Duke plans $500m storage investment

UNITED STATES: Utility Duke Energy has announced plans to invest $500m in energy storage capacity across North and South Carolina by 2033.

by David Weston 12 October 2018

Duke plans to install 300MW of storage capacity in the Carolinas over the next 15 years

Over the next 15 years, Duke plans to deploy roughly 300MW of battery storage projects, as part of the company's integrated resource plan.

Rob Caldwell, president at Duke Energy Renewables and Distributed Energy Technology said: "Utility-owned and operated projects in North and South Carolina will include a variety of system benefits that will help improve reliability for our customers and provide significant energy grid support for the region."

Currently there is around 15MW of storage installed in North Carolina, and "far less in South Carolina", according to Duke.

The firm said as the grid operator in the region, it can "maximise the versatility of storage beyond the storing and dispatching of energy to include other customer and system benefits".

North Carolina has just over 200MW of installed wind capacity. South Carolina is yet to install any wind capacity.

Duke Energy is currently restoring power to over 500,000 customers in the Carolinas following the devastation caused by tropical storm Michael.