LIC-based system for compensation of short-term power disruptions

JSR Corporation (President: Mitsunobu Koshiba) announced in January (2012) that ULTIMO ,a product developed by JM Energy Corporation (President: Goro Miyabe), a wholly owned subsidiary of JSR that manufactures and markets lithium ion capacitors (LICs), has been incorporated into the lithium-ion capacitor-based system for compensation of short-term power disruptions (hereafter, “the system”) developed jointly by Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. (President & Director: Akihisa Mizuno) and Meidensha Corporation (President: Junzo Inamura). The system is designed to comprehensively protect plant manufacturing facilities from electric power failure caused by lightning strikes and other causes. 

The system has been undergoing field testing at the JSR Yokkaichi Plant since December 2011. It will be field tested for the next two years to check voltage sag compensation functions under actual operating conditions and to verify its long-term reliability under continuous operation. Upon confirmation of reliability, Meidensha will commercialize the system starting 2014.

In plant manufacturing facilities, when a lightning strike or other cause induces electric power failure, it may lead to a malfunction, halt of operations, or even serious damage. A voltage compensator with longer compensation time is necessary to prevent such consequences. As such, Chubu Electric Power and Meidensha have developed this system that can cope with an electric power failure of up to 20 seconds by incorporating LICs, which have higher energy density and can store over three times as much energy as in conventional electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs). In addition, JM Energy's ULTIMO was selected for use in the system due to the high evaluation of its long-term durability.

The system has a much greater capacity and is able to compensate voltage for a longer period of time than a system using conventional EDLCs. In addition, the system’s use of JM Energy’s long-life LICs means replacement of the power storage unit is necessary only once every 15 years. The system also has a lower environmental-impact because it does not use any heavy metals, such as lead.