VYCON’s Environmentally Friendly Kinetic Energy Flywheel Systems Chosen to Protect Mexico City International Airport

LOS ANGELES – August 13, 2014 — VYCON, the designer and manufacturer of environmentally friendly, high-speed energy storage flywheel systems, today announced that the The Benito Juárez International Airport (AICM) in Mexico City, has purchased three of VYCON’s award-winning kinetic energy storage flywheel systems. These backup systems will increase power protection to the airport’s vital runway lighting and other critical navigation systems. AICM is the second largest airport in Latin America, serving over 31 million passengers per year.

To guide aircraft during landings and takeoffs, it is paramount for visual navigation systems to have reliable and consistent power. While the airport has sophisticated power protection systems in place, it required an even higher level of protection to assure fail-safe operations. VYCON’s VDC-XE clean energy flywheel units were selected to take over power protection when other equipment fails to quickly bridge power to the airport’s onsite generators.

AICM chose VYCON over the competition, in part because unlike other flywheel systems, VYCON’s flywheels do not require expensive bearing replacement. This savings provides AICM with a high return on its investment. In addition, the green aspects of the flywheels were of keen interest – saving the airport from costly battery maintenance and disposal of toxic materials.

“This contract from AICM is a great testament to the reliability and cost-effectiveness of our clean kinetic energy storage flywheel systems,” said Frank DeLattre, president of VYCON. “We are honored to be chosen to raise the level of protection of the airport’s critical navigation systems, while providing a lower cost of operation. VYCON’s flywheels are used around the globe to assure power security and availability for mission-critical operations, and we’re proud to add AICM to our distinguished customer portfolio.”

During a power disturbance, VYCON’s flywheels provide instant back-up power and will seamlessly transfer to the airport’s generators if the power outage is prolonged. Instead of depending on lead-acid batteries – which are unpredictable and require costly maintenance and replacement – VYCON’s VDC-XE flywheel stores energy kinetically by spinning a mass around an axis. Electrical input spins the flywheel rotor up to speed, and a standby charge keeps it spinning 24/7 until called upon to release the stored clean energy.

“With the frequent power disturbances that the Mexico City Airport has to deal with, VYCON’s flywheels are the perfect solution to provide power when all other equipment fails,” said Victor Zavala from IGSA (VYCON’s distributor). “Being in a tropical location with a high elevation, Mexico City is subject to not only unpredictable weather, but also to high-heat conditions. The VYCON flywheels perform flawlessly and will provide the added level of power continuity that the airport requires. We are pleased that we could offer this proven power solution for the airport’s needs as well as to our other mission-critical customers here in Latin America.”

As one of the busiest airports in Latin America, the Mexico City airport has been host to Air Force One – a Boeing 747-200B – as well as other high-profile worldwide transports. The airport has become the main gateway to the capital country for national and international visitors and a strategic point for conducting business and connectivity around the world.

For more information on VYCON’s innovative green power solutions, contact VYCON at sales@vyconenergy.com or visit VYCON’s web site at: www.vyconenergy.com.

About VYCON

VYCON is an innovator in the design and manufacturing of technologically advanced flywheel energy storage systems that enable a highly reliable, cost-effective and “green” energy storage solution for a variety of applications. VYCON’s products are applied in the power quality markets to provide back-up power in mission-critical applications and in the energy re-cycling markets for capturing and regenerating energy in crane, electric rail and distributed generation applications. VYCON is headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif.