Energy storage will not only help North Carolina replace coal-powered electricity in the state in the coming decades but may also offset the need for new natural gas plants as well.
A study of the energy storage landscape was submitted to the state’s General Assembly in early December that will serve as a roadmap to help lawmakers and regulators fully develop the technology. North Carolina is currently in the initial phases of deploying energy storage facilities; however, the report authored by the team of university experts concluded that storing electricity could not only smooth out peak demand periods, but would also become a reliable everyday piece of the region’s fuel mix.
“In the moderate range of capacity, like the 300 megawatts (MW) of energy storage capacity that Duke Energy has proposed to build over the next 15 years, power storage could offset the construction of a gas power plant altogether,” said Jeremiah Johnson, a member of the report’s team of authors and an associate professor at North Carolina State University. “At the high end, more than a gigawatt (GW), you can offset the need for multiple power plants.”
The report notes that North Carolina is facing an increasing penetration of renewable energy amid pressure to decrease coal-fired electricity production. “We believe that now is the appropriate time to consider the role that energy storage may play in the state’s future power system. Energy storage can help ensure reliable service, decrease costs to rate payers, and reduce the environmental impacts of electricity production,” the report said.
A team of experts from North Carolina State and North Carolina Central University was given the task by the legislature of assessing the potential for energy storage in the state under a bill signed in 2017. The study team looked at a wide range of potential benefits and challenges to energy storage in a state where the technology is just getting off the ground.
The group was dubbed the NC Policy Collaboratory and looked at battery, stored hydropower, and ice thermal storage. Because of the ability needed to store electricity for literally a rainy day, the group focused on three issues: identifying regulatory steps needed to allow energy storage expansion to proceed, including assisting local governments with decisions on zoning and other land-use permitting; determining what policies are necessary to make energy storage cost effective; and recommending steps that will increase the pace of energy storage deployment.
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