Honeywell, Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions to co-develop energy resiliency programs for targeted markets
Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions (DESS) and Honeywell announced this week that they have agreed to together shore up energy resiliency for select communities within the United States.
“A smart city starts with resilient and sustainable energy resources,” Matthew Britt, general manager of Smart Cities and Communities for Honeywell Building Technologies, said. “Our collaboration with DESS will create energy resiliency programs that help cities and communities better prepare for unexpected events as well as help manage and measure progress of their long-term environmental, social and governance goals.”
The companies will combine their expertise concerning smart city Internet of Things technologies and distributed energy, along with the distributed energy resources of DESS and the battery storage systems of Honeywell, to build up reliable power access to communities of varying shapes and sizes. These will be deployed alongside city-owned assets to oversee microgrid deployments. In this way, the companies intend to strengthen overall energy security and produce scaled solutions capable of lessening the impact of power outages and climate change-induced grid disruptions.
These changes have already caused numerous bouts of extreme weather, which seem to be increasing in frequency year after year. In 2020, for example, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that U.S. electricity customers experienced more than eight hours of interruptions to their power service, the most since reliability data collection began in 2013. Such events can leave communities without power, water distribution, wastewater treatment, and more.
“Investing in energy infrastructure is a national priority that requires strategic vision, innovative solutions, and a world-class team to implement effectively,” Robert Vary, senior vice president of Sales and Relationship Management for Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions, said. “Our alliance with Honeywell expands our reach, strengthens our capabilities, and accelerates our ability to innovate for cities nationwide.”
Under their arrangement, Honeywell will lead the solutions development side of things, utilizing its City Suite Software – an AI-enabled IoT platform that takes data from critical city infrastructure systems and merges them into a single display – building technologies and system-of-systems command and control options. However, Duke will own and operate the energy assets.
