I would like to know more about how HOMER uses the flywheel inputs

 

The flywheel in HOMER is simply a source of operating reserve, so you need to really understand how HOMER models operating reserve.  HOMER can simulate the system operations in time steps down to single minutes, so that may be a better way to model the Beacon flywheel.  There are some issues that HOMER is very good at modeling and some issues that are inappropriate to try to model in HOMER.  The following questions are quite different:

• Do I have enough storage to turn off a diesel and get it back on again when needed?
• Do the diesels have sufficient ramp rates to follow second-to-second variations in the wind?

HOMER can handle the first question, but you need to reduce the length of the simulation time step.  You are still constrained by the data that you have.