Hurricane Helene underscores need for more solar-battery microgrids

Hurricane Helene underscores need for more solar-battery microgrids

By Jeff St. John | 18 October 2024

Distributed solar and batteries are helping North Carolina communities that were cut off from grid power by flooding. Should utilities build them into resilience plans?

For years, Duke Energy has studied the threats that climate change poses to its power grid. It has produced tomes forecasting the risk to its power lines, substations, and power plants from fires, heat waves, and floods.

But the scope of Hurricane Helene’s devastation in the utility’s inland Carolinas territories — more than 350 substations disabled and a handful completely destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people still without power a week after the floodwaters receded — has blown its risk forecasts out of the water.

Now, as tens of thousands of utility workers from across the country struggle to rebuild swaths of Duke’s grid from the ground up, energy experts warn that it and other utilities must start to consider alternatives to the century-old paradigm of utility poles, wires, and substations — like distributed power and microgrids.

Solar panels and batteries can power homes, businesses, churches, schools, and sometimes entire towns. These clean, distributed energy systems can reduce or replace the need for fossil-fueled backup generators during emergencies. They can also provide clean energy to the grid under normal conditions, helping to lower reliance on the fossil-fueled power plants responsible for climate change.

In parts of western North Carolina and South Carolina where floods swamped towns and knocked out highways, these technologies may be more cost-effective investments in climate resiliency than trying to harden traditional grid infrastructure against extreme weather.

Just how valuable distributed energy could be as an additional layer of protection against these threats is not yet clear, however. That’s largely because utilities and regulators haven’t fully baked those options into their existing methods of assessing climate change risks to their grids.

“It’s always hard right after these storms to talk about next steps, because all energy and time has to be spent on the emergency response,” said Jenny Brennan, a climate analyst at the nonprofit Southern Environmental Law Center. At the same time, it’s important to think ahead about ​“how to build for the next time a storm comes, so you’re more resilient as a community, and hopefully don’t have the same scale of destruction.”

In 2021 and 2022, Brennan was a member of a technical working group advising Duke on a climate resilience and adaptation study. That multiyear project assessed climate risks to a grid serving a roughly 56,000-square-mile service area in North Carolina and South Carolina. But that grid-focused report also touched on the idea of ​“supporting and encouraging local power options” such as microgrids, rooftop solar, and community solar.

Those distributed energy resources may be particularly well-suited for the mountainous, harder-to-reach parts of Duke Energy’s territory, Brennan said. ​“We’ve got to consider these different needs, and design an infrastructure that can be adaptive and address these problems.”

The utility-centric option: advanced microgrids

The more remote the town, the costlier it is to connect it to the grid — and to ensure that the connection remains intact. That’s why Duke Energy created a microgrid in Hot Springs, a town of about 535 residents just under 40 miles northwest of Asheville.

That project wasn’t cheap — Duke spent about $14.5 million to install 2 megawatts of solar power and 4.4 megawatt-hours of battery storage along with technology to control it as a grid resource. But according to the utility, that was cheaper than the grid upgrade required to provide the town with reliable power.

Hot Springs is connected to Duke’s larger grid by a single 10-mile power line that crosses mountainous and wooded terrain. The line is subject to frequent outages. Duke easily won regulatory approval in 2019 to build the cheaper microgrid instead of a second power line as a backup.

During Hurricane Helene’s aftermath, the microgrid was quickly restored and started providing power to Hot Springs’ downtown area after ​“the substation that fed the town was washed away by the floods,” Jason Handley, general manager of Duke’s Distributed Energy Group, wrote in a LinkedIn post. ​“Depending on solar output, we’ve also been able to bring on other load segments for periods of time.”

Duke is planning more microgrids at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and at a middle school that serves as a hurricane evacuation shelter in Florida. But at present, microgrids — or what Duke Energy calls ​“non-traditional solutions” — play only a minor role in the utility’s broader grid plans.

That’s largely because they are deemed cost-effective only for the most remote and vulnerable communities on its grid.

“If an energy storage system is the most cost-effective, feasible approach, Duke Energy will then pursue further development of the project,” the utility wrote in its climate resilience plan. Once such projects are identified, ​“the development cycle for these efforts is typically on the order of seven years.”

The basics for customers: rooftop solar and batteries

Tyler Norris, a Duke University doctoral fellow and former solar developer and special adviser at the Department of Energy, thinks that utilities like Duke Energy should look at more options than utility-managed microgrids.

“There needs to be an entire report dedicated to the role of distributed energy resources on a medium- and long-term solution set,” he said — including the kind of distributed energy that could have helped his elderly parents, whose home in Fairview, North Carolina, was without power for more than nine days after Hurricane Helene.

Norris spent a week with his parents, helping them manage without power or running water. ​“They have their own spring, but because we didn’t have power for the water pump, you have to haul water up the mountainside by hand,” he said. ​“I was trying to use a gas generator to charge our electric vehicle, which required jury-rigging it to the house ground.”

