Duke Energy begins operating the largest battery system in North Carolina

• 11-MW battery will function alongside present photo voltaic facility

• Each are situated inside the location boundary of Camp Lejeune on leased land  

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Duke Vitality is increasing its battery storage capabilities in North Carolina and has begun business operation of the state’s largest battery system, an 11-MW mission in Onslow County.

The battery system will continuously be operated together with an adjoining 13-MW photo voltaic facility situated on a leased web site inside Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, which has been producing carbon-free vitality since 2015. The 2 websites will also be operated independently.

“Battery storage is a vital useful resource for our transition to cleaner vitality,” mentioned Kendal Bowman, Duke Vitality’s North Carolina state president. “Pairing the vitality storage system with our present photo voltaic facility at Camp Lejeune helps strengthen the reliability of our vitality grid and makes higher use of our present photo voltaic era.”

Collectively, the tasks allow essentially the most environment friendly and dependable use of renewable sources. Each tasks are related to a Duke Vitality substation and shall be used to serve all Duke Vitality Progress clients. Future work might allow the photo voltaic and battery techniques to enhance the resiliency of MCB Camp Lejeune towards outages.

“By an enhanced use lease (EUL) and strategic partnership with Duke Vitality Progress, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune has been in a position to make an essential funding within the pursuit of vitality safety contained in the fence-line,” mentioned U.S. Navy Cmdr. Ross Campbell, director, Public Works at MCB Camp Lejeune. “Integration of the photo voltaic plant with a battery vitality storage system, unthinkable a decade in the past, presents the set up with various alternatives to realize vitality resilience aims. These techniques are a part of the continued collaboration with the Division of Protection and its utility suppliers to make sure vitality safety at federal services.”

The battery’s chemistry is lithium iron phosphate with the system rated at 11-MW/11-MWh, and its bodily footprint is about 1 acre. Duke Vitality partnered with Black & Veatch building entity OCI, which acted because the prime contractor for engineering, procurement and building.

In recent times, Duke Vitality has been increasing battery storage in North Carolina. Within the metropolis of Asheville, a 9-MW lithium-ion battery system is working subsequent to a Duke Vitality substation within the Shiloh group. In Madison County within the city of Scorching Springs, the corporate has a 4-MW lithium-ion battery system that’s a part of a microgrid within the city.

Battery storage is crucial to hurry the clear vitality transition in the US. It helps maximize the optimistic influence intermittent era sources like wind and photo voltaic have on the vitality grid.

The corporate plans to proceed investing in battery expertise over the following few years.  Duke Vitality expects to have greater than 1,600 MW of battery storage in service by 2029. Presently, the corporate’s regulated utilities have about 90 MW of battery vitality storage tasks in operation in three states.

Duke Vitality

Duke Vitality (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 firm headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is considered one of America’s largest vitality holding firms. Its electrical utilities serve 8.2 million clients in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively personal 50,000 megawatts of vitality capability. Its pure gasoline unit serves 1.6 million clients in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The corporate employs 27,600 individuals.

Duke Vitality is executing an aggressive clear vitality transition to realize its targets of net-zero methane emissions from its pure gasoline enterprise by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electrical energy era by 2050. The corporate has interim carbon emission targets of at the least 50% discount from electrical era by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and sure Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electrical era by 2040. As well as, the corporate is investing in main electrical grid enhancements and vitality storage, and exploring zero-emission energy era applied sciences akin to hydrogen and superior nuclear. 

Duke Vitality was named to Fortune’s 2023 “World’s Most Admired Corporations” checklist and Forbes’ “World’s Finest Employers” checklist. Extra data is out there at duke-energy.com. The Duke Vitality Information Heart incorporates information releases, reality sheets, images and movies. Duke Vitality’s illumination options tales about individuals, improvements, group subjects and environmental points. Comply with Duke Vitality on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Fb.

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