Just in time for this weekend’s wicked weather, Duke Energy has powered up a 50 MW grid battery at the former Allen coal plant — a major infrastructure upgrade that could help stabilize the grid and drive down energy costs across the Carolinas.
Built on the shuttered Allen coal plant on Lake Wylie in Gaston County, NC, Duke Energy’s new 50 MW battery storage system arrived both under budget and ahead of schedule. The $100 million project, which has been serving customers since November, marks a departure from the delays typical of first-mover infrastructure and points to a maturing, bankable battery energy storage sector.
“We’re building new resources to keep the Carolinas’ economy thriving, while reinvesting in a former coal plant community that helped power this region for decades,” explains Kendal Bowman, President at Duke Energy North Carolina. “Repurposing existing energy infrastructure and taking advantage of federal funding significantly offset costs for our customers while continuing to support rapid growth across the region.”
Duke is setting up the li-ion-based BESS as a sort of “grid shock absorber,” storing excess clean power during low demand hours and pulling it out during peak demand times, providing the utility extra flexibility to deliver more affordable power without the need to build out new transmission capacity or peaker plants.
“We are proud of how this site and its people continue to support our customers,” said Bryan Walsh, Duke Energy’s vice president of Regulated Renewables and Lake Services. “Multiple former Allen plant employees now work on our Regulated Renewables team, which maintains and operates the new batteries at Allen and elsewhere in the Carolinas. Duke Energy’s test site for new battery technologies, its Emerging Technology and Innovation Center, is also in Mount Holly.”
The successful deployment of the 50 MW BESS project paves the way for the real headliner: a 167 MW behemoth BESS set to break ground on the same campus this May.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Duke Energy.
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