Rooftop solar systems can provide enough power to run a handful of household necessities — like a water pump — during daytime hours, he said. But most residential systems aren’t designed to keep power flowing during grid outages. Typically, these systems shut off when the grid goes down, a safety feature meant to prevent power from the solar panels from flowing back through downed utility lines and electrocuting utility workers doing repairs.

“It’s shocking how many of these existing behind-the-meter solar systems were not designed to provide any form of backup power,” Norris said. Some more recently installed systems are designed to disconnect from the grid and stay on during outages, but that’s far from universal. ​“I suspect that’s going to be an area of focus going forward.”

Some new high-end residential developments like Babcock Ranch and Hunters Point in Florida have been built with solar power and batteries designed to function during broader grid outages. But such microgrid-enabled communities are few and far between in the U.S., and the cost of solar and batteries remains out of reach for many households.

Meanwhile, utilities aren’t incentivized to promote solar and batteries for their customers, since their proliferation could erode utility revenues. Like most investor-owned utilities, Duke Energy has pushed to reduce the value of rooftop solar for customers, saying that it unfairly shifts costs from homes that can afford solar onto its broader customer base.

While the utility has promoted an alternative program that rewards customers for installing batteries that can shift residential solar power to times when it’s more valuable to the grid at large, that program is in its early stages, and rooftop solar advocates say it’s insufficient.

“Unless there’s a major change in incentives — which may require legislation — this will have to be driven from the ground up by local governments and community organizations,” Norris said.

Community resilience hubs: power for neighbors to help neighbors

That’s the route Michelle Moore, CEO of Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit Groundswell, is pushing for at community resilience centers in the Southeast. Her group has helped finance solar and battery projects for churches and community centers that already provide shelter and food for people in need.

One of those projects at the Vicars Community Center at the Community Church Atlanta rode through Hurricane Helene without losing power. But if it had, ​“there’s enough battery storage to keep critical systems going for three days, even if it can’t be recharged by solar,” she said. ​“If the sun shines, it can go on and on.”

Duke Energy PowerPair Update

Duke Energy PowerPair Update

Save now and in the future with an incentive on rooftop solar plus battery backup.

PowerPair from Duke Energy provides incentives for customers who want to combine the savings and green attributes of solar power with the reliability and security of backup battery storage. Participating North Carolina homeowners can earn one-time installation incentives when they have a Duke Energy Trade Ally install a qualified solar + battery system. Trade Allies are skilled professionals who have been vetted by Duke Energy and can be found by using the Find it Duke referral tool.

 

 
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
International Day of Clean Energy | United Nations

International Day of Clean Energy | United Nations

January 26th, 2024 marks the first ever International Day of Clean Energy. Renu Energy Solutions recognizes the significance of today as a positive step forward towards a better planet.

International Day of Clean Energy is a platform to drive the adoption of policies and practices to promote awareness on the sustainable use of energy resources and to strengthen collaboration and cooperation to promote the global energy transition.

Click the source below to read more.

Source: International Day of Clean Energy | United Nations

Pay Your Power Bill Promotion

The Renu Way to Zero - $0 Power Bill Payments!

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Find Out How Renu Energy Solutions Can Pay Your Power Bill TODAY!!

For a limited time, choose Renu Energy Solutions as your solar energy partner, and we’ll pay your power bill!! This promotion is for residential purchasers who have signed a fully executed solar power generation system installation agreement between January 22nd, 2024 and February 2nd, 2024. This means NO POWER BILL until May 31, 2024, courtesy of Renu Energy Solutions.

How Does This Promotion Work?

Once we have a signed agreement, installing your new solar system takes some time. And since your goal is to save money on your power bill, why not start saving rig ht now? For a limited time, choose Renu Energy Solutions as your solar energy partner, and we’ll pay your power bill until your system is in place and up and running! This is the Renu Way to Zero, a 2024 initiative where we’re striving to get every customer to ZERO!Pay Your Power Bill

To qualify and stay qualified for the promotion, the purchaser must fulfill purchaser’s contractual obligations and submit each qualified power bill for reimbursement within 7 (seven) days of the bill date on the qualified power bill. This promotion cannot be combined with any other offer, promotion or rebate guarantee from either Renu Energy Solutions, the finance company or a solar equipment manufacturer. If applicable, purchaser may still be eligible for rebates paid directly from a utility. Certain restrictions apply*, ask your Energy Consultant for details.

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There are several ways to reach out to us. You can call us at (704) 525-6767, email solar@renuenergysolutions.com or fill out our CONTACT FORM shown below. From there, we’ll get you set up to start saving TODAY!!

