(NC) Duke Energy building PV to study impact on grid.

[phantom power]

The main driver behind the project is North Carolina’s renewable portfolio standard, which requires the utility to satisfy 12.5 percent of its customers’ power needs with renewables or energy efficiency by 2021. The law requires that a growing portion of that renewable goal be met with solar energy, starting at 0.02 percent of the electricity sold by 2010 and rising to 0.2 percent by 2018.

But there are other reasons behind Duke’s decision to own and operate the facilities, according to Owen Smith, the utility’s managing director of renewable energy strategy. “We believe distributed generation will grow in prevalence as customers make these investments on their own,” Smith said. “We felt this was something we needed to get ahead of to understand the impact distributed generation would have on the grid.”

No single rooftop array on its own could disrupt Duke’s distribution network, but a large number concentrated in one area could lead to imbalances on a circuit, Smith said. By analyzing the data from the 10 MW project, the power company hopes to understand the limits of its electricity network and avoid potential problems. But distributed generation is also an opportunity for Duke, Smith said. With solar arrays strategically placed closer to the demand, the grid should become more robust, and the plan offers the power company a new way to interact with its customers, Smith said.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/08/utilities-hatch-ambitious-plans-to-own-and-operate-large-scale-pv-projects?cmpid=WNL-Friday-August14-2009