Duke Energy Florida completes work on three battery storage projects
Duke Energy Florida recently finished three battery storage projects in Gilchrist, Gulf, and Highlands counties in Florida.
The three facilities can store nearly 34 megawatts of energy.
“Duke Energy Florida is committed to a clean energy future for our customers and communities,” Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president, said. “With each new battery site, Duke Energy takes another important step in expanding new storage technologies in Florida while maximizing benefits to our customers and the grid.”
The largest of the three is an 18-megawatt lithium battery site at the company’s 45-megawatt Lake Placid Solar Power Plant in Highlands County. The addition of battery storage to the utility-scale solar plant is the first of its kind for Duke Energy Florida. It will allow solar energy to be dispatchable by the company’s grid operators, which improves overall plant efficiency.
The next largest is the 11-megawatt Trenton lithium battery facility located 30 miles west of Gainesville in Gilchrist County.
The third is the 5.5-megawatt Cape San Blas lithium battery facility located approximately 40 miles southeast of Panama City in Gulf County. The project is an economical alternative to replacing distribution equipment necessary to accommodate local growth.
This year, Duke Energy Florida will have six battery sites operating in the state, totaling 50 megawatts of energy storage.
Later this year, a 3.5-megawatt solar plus storage microgrid site will be added at Pinellas County’s John Hopkins Middle School. The microgrid will support grid operations and provide backup electric power to the school when operating as a hurricane evacuation shelter.
Overall, Duke Energy Florida’s solar generation portfolio will include 25 grid-tied solar power plants, which will provide 1,500 megawatts of emission-free generation. The plan is to have approximately 5 million solar panels in the ground by 2024.
Duke Energy Florida is also investing in transportation electrification to support the growing U.S. adoption of electric vehicles (EV). It has developed 627 EV charging stations, including 52 DC Fast Chargers.
Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, provides 10,200 megawatts of owned electric capacity to approximately 1.9 million customers in Florida.
