(Bloomberg) — Duke Energy Corp., the largest U.S. utility
owner by market value, agreed to build a battery-based energy-storage system at a shuttered coal plant in Ohio with LG Chem
Ltd. and Greensmith Energy Management Systems LLC.
The 2-megawatt project can deliver power in seconds and
will “enhance reliability and increase stability” on the grid,
the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said Tuesday in a
statement. LG Chem will provide the operating system and
batteries, while Greensmith will supply software and grid-integration services. Terms were not disclosed.
The project, which will be built at the site of Duke’s
retired W.C. Beckjord coal plant in New Richmond, is expected to
open later this year and will complement a separate 2-megawatt
storage system already in place. PJM Interconnection LLC, which
runs the biggest U.S. power market, will use the batteries to
help manage the electricity grid. Duke said it owns about 15
percent of the nation’s battery-backed, grid-connected storage
capacity.
The systems “can instantaneously absorb excess energy from
the grid or release energy,” Phil Grigsby, Duke’s vice
president of commercial transmission, said in the statement.
“Delivering that power in seconds, as opposed to a power plant
that could take 10 minutes or more to ramp up, is the unique
value the battery system provides.”
To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Doom in New York at
jdoom1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Jim Efstathiou Jr., Will Wade