Power supplies for California 's Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport have been improved with the introduction of Pentadyne’s advanced composite flywheel technology to support the airport’s uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The Pentadyne system has been introduced in place of dozens of lead-acid batteries to provide energy in the event of utility power fluctuations or complete outages.

It is now operating in parallel with a redundant set of UPS batteries to provide the first line of defense against all power issues, isolating the batteries from any such events. The only time the batteries would ever be used is in the unlikely event of a problem with the Pentadyne system or the backup generator.

“Battery banks are notoriously problematic in terms of reliability, temperature control and maintenance needs,” says Frank DeLattre , Pentadyne's Senior Vice President of Sales & Service. “The Pentadyne system at San José International essentially does all the work that a battery bank is supposed to do, but does so with far greater reliability, far lower operating cost, much higher uptime availability and near-zero maintenance needs.”