The jury is still out on this one. A new report - World Flywheel UPS Markets - has just been published on the subject, looking at the global market and sales of flywheel energy storage systems within power quality applications as backup devices. Flywheel are great in principal but there are some barriers to overcome when used as part of a power continuity plan. The primary weaknesses are the higher capital cost and low runtime available. The first means that the devices are only really suitable for large applications of several hundred kVA or more - (with uninterruptible power supplies such as the Riello Master Plus UPS). Secondly, they have to compete as a substitute product against sealed lead acid batteries which can offer minutes and hours of runtime rather than just several milliseconds. Sure, flywheels do have a compact footprint and offer a ‘green’ technology but their benefits only really accrue over several years use - think battery replacement and disposal. So, my view is that if the flywheel industry finds some way of cost-effectively extending the runtime available and/or lowering the entry barrier costs, they may be onto a more competitive winner.

You would have to be a rover on Mars not to know that fuel prices are going through the roof in the UK. Link this to the high rises we have experienced in metals over the last year and you can suddenly see why battery management and UPS efficiency are becoming hot topics in the world of power protection. Most people consider batteries to be a source of standby power for an uninterruptible power supply. The truth is that they are no different in analogy to the fuel rods in a nuclear power station. They are integral to the process, requiring efficient management and safe testing and disposal. The last five to ten years have seen huge volumes of uninterruptible power supplies shipped into markets across the world. This means that there are now literally millions of UPS batteries close to failure. In fact many may already be there but the UPS is not sophisticated enough to know this. Think about the image with this entry and ask yourself how near to empty are your batteries? The only way to tell is to test them in anger during your next mains power failure or take a preventative action and instigate onsite UPS battery testing. The latter approach could literally save you thousands in lost downtime and help prevent your own ‘local’ energy crisis. As our current advertising campaign states ‘it only takes one second to crash your network’.