Laurel Meeks Helps Add Batteries for a More Resilient Energy Grid - Seite 2

This growing importance is why Duke Energy and others are exploring advanced battery technologies that address two major challenges - duration and cost. For example, Duke Energy is testing a battery technology that can store and discharge electricity up to three times longer than today's technology.

But batteries can do more than store energy. In addition to being a backup source of power, batteries can help strengthen the grid by managing the flow of electricity. The swings in solar generation as the sun shifts causes fluctuations in voltage and frequency, which can result in flickering lights or power outages. Grid-connected batteries can stabilize it.

"Grid operations are complex," she said, "so we're adding more renewables and less carbon while maintaining the same affordability and reliability that customers count on."

Meeks recently worked on Duke Energy's most advanced solar-and-battery microgrid, in Hot Springs, N.C.

The 2-megawatt solar installation is paired with a 4.4-megawatt battery that provides backup power and reliability for the remote mountain town of 500 people in Pisgah National Forest.

Hot Springs receives electricity from power lines that run through about 10 miles of rugged terrain. That means there are limited options for rerouting electricity and frequent, extended outages until repairs are made.

"Duke Energy has numerous smaller microgrids on our system, but this is our first microgrid that can power an entire small town if its main power line experiences an outage," said Jason Handley, general manager of Duke Energy's Distributed Energy Group.

The Hot Springs microgrid, Meeks said, will help the team continue to learn how to integrate similar systems in Indiana and Florida.

As part of its net-zero carbon emissions goal, Duke Energy plans to have nearly 30 gigawatts of energy storage operating by 2050. Much of that will be battery storage.

Meeks' team is continuously looking for potential battery sites to make that goal a reality. Once they find a site that meets environmental and logistical requirements, her team takes the project from construction to completion.

It requires working with residents and teams from across the company including engineering, construction, grid operations and planning.

"It takes a creative mindset," she said. "You're never static in your role if you're working in the energy industry today."

As the investments in grid modernization, renewable energy and emerging technologies like batteries grow, Meeks said she would encourage others - especially women - to consider a career in energy.

She looks forward to finding new sites to deploy batteries but also the idea of reimagining retired coal-fired power plants as new homes for batteries and microgrids. These sites could be a good fit for new, carbon-free power sources since they already have a community familiar with the company and infrastructure to transmit electricity, which means lower construction costs.

"It's a really exciting concept to not only reimagine the grid of the future but reimagine the sites that have been utilized traditionally for power plants as a part of the clean energy transition," she said. "We really are planting the seeds of the future."

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