A torque controlled high speed flywheel energy storage system for peak power transfer in electric vehicles

This paper provides a design outline and implementation procedure for a flywheel energy storage system using a high speed interior permanent magnet synchronous machine, torque-controlled through the use of a vector control algorithm. The proposed flywheel energy storage system can be used to meet the peak energy requirements of an electric vehicle during both acceleration and regenerative braking. By supplying the peak energy requirements from a secondary source, the life cycle of the electric vehicle's batteries may be extended considerably, A torque control algorithm is presented and preliminary implementation through a commercially available microcontroller is described. Preliminary testing of the proposed system has been very promising and has proven that bidirectional peak power transfer can be rapidly accomplished.<>