Duke Energy restyles retired Ohio coal plant into battery storage facility

Dive Brief:

Duke Energy has begun selling frequency regulations services to the PJM Interconnection from a new 2-MW battery system at its retired W.C. Beckjord coal-fired plant in New Richmond, Ohio, Bloomberg reports.
The lithium-ion batteries were delivered by LG Chem and are controlled by software designed and provided by Greensmith.
The 2-MW battery system doubles Duke’s storage capacity at Beckjord to 4 MW.

Dive Insight:

Duke Energy's move to recycle a retired coal plant into a site for energy storage could open a new avenue for other utilities plotting ideas for similarly-fated facilities.

Duke, working with LG Chem and Greensmith, has begun selling frequency regulation services to the PJM Interconnection from its retired W.C. Beckjord coal plant in New Richmond, Ohio.

"Locating the storage system at our retired coal plant allowed us to take advantage of the grid infrastructure already in place and repurpose the site for use with new, relevant technology," Phil Grigsby, Duke Energy's senior vice president of commercial transmission, said.

LG Chem provided the project's 2 MW energy storage operating system, comprised of advanced lithium-ion batteries. The batteries use Greensmith’s GEMS energy storage software platform to manage the system's performance, providing synchronized response to signals dispatched every two seconds. Parker Hannifin provided a 2 MW power conversion inverter.

Work on installing the system began in August 2015. The system entered service on Nov. 18.

With the installation of the new batteries at Beckjord, Duke now operates 4 MW of energy storage at the Beckjord site. A first 2 MW battery system at Beckjord entered commercial operation in January 2015. During any given 24 hour period, the system responds more or less continuously either charging or discharging energy, depending on whether the system is above or below the target frequency.

Duke has no “imminent plans” to add more storage capacity at Beckjord, but it is “not out of the realm of the possible,” spokeswoman Tammie McGee said.

Duke also owns and operates a 36 MW energy storage system at its Notrees Windpower Project in Texas. The final two coal-fired units at Beckjord, totaling about 700 MW, plant were closed in September 2014.