrid systems. Moreover, the
proposed control scheme improves the overall stability of the
DC bus system. The proposed system has been validated
with Matlab simulation and an experimental setup is under
construction for verification.
II. S YSTEM C ONFIGURATION
A. DC Bus Microgrid System
Among the microgrids that have been researched recently,
low-voltage DC (LVDC) bus-based systems have received
attention because of advantages such as fast control without
need for communication, a variety of DC energy sources and
loads, and efficiencies on system size and cost [7], [8]. A block
diagram of a typical DC bus microgrid system is shown in Fig.
1.
The LVDC systems utilize the voltage droop technique,
which uses the DC bus voltage as a command signal. DC bus
systems do not have the functional issues of AC systems such
as synchronization and reactive power compensation. Unlike
the large scale distribution systems, the LVDC microgrid
system does not have a resistive loss issue because the length
of the bus is much shorter. Also, sharing a DC bus has a
structural advantage because all the energy sources and loads
are connected via DC/DC or DC/AC voltage-source converters
that utilize DC voltage as their medium. Another layer of
DC/AC converters is necessary for some subsystems to make
an AC bus system.
Using the fast-acting power electronics converters, constant
voltage can be supplied to the loads regardless of some
fluctuations on the bus side and the renewable energy sources
can readily generate maximum power with maximum power
point tracking (MPPT) techniques.
As a small-scale power system, a microgrid can have
relatively higher load fluctuations, especially when it is not
operating in grid-connected mode. This is because the inertia
of the generators is not as large as that found in the large-
scale synchronous generators. Generation of power from the
renewable energy sources relies heavily on natural conditions
and they are intermittent. Hence energy storage devices are
required for stable operation of a microgrid system in either
grid-connected or islanded operations. A flywheel-based en-
ergy storage system is investigated in this paper.
B. Flywheel Energy Storage
Advances in power electronics, magnetic bearings and fly-
wheel materials have made flywheel systems a viable energy
storage option. Although it has higher initial cost than bat-
teries, flywheel energy storage has advantages such as longer
lifetime, lower operation and maintenance costs, and higher
power density (typically by a factor of 5 to 10) [9]. Flywheel
systems have been utilized in many applications instead of or
in conjunction with batteries.
Machines such as permanent magnet (PM) machines, syn-
chronous reluctance machines, synchronous homopolar ma-
chines and induction machines have been explored for fly-
Fig. 2. Induction machine per-phase equivalent circuit.
wheel motor/generator [10]–[15]. PM machines have advan-
tages such as lower rotor losses, high power factor, efficiency,
and power density. However, high-power magnets are costly
and they have an inherent disadvantage of spinning losses.
Synchronous homopolar machines, although they have been
researched for various applications, are not widely used in
practice. Synchronous reluctance machines can be a viable
choice for a flywheel motor/generator, but the machines are
not easily available.
Induction machine-based flywheel systems have been inves-
tigated and it has been suggested that the rugged and inexpen-
sive induction machines are good candidates for high-power
flywheel motor/generators [14]–[16]. Field-oriented vector
controllers are generally used for faster dynamic response,
which require complex machine parameter measurements and
complicated controllers.
However, the majority of the fast disturbances are shorter
than several seconds [9] and storage devices needed to store
the intermittent generation of renewable energy sources do
not necessarily have to be fast if they are not focusing on
transient performance improvement. Considering the overall
cost, it would be more efficient for a microgrid system to
use a combination of faster storage devices for short transient
and slower but inexpensive storage units for massive energy
charge and discharge with renewable energy sources such as
wind turbines and photovoltaic systems.
To develop a cost-effective system, a squirrel-cage induction
machine is selected for the motor/generator of the flywheel
energy storage in this paper. Easy parallel operation is an
important factor in energy storage for higher capacity.
C. Squirrel-Cage Induction Machine
1) Machine Modeling: A per-phase equivalent circuit of an
induction machine is shown in Fig. 2. Machine torque can be
derived as can be seen (1)-(4). The expressions can be applied
to the integral horsepower induction machines where the speed
is high enough for the resistive drop to negligible.
em em sωe
i2 = = (1)
R2 ωe jsX2 + R2
jX2 +
s
 Fig. 3. Block diagram of flywheel drive system.
Pm P R2 2
Tq = =3 |i2 |
ωm 2 ωsl
P ωsl R2
= 3 λ2m 2 (3)
2 (ωsl L2 ) + R22
P ωsl
≈ 3 λ2m 2
2 R2
where, Pm is machine power, P is machine poles, s is slip,
λm is air-gap flux, ωe is primary angular speed and ωsl is slip
angular speed.
As shown in (4), induction machine torque can be
controlled with the slip frequency if air-gap flux λm is kept
constant, which can be accomplished by constant voltage and
em v1
frequency ratio ≈ . Although there are conditions such
ωe ωe
as machine’s power rating and speed to make the expressions
valid, operating conditions of a flywheel energy storage
system well satisfy the conditions.
2) Volt/Hertz Control: Volt/Hertz control has been widely
used for induction machine speed control because of its
simplicity for the applications that tight torque response
for transient dynamics is not required. Field-oriented vector
control technique has been utilized for the applications that
need fast response, but it requires parameter measurements,
current feedback, machine model and controller tuning. On the
contrary, all of the information necessary to run an induction
machine in rated condition, such as voltage, speed and slip,
can be found on the nameplate of the machine for Volt/Hertz
control.
Many researches on flywheel energy storage systems have
utilized field-oriented controllers because the applications need
quite fast energy flow, for example, UPS application compen-
sating the voltage dip. However, if an energy storage system
absorbs or releases the energy in slow dynamics, Volt/Hertz
control can be a valid candidate due to its simplicity and
inherent stability.
III. C ONTROL T ECHNIQUE
A. Microgrid System Operation
(2) The proposed microgrid system shown in Fig. 1 utilizes the
DC bus voltage as a control signal. Hence, a prime mover,
such as a grid-connected converter or microturbine unit, does
not control the voltage tightly at a fixed reference voltage to
reflect the energy flow on the bus voltage if it is in the nominal
(4)
operating region above the minimum threshold.
All of the renewable energy source units are operating in the
power mode, which is generating its maximum power when
the energy is available. Hence the bus voltage will rise above
the nominal operating range if the generation is larger than
the load power consumption. The storage devices detect the
excessive energy in the bus and absorb it. If the generated
energy is large enough to exceed the maximum threshold, the
grid-connected converter can push it back to the grid.
When the DC bus voltage gets lower than the discharge
threshold due to the increased load or decreased generation,
the energy stored in the storage units are discharged to the bus
to maintain the bus voltage at the minimum level. If all the
energy storages and generators are not able to hold the bus
voltage at the minimum level, load shedding can be initiated
by disconnecting some of the power electronics converters
supporting lower priority loads. If there are different kinds of
storage or load control units connected to the bus, the priority
can be easily controlled by setting the thresholds differently.
The units in the microgrid are autonomously operating using
the bus voltage without communicating between units or to a
central controller; hence addition, replacement or removal of
the units can be done easily without any major change in the
control configuration unlike the centrally controlled system.
B. Control of Flywheel Energy Storage System
The control block diagram of the proposed flywheel drive
system is shown in Fig. 3. The controller is consisted of three
parts, i.e. mode control, slip control and voltage control, to
generate the proper voltage and frequency for the flywheel
induction motor/generator. The low-pass filter filters out the
high frequency voltage fluctuations.
 TABLE I
I NDUCTION M ACHINE PARAMETERS

