Our clean energy future relies on several factors, including renewable energy development, efficient energy generation and usage, and something that may surprise you…
Energy storage.
If you think about it, most of us already participate in energy storage on a smaller scale. We keep batteries for tools, toys, and electronics, and we even charge our electric vehicles at gas stations and parking garages. At our company, we store energy on a larger scale, ensuring that we have power ready to go when our customers need it.
Our energy storage facilities – including our hydroelectric pumped storage plant in Ludington – store enough power to cover the needs of more than 700,000 customers between four and 12 hours of peak energy use each day. This means our customers are at lower risk for power interruption and the overall strain on the grid is reduced. As we build more energy storage facilities, these benefits will only grow.
Our first large-scale battery energy storage system, the Slocum facility in Trenton, will soon be joined by our new Trenton Channel Energy Center – which will be the Great Lakes region’s largest battery storage facility – on the site of a former coal-fired electric plant. Both sites will store and serve abundant energy – including power generated by wind and solar resources – helping reduce Michigan’s overall carbon footprint while reusing existing infrastructure to connect to the grid.
By 2028, we plan to bring several additional energy storage facilities online across the state, more than doubling our current total storage capacity. This is good news for Michigan’s clean energy future; as we build more solar and wind developments, our new energy storage facilities will save and distribute renewable energy as our customers need it. At our company, we’re committed to preserving and protecting the environment for future generations, and with each new facility to come online, we will get closer to meeting our goal of net zero carbon emissions.
To learn more about energy storage and our renewable energy portfolio, visit dteenergy.com/renew.