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Tag: battery storage

Dominion files energy plan that includes more wind, nuclear

Dominion Energy Virginia filed its 2024 Integrated Resource Plan on Tuesday with the Virginia State Corporation Commission and the North Carolina Utilities Commission, setting out its long-term plans for energy generation over the next 15 years. The report calls for more offshore wind and solar energy development, as well as small modular nuclear reactors starting in the mid-2030s, according to Dominion’s news release.

More battery storage facilities are also part of the plan. Natural gas will produce about 20% of all power generated for its service area in the future, and the remaining 80% is expected to be carbon-free energy, the Fortune 500 utility said in its statement. Dominion notes, however, that the IRP is an estimate for the next 15 years.

“Given uncertainty in technological development and changing laws over an extended 15-year period, the company’s path forward is likely a combination of these portfolios as well as incorporation of new technologies as they become commercially available,” the plan says.

In broad terms, Dominion’s plans include:

  • Approximately 3,400 megawatts of new offshore wind in addition to the 2,600-megawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project currently under development off the coast of Virginia Beach
  • About 12,000 megawatts of new solar energy, a more than 150% increase to solar energy Dominion currently has in operation or under development
  • About 4,500 megawatts of new battery storage
  • Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) beginning in the mid-2030s
  • Natural gas will be used as backup power “to ensure the lights stay on when the company’s growing wind and solar fleet are not producing electricity.”

Dominion’s investment in wind and nuclear energy, as well as increasing electricity demands related to data center growth, have been in the headlines recently.

Power demand is expected to grow 5.5% annually over the next decade in Dominion’s service areas in Virginia and North Carolina and double by 2039, according to a forecast by PJM, the regional transmission organization that runs the electrical grid in 12 states and Washington, D.C., including Virginia.

“We are experiencing the largest growth in power demand since the years following World War II,” Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia, said in a statement. “No single energy source, grid solution or energy efficiency program will reliably serve the growing needs of our customers. We need an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach, and we are developing innovative solutions to ensure we deliver for our customers. I am proud of the affordability we deliver, with residential rates 14% below the national average, and as shown in the plan we intend to continue that focus. Our comprehensive plan ensures we can always deliver reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy — day or night, rain or shine, winter or summer.”

The “all-of-the-above” plan echoes one voiced by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has pushed development of small nuclear reactors throughout his term as governor. Under the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act, Dominion is required to shift to carbon-free, renewable energy sources for electricity generation by 2045.

In July, Dominion officials said they were issuing a request for proposals to potentially develop an SMR from nuclear technology companies, stressing that it was not a commitment to build an SMR at the North Anna nuclear power plant in Louisa County, but the first step in evaluating the feasibility of doing so. In August, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved 20-year extensions for North Anna’s two nuclear reactors, allowing them to operate through 2058 and 2060.

Meanwhile, Dominion has moved forward on its $9.8 billion CVOW project and made other moves to increase wind energy production in the future. By the end of the month, the utility expects to have about half of the monopile foundations installed for 174 turbines, with the 2.6-gigawatt offshore wind farm’s completion set for 2026. In Tuesday’s announcement, Dominion says the project is on time and on budget.

Also, in July, a Dominion subsidiary agreed to purchase the Kitty Hawk North Wind offshore wind lease from Avangrid for $160 million. The 40,000-acre lease will be renamed CVOW-South and will be capable of 800 megawatts of offshore wind generation in the 2030s, enough to serve 200,000 customers. In August, Dominion won a 176,505-acre lease about 35 nautical miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay for a $17.65 million bid in a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management auction. That area could support between 2.1 gigawatts and 4.0 gigawatts of electricity, in addition to other wind energy generated at CVOW.

According to the IRP, in 2023, the utility delivered 36% of all power to customers via natural gas, 29.2% by nuclear, 22.7% by third-party power purchases, and 5% by coal. Renewable energy produced by Dominion or purchased from third-party solar and energy storage resources represents 5% of all power delivered to customers last year.

The plan also notes that Dominion has completed more than 90 miles of new and rebuilt transmission lines and 13 new substations in the first half of 2024, projects that improve electric grid infrastructure.

Dominion pitches state on $70M battery storage pilot

Dominion Energy Virginia is asking the state to allow it to test two technologies that it says could lengthen the time its batteries can electrify the grid from an average of four hours to longer than four days.

In a 117-page filing made Monday with the State Corporation Commission, Dominion said its Darbytown Storage Pilot Project, based at Henrico County’s Darbytown Power Station, would test two alternatives to in-demand lithium-ion batteries, which are currently used in a range of products from power tools to electric vehicles and by energy storage systems. The project proposes testing an iron-air battery pilot, developed by Somerville, Massachusetts-based Form Energy, and a zinc-hybrid battery developed by New Jersey-based Eos Energy Enterprises. Together, the batteries comprise a total 8.94 megawatts.

Form Energy’s iron-air batteries are based on a process called “reversible rusting.” While discharging, the battery breathes oxygen from the iron, covering iron to rust. While charging, an electrical current converts rust back to iron and the battery breathes out oxygen. The technology has the potential to store energy for as long as 100 hours, according to the SCC filing.

“This technology has the potential to store renewable energy and make it available when and where it is needed, even during multiple days of extreme weather, grid outages, or periods of low renewable generation,” Dominion wrote in its SCC filing.

Eos Energy’s zinc-hybrid batteries can discharge energy across a wide range of operations between three and 12 hours. The systems store electricity by converting zinc dissolved in water to zinc metal deposited on an electrically conductive surface. According to MIT Technology Review, that system makes them more stable so they won’t ignite. The company received a nearly $400 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to construct production lines in August.

The proposed project comes as Dominion plans for its 2.6-gigawatt, $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, and expands its solar fleet and battery storage fleet, including the Dulles Solar and Storage Project at Washington Dulles International Airport.

The current batteries in Dominion’s fleet are, on average, limited to four hours or less, the company said. Additionally, lithium-ion batteries have been subject to price volatility and supply chain issues, and competition from the electric vehicle market could make matters worse. Long duration energy storage sources “will be critical to the future of the electric grid where there will be increased intermittent renewable generation,” Dominion said in its filing.

“We are making the grid increasingly clean in Virginia with historic investments in offshore wind and solar,” Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia, said in a statement. “With longer-duration batteries in the mix, this project could be a transformational step forward, helping us safely discharge stored energy when it is needed most by our customers.”

In addition to SCC approval, the project requires development plan approval from Henrico County. Dominion said construction would begin by late 2024, and the project would be operational by late 2026. The cost to test the two batteries is estimated at $70.6 million.

Dominion Energy Virginia operates three battery facilities in Powhatan, New Kent and Hanover counties and has battery storage facilities under development in Chesterfield and Sussex Counties, as well as Dulles, in Loudoun County.