Rated Power 50 Hp
Rated Voltage (line-to-line) 460 V
Rated Speed 1705 rpm
Stator Resistance R1 0.087 Ω
Stator Leakage Reactance X1 0.302 Ω
Rotor Resistance R2 0.087 Ω
Rotor Leakage Reactance X2 0.302 Ω
Mutual Reactance Xm 13.08 Ω
Fig. 4. Controller State Machine.
TABLE II
O PERATION MODE THRESHOLDS

CHARGE READY VchgR 560 V

CHARGE Vchg 540 V
IDLE 520 − 540 V
DISCHARGE READY VdisR 520 V
DISCHARGE Vdis 500 V

rated frequency, respectively. If the operating speed is above

the rated speed, Vrated needs to be reduced to operate in field
weakening mode.
The machine voltage reaches the proper level for the rated
flux according to the rotating speed when the bus voltage gets
to the charge threshold and the machine is ready to absorb
Fig. 5. Bus voltage thresholds for control. the power from the bus. In CHARGE mode, the slip control
increases the slip based on the excessive voltage above Vchg .
 
The mode control determines the operating mode based on KIS
fslip = KP S + · (vdc − Vchg ) (6)
the bus voltage. The operating modes of the proposed flywheel S
∗
energy storage system are as follows and the state machine fm = fm + fslip (7)
Z
of the mode control can be seen in Fig. 4. Each mode has ∗
θe = 2πfm dt (8)
associated voltage levels pre-defined in the mode control, as
shown in Fig. 5. where fm ∗
, KP S , KIS denote the frequency command, pro-
• IDLE portional and integral slip control gain, respectively. Basically
• CHARGE READY the slip control resets the slip to zero if the voltage decreases
• CHARGE below the CHARGE threshold Vchg . However, a hysteresis
• DISCHARGE READY needs to be implemented between modes for smooth mode
• DISCHARGE transition.
The system is in IDLE mode when the bus volt- The voltage control receives the calculated slip frequency
age is in nominal range between mode thresholds for fslip and machine rotating frequency fm and generates appro-
CHARGE READY and DISCHARGE READY. In IDLE priate voltage based on the rated Volt/Hertz ratio to maintain
mode, PWM is disabled and grid-tied converter or microtubine the rated flux in the machine so that the torque can be
generator forms the grid depending on the operation mode, i.e. controlled just by slip. The direct and quadrature voltages in
grid-connected or islanded mode. stationary reference frame and three-phase voltage commands
∗
When the bus voltage is increased above VchgR , the thresh- can be generated as follows using vm and angle information.
old of CHARGE READY mode, the voltage control starts Superscript ’s’ denotes stationary reference frame.
to increase the voltage in order to build rated flux while s ∗
vds = vm cos θe (9)
maintaining zero slip. The rated flux will be built in the s ∗
induction machine when the bus voltage reaches Vchg . vqs = vm sin θe (10)
s
vas = vds (11)
∗ Vrated vdc − VchgR √
vm = · · fm (5) 1 s 3 s
Frated Vchg − VchgR vbs = − vds + vqs (12)
2 √2
∗
where vm ,fm , Vrated and Frated denote the machine stator 1 s 3 s
voltage command, rotating frequency, rated stator voltage and vcs = − vds − v (13)
2 2 qs
Fig. 6. Top: DC bus voltage (a)Vchg (b)VchgR (c)VdisR (d)Vdis Fig. 8. Machine torque and flywheel speed.
Bottom: DC bus currents (a)iload (b)idc .

