Leaders from Duke Energy will provide an in-depth overview of one of the most advanced microgrids in the country, discussing the details of the microgrid project, the protection and control challenges and solutions, and lessons learned from operation experience.

Hot Springs, North Carolina, with a population of just over 500, has limited re-routing options should an outage occur, and the town has experienced a higher-than-normal number of long-duration outages. A microgrid was proposed as a pilot program to the North Carolina Utilities Commission as part of Duke Energy’s Western Carolina Modernization project. The main requirement for the microgrid was to pick up the town’s entire load from a black start without any help from the energy grid – using only solar and battery storage to restore power. The microgrid consists of a 2-megawatt (AC) solar facility and a 4.4-megawatt lithium-based battery storage facility.

During this discussion, we will discuss the unique protection and control philosophies for a distribution system used to handle the challenges of an inverter-based-resource (IBR)-dominated system. We will also spend time on the details of the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) validation process that provides a high degree of confidence that the engineering solution provides secure and dependable operation. To round out the meeting, Duke Energy will provide lessons learned on operating experience for this microgrid after more than a year in service.

**Lunch and refreshments provided by BridgeSource Utilities Solutions**

Co-sponsored by: BridgeSource Utilities Solutions

Seminole Electric Cooperative Inc. , 16313 N Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, Florida, United States, 33618