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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Backups Without Batteries

By Thom Senzee Contributing Reporter Chatsworth-based Pentadyne Power Corporation marked two milestones recently when the company sold its 500th unconventional back-up power system and logged two million hours of uninterrupted operation for its worldwide fleet of so-called clean-energy storage systems. For decades, the only way for businesses and institutions to ensure uninterrupted electrical power for mission-critical operations was to house and maintain banks of lead-acid batteries alongside their generators. Even now, at most data centers, hospitals and other enterprises with high vulnerability to blackouts, platforms of heavy-duty batteries sit ready to supply instantaneous power while, nearby, generators stand by waiting to rev up and take over seconds later. “There you have a UPS [uninterrupted power supply] system,” explains Pentadyne’s vice president of marketing, Keith Field. “Until the flywheel system you had batteries just like the ones in your car, plus a generator.” For the most part, UPS systems are used to keep servers, communications equipment and medical devices running 24/7. “You’ve got to keep those servers running and protect them from any power anomalies, but lead-acid batteries are the weakest link in the chain for many reasons,” Field said Those reasons, according to Field, include environmental concerns, cost, maintenance, and especially the physical space batteries require. Pentadyne’s magnetically-suspended flywheel product is smaller, certainly cleaner, arguably cheaper, and said Field, requires far less maintenance than traditional systems. “A lead-acid system has a minimum of 40 units that are essentially truck batteries, each with six cells inside,” he said. “Some have hundreds and even thousands of batteries for large data centers.” According to Field, such systems have to be checked constantly because, like Christmas lights, one bad cell can cause the entire system to crash. “Anyone who is in charge of those systems will tell you, ‘I hate batteries,’ because of their lack of reliability, not to mention the other maintenance issues.” Whereas back-up batteries have to be replaced en masse every one to four years, the flywheel system is, conceptually, a one-time purchase. “It doesn’t care how many times it’s used,” Field said. “It will always be ready to run.” Weight is also an issue. Because the lead-acid batteries used with UPS systems weigh about 100 pounds apiece, clusters of the units can weigh thousands of pounds and need to have special concrete pads poured to support their mass. The flywheel units Pentadyne makes are built into a cabinet, and said Field, have a footprint one-quarter the size of a battery system’s. “In addition to the hassle of having to keep batteries at a near-constant 75 degrees Fahrenheit, they also emit explosive gases and hydrogen sulfide,and they can split and blow out under pressure,” Field said, noting that his company’s units can operate in temperatures ranging from freezing to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. He points to those facts and the fact that battery-based energy storage systems can have acid leaks causing another “hassle and expense”,namely, that of keeping containment and safety equipment readily available,as reasons Pentadyne’s sales have been growing fast. Last year the firm closed just under $10 million in sales, while the year before the number was $4.2 million. Customers include hospitals, IT firms of all sizes, as well as broadcasters. The technology for Pentadyne’s flywheel energy storage system is based on research and development that originated from the hybrid automobile industry. It is based on fundamental kinetic physics, and relies on a bearing-free, frictionless magnetic-levitation environment that optimizes runtime and energy output when the flywheel is activated. “It’s a carbon-fiber cylinder that is one foot in diameter that spins all the time on a shaft in a vacuum and uses inertia to regenerate energy as it’s needed in an outage,” Field said. While not everyone will understand the science behind the product, customers the Business Journal talked to were eager to endorse Pentadyne’s flywheel technology. “This has been a giant shock absorber for us,” said KTUD-TV’s chief engineer, John Franz, whose station broadcasts to viewers in Las Vegas. “Nevada Power is notorious for hiccups and the fact that we are surviving those hiccups so well with their flywheel, in combination with the Toshiba UPS system, is a strong endorsement.” Franz said the biggest advantage of Pentadyne’s system for him over competitors’ flywheel systems is size. “Not only are they highly reliable, they are much smaller.” But one characteristic of the Pentadyne power storage product that has made some companies wince is their brief runtime for high-voltage loads,as little as 14 seconds at the highest levels and 51 seconds of power for 60 kilovolt amps. “That’s more than enough time, however, for the UPS system to take over with power from the generator,” Field said. According to Field, the integrated systems Pentadyne sells need only a fraction of the time the flywheel provides for generators to engage. Ironically, hospitals are easier to sell on the flywheel concept than data centers, said Field. “They need to prove every month that they’re ready to keep catheter and imaging equipment online in an outage in order to keep their accreditation,” he said. “Still, the folks at hospitals are quicker to get the technology, while data centers are not as comfortable with using a flywheel system.” According to Patrick Logan, lead electrician at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla the Pentadyne system represents a “zero-maintenance solution.” “We like it,” Logan said. “The only problem we had was when it was first installed they couldn’t get through on the phone line to call one of the machines, but that was fixed easily.” In fact, Logan has been so charmed by Pentadyne that he plans to visit the company’s production facility in Chatsworth this summer. “I’m fascinated by what they’re doing and I want to see it first-hand.” SPOTLIGHT – Pentadyne Revenues in 2006: $4.2 million Revenues in 2007: $10 million Employees in 2008: 75 Employees in 2007: 66 Manufacturing Source: OEM/Domestic Assembly

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