Fig. 9. Three-phase stator voltage and currents.

Fig. 7. Command voltage peak and slip.

Energy storage system’s input and output impedance can be

Similarly, in DISCHARGE READY mode, slip is kept at controlled by the gains and limiter in slip control because the
zero, and the voltage command will be given as slip determines the power the system takes or releases.

∗ Vrated vdc − VdisR C. Stability Consideration

vm = · · fm . (14)
Frated Vdis − VdisR It is well known that DC power distribution systems can
And slip frequency is calculated as follows in DISCHARGE have stability issues due to the negative impedance of the
mode.   connected converters, even if the individual subsystems are
KIS stable [17], [18]. The input impedance of the converter can
fslip = KP S + · (vdc − Vdis ) (15)
S be expressed as follows, where ∆ denotes the deviation from
Although a speed sensor is assumed in the proposed system, the steady state operating point values. The input impedance
a speed estimation technique is readily applicable, especially of the converters becomes negative when they are operating
if the speed is changing slowly due to the large inertia. in constant power mode.
All the control variables such as, Vrated , Frated , rated slip 2
∆vdc (vdc )
and slip limiter can be obtained or calculated from induction Zi = =− (16)
machine nameplate. The service factor of the machine can be ∆idc Po
used to determine the slip limiter so that the machine can be The power electronics converters can tightly control their
operating safely in overload range. output power as almost constant, and the negative impedance
affects the DC bus stability adversely. It has also been sug-
gested that the output impedances of the sources Zo should be
smaller than input impedance of the loads Zi for the overall
stability of the DC bus [19].
|Zo | << |Zi | (17)
Although this is not a direct issue for the proposed en-
ergy storage system because it does not operate in constant
power mode, its effect on overall system stability needs to
be considered. The proposed system controls the power with
the slip and constant Volt/Hertz ratio, which keeps the torque
proportional to the slip. When the flywheel energy storage
system charges the energy from the bus, slip is proportional
to the bus voltage. Hence, the power that storage system
takes from the bus is proportional to the bus voltage and
the impedance of the system is always positive. On the other
hand, the slip is inversely proportional to the change of the bus
voltage which lowers the overall source impedance because the
DC current the storage system discharges increases as the bus
voltage decreases. Therefore, the energy storage system can
improve the overall stability of the system in either operating
mode.
IV. S IMULATION R ESULT
The proposed flywheel energy storage system has been
simulated with Matlab. A 50Hp induction machine as the
motor/generator and a flywheel with 23.5 kgm2 moment of
inertia has been utilized. The simulated system can store 2220
kJ at 4150 rpm and supply rated power for 1 minute. The
parameters for the system simulation are shown in Table I and
II.
The 20 kW and 30 kW of load increase and renewable
generation is simulated at 0.1 sec, 2 sec, 5 sec and 7 sec,
respectively. As voltage decreases below VdisR , the machine
voltage increases to build up the flux then slip decreases to
generate power. Likewise, when the bus voltage increases over
VchgR and Vchg , machine voltage and the slip increase.
As can be seen in Fig. 6, the bus voltage is maintained
at Vdis and the load current is compensated in DISCHARGE
mode and the flywheel storage takes the energy generated by
renewable energy sources in CHARGE mode. The output of
the voltage control and slip control is shown in Fig. 7. The
machine torque and the variation of the flywheel speed show
the energy exchange in Fig. 8.
V. C ONCLUSION
A Volt/Hertz control-based flywheel energy storage using
a squirrel-cage induction machine has been suggested in this
paper. The proposed energy storage system is simple and cost-
effective. It has utilized only the nameplate data as machine
parameters and does not require complex measurements and
tuning. The charge/discharge operation that is based only on
bus voltage information without any communication between
storage units or with other controllers has an advantage of
parallel operation and makes adding/replacing units straight-
forward. The proposed system has been validated with Matlab
simulation and an experimental setup is under construction for
verification.
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