Evaluation of the flywheel potential for providing regulation service in California

Flywheel energy storage can provide ancillary services including regulation and frequency response to power grids. This study presents the technical characteristics, modeling approach, methodologies, and results for providing regulation services in the California Independent System Operator market. Breakeven cost analyses were developed for two cases: (1) the flywheel provides the regulation service alone and (2) the flywheel provides the regulation service aggregated together with a hydro power plant. For both cases, two payment methods were evaluated: pay-by-energy and pay-by-capacity. Based on the results of the technical and cost analyses, the opportunities for providing regulation services are discussed, field test results for the flywheel´s physical characteristics are presented, and performance metrics to evaluate the flywheel´s capability to provide the regulation services are proposed and evaluated.