Control of a Flywheel Energy Storage System for Power Smoothing in Wind Power Plants

This paper deals with the design and the experimental validation in scale-lab test benches of an energy management algorithm based on feedback control techniques for a flywheel energy storage device. The aim of the flywheel is to smooth the net power injected to the grid by a wind turbine or by a wind power plant. In particular, the objective is to compensate the power disturbances produced by the cycling torque disturbances of the wind turbines due to the airflow deviation through its tower section. This paper describes the control design, its tuning, as well as the description of the experimental setup, and the methods for the experimental validation of the proposed concepts. Results show that the fast wind power fluctuations can be mostly compensated through the flywheel support.