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*Terms & Conditions

  1. The reimbursement is for a single meter for a residential electric utility bill for a single-family home. If the residential customer has multiple meters with the electric utility, the meter which will be tied to the Solar system will be the meter that is eligible for
    the Promotion.
  2. Electric bills with a bill date prior to the solar agreement signing are not eligible for Promotion.
  3. Other utility bills such as Telephone, Internet, Gas, Propane and Water (among others) are NOT eligible for Promotion. 
  4. Charges and Fees on the electric bill related to late payments or non-payments are NOT eligible for Promotion.
  5. Charges and Fees for add-ons to the utility bill such as lightbulbs or other discretionary non-electric charges are NOT eligible for Promotion. Only for charges associated with fixed and usage portions of the monthly bill. 
  6. Contracts for solar systems under 6 KWdc are NOT eligible for Promotion.
  7. This Promotion cannot be combined with any other offer, promotion or rebate guarantee from either Renu Energy Solutions, the finance company or a solar equipment manufacturer. If applicable, Purchaser may still be eligible for rebates paid directly from a utility.
  8. If Customer (at their own request) delays the installation of the solar project for any reason, then the Customer will no longer be eligible for Promotion.
  9. Any Force Majeure Event; “Force Majeure Event” means any event, condition or circumstance beyond the control of and not caused by Renu Energy Solutions fault or negligence. It shall include, without limitation, failure or interruption of the production, delivery or acceptance of power due to: an act of god; war (declared or undeclared); sabotage; riot; insurrection; civil unrest or disturbance; military or guerilla action; terrorism; economic sanction or embargo; civil strike, work stoppage, slow-down, or lock-out; explosion; fire; earthquake; abnormal weather condition or actions of the elements; hurricane; flood; lightning; wind; drought; the binding order of any governmental authority (provided that such order has been resisted in good faith by all reasonable legal means); the failure to act on the part of any governmental authority (provided that such action has been timely requested and diligently pursued); unavailability of power from the utility grid, equipment, supplies or products (but not to the extent that any such availability of any of the foregoing results from Renu Energy Solutions failure to have exercised reasonable diligence); power or voltage surge caused by someone other than Renu Energy Solutions.

Duke Energy’s 2024 PowerPair Rebate

There is GREAT NEWS from the folks at Duke Energy – North Carolina!!

The 2024 Duke Energy PowerPair Incentive was established in response to a requirement from the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC). This program was designed to test how distributed solar and battery storage helps stabilize North Carolina’s power grid while reducing the need for peak power plant capacity. The program was approved January 11, 2024, but all of North Carolina is still waiting to receive several details, including the enrollment window and more. The PowerPair Incentive offers North Carolina customers a powerful incentive to adopt solar + battery storage with cash incentives up to $9000. Renu Energy Solutions is excited to provide the following details:

This unprecedented program is available to residential customers who install new solar panels and a battery storage system. The customer must own the premises and could own or lease the installed equipment.

2024 Duke Energy PowerPair Incentive Timeline

January: The Duke Energy NC PowerPair Incentive Program is approved by the NCUC.
February: Duke Energy deadline to file tariffs outlining the application process.
March: Deadline for NCUC to provide comments.
May: PowerPair application process expects to go live!

Participants would receive monetary incentives from Duke to offset the cost of installed equipment*:

  • Solar Incentive: $0.36/watt for solar panels to a maximum of 10 kW; capped at $3,600/residence
  • Battery Incentive: $400/kWh for battery storage to a maximum of 13.5 kWh = up to $5400

*System’s export to the grid could not exceed 20 kW at any time.

What Else You Need to Know About this Incentive

Participants would be required to select net energy metering (NEM) as their electric tariff and be divided into two cohorts:

  • Cohort A: served under the time-of-use (TOU) rates and would have complete control of the use of the energy storage device. 
  • Cohort B: served under the Bridge Rate and Duke Energy, or a third party, would have control over the battery storage device.

They are also required to participate in a new demand response program called Battery Control*.

*Under Battery Control, the customers’ battery could be controlled by Duke up to 18 times per winter season (Dec-Mar). Additionally up to 9 times per summer (May-Sep) and up to 9 times in the remaining months. A minimum of 30/year, maximum 36/year (referred to as Control Events**). 

**A Control Event is defined as the initiation of a signal to control the battery and, within 48 hours later, a discharging of the battery by Duke. Duke will not discharge the battery below a 20% state of charge, but would reserve the right to call interruptions outside of the above parameters in the event that the utility’s continuity of service was in jeopardy.

In Conclusion – from Renu Energy Solutions

This is a fantastic opportunity for North Carolina homeowners who have Duke Energy (DEP and DEC) to save up to $9000 on their solar + battery storage system. Furthermore, there is the potential to receive additional monthly discounts. But please note: at the time of this press release, THE PROGRAM HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED!! Renu Energy Solutions prides itself in educating and advising our clients when we are certain the information is accurate and truthful. If you have been told by other solar companies that they can hold your spot, or that you qualify for the rebates right now, it’s simply NOT TRUE. We encourage you to CLICK HERE and visit the Duke Energy Rebate portal. If it’s not listed, it’s not live!

To learn more about this program and other exciting solar and battery storage options, including how Renu Energy Solutions can pay your energy bill, please fill out the form on this page or CONTACT US for your free consultation!