Flywheel-based energy storage on a heave-compensating drawworks
First Claim
1. A process of managing energy consumption in a drawworks, the drawworks having a winch drum with a wire rope therearound, the winch drum extending around a sheave assembly and connected to a drill string, the process comprising:
- rotating the winch drum so as to pay out the wire rope and to lower the drill string downwardly;
transferring the energy from the lowered drill string to a flywheel so as to rotate said flywheel; and
transferring energy from the rotating flywheel to another location on the drawworks.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for managing energy consumption in a heave-compensating drawworks includes a power supply, a winch drum connected to the power supply so as to receive power from the power supply, a flywheel connected to the winch drum and to the power supply, and a controller connected to the power supply and to the winch drum for passing energy to and from the flywheel during an operation of the winch drum. The flywheel includes a disk rotatably coupled to an AC motor. The power supply includes a first pair of AC motors operatively connected on one side of the winch drum and a second pair of AC motors operatively connected on an opposite side of the winch drum.
24 Citations
7 Claims
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1. A process of managing energy consumption in a drawworks, the drawworks having a winch drum with a wire rope therearound, the winch drum extending around a sheave assembly and connected to a drill string, the process comprising:
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rotating the winch drum so as to pay out the wire rope and to lower the drill string downwardly; transferring the energy from the lowered drill string to a flywheel so as to rotate said flywheel; and transferring energy from the rotating flywheel to another location on the drawworks. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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Specification