Duke's planned lithium battery facility to support current electric grid

When the words “lithium-ion battery” and “Lake James” are used in the same sentence, some folks in western Burke County will no doubt be up in arms.

But they needn’t worry: The lithium-ion battery storage facility Duke Energy is building on N.C. 126 near the lake has nothing to do with the controversy surrounding the proposed Great Meadows megasite, which opponents suspect is the future home of a lithium battery plant.

It’s simply a way to store energy in order to supplement the power grid as a whole and to provide energy when power is out in the area. 

Use of such storage sites is common across the U.S., and they are generally considered safe for the environment.

The county’s board of adjustment last week approved Duke’s request to establish and operate the storage facility on a leased, 2.25-acre tract near Fish Hatchery Road. The site will store 2.7 megawatts (MW) of energy that will supplement the grid on a day-to-day basis and will allow customers to keep their power on during widespread outages.

Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks explained what the system will do.

“On a normal day, that battery is just helping support the grid as a whole,” Brooks said. “When we need it, we can pull power from it for a couple of hours on maybe a really hot day like we have today, for some extra power. Every little bit counts, and that’s a resource we’ll have that’s connected to the electric grid that will help support the power grid in that area.”

Brooks said the nearby community of around 250 residences would benefit from the fact the facility can operate independently of the main grid to power their homes for up to three hours.

“When we have an extended outage, like after a major storm, and we’ve lost power, we can use it in what we call islanded mode, which means it’s essentially separate from the grid and powers that community for up to about three hours,” Brooks said.

Brooks explained in some communities, Duke is able to install ‘self-healing’ technology, which can reroute power from one line to another in order to restore as many customers as possible. Because of the rugged topography of areas around the lake, the company can’t install self-healing equipment.

“We’re strategically deploying these energy storage systems in areas where it can deliver really good benefits to customers,” Brooks said, “and these technologies are very important as we shift toward a cleaner future, without having to sacrifice reliability in the process.”

Brooks added construction should start this year and the project will take about 12 months to complete. 

Deputy County Manager Alan Glines said the site won’t be obtrusive. It will be screened from view by landscaping and will be accessed by a driveway. The battery boxes themselves are about 10 feet tall. Security fencing will surround the complex. 

Glines added an adjacent area will be used for a lay-down area during construction and will be replanted after construction is finished. He said Duke Energy has leased another area that will be used entirely for screening the site from view.

Duke has been expanding its storage capabilities for more than a year. Last March, it opened the state’s largest such operation, an 11-MW project in Onslow County. Other lithium-ion battery storage systems in Western N.C. include a 9-MW operation in Asheville and a 4-MW site at Hot Springs in Madison County.

The company insists the technology is environmentally safe and is essential to the proliferation of clean energy in the U.S.

The 1,353-acre megasite that straddles the border of Burke and McDowell has been a subject of contention in recent months. Despite numerous statements to the contrary by county officials, opponents of the site are convinced it is the planned future home of a lithium-ion battery production or mining operation.

Last fall, the General Assembly approved a $35.8 million appropriation for the purchase of the land and installation of infrastructure. The sale has not been finalized because the entire property must first be zoned for industrial use. That will require a decision by the Burke Board of Commissioners.