Duke Energy now monitoring and controlling more than 3.5 GW of wind and solar

The power company’s control center is now serving 2.5 GW of wind and solar and batteries owned by Duke, as well as 1 GW by third-party generators.

August 1, 2016 Christian Roselund

As a power company in the U.S. south that has not been encouraging of rooftop solar the service area of its utility division, Duke Energy may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of monitoring large fleets of renewable energy assets.

However, last week Duke announced that its renewable energy division is now monitoring and controlling more than 3.5 GW of wind, solar and battery plants in the United States through the Duke Energy Renewables Control Center.

This includes 2.5 GW of wind, solar and battery projects owned by Duke Energy Renewables and 1 GW of assets owned by by third parties.

The center is registered as a generator-operator with the North American Reliability Council (NERC), and is registered to operate in both Texas’ ERCOT grid and the PJM Interconnection grid, which covers parts of 10 states in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.

Among other services, the Control Center is able to provide information about plant scheduling, generation status and curtailment, as well as day-ahead and seven-day production forecasts.

As part of the announcement, Duke notes that it is enhancing cyber security and other capabilities at the center due to the larger role that it is taking on.

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