Honeywell and Duke Energy are jointly developing and delivering energy resiliency technology to targeted markets across the USA.

The alliance aims to strengthen energy security, focusing on communities with pressing resiliency needs, and develop scaled technology to lessen the impact of power outages and other grid disruptions related to climate change.

Extreme weather, which can cause power outages, is becoming more frequent. In 2020, US electricity users experienced just over eight hours of electric power interruptions, an average of nearly 20 minutes more power interruptions than in 2017 and the most since electricity reliability data collection began in 2013.

The municipal microgrids created by Honeywell and Duke should help cities continue to provide essential services during these types of outages. Using this technology, communities will be able to power water distribution and wastewater treatment plants or community centres so citizens have access to fresh water and climate-controlled facilities even in the wake of disasters. 

“A smart city starts with resilient and sustainable energy resources,” said Matthew Britt, general manager of smart cities and communities at Honeywell. “Our collaboration with Duke will create energy resiliency programmes that help cities and communities better prepare for unexpected events as well as help manage and measure progress of their long-term environmental, social and governance goals.”

The alliance plans to integrate distributed energy resources owned by Duke Energy including solar photovoltaic (PV) and resiliency products with Honeywell’s battery energy storage systems and smart cities software to manage the microgrid deployments alongside city-owned assets. The visibility provided by Honeywell’s smart city suite should enable communities to make faster, more informed decisions to serve their citizens effectively.

“Investing in energy infrastructure is a national priority that requires strategic vision, innovations and a world-class team to implement effectively,” said Robert Vary, senior vice president at Duke Energy. “Our alliance with Honeywell expands our reach, strengthens our capabilities, and accelerates our ability to innovate for cities nationwide.”

Honeywell, leveraging its smart cities and energy expertise, will lead development, using its IoT platform, building technologies and system-of-systems command and control capabilities. Duke Energy will own and manage the energy assets, bringing its core competency in designing and implementing distributed energy for communities across the country.

The effort supports the Honeywell Energy Equity Resiliency (HEER) initiative which works to create energy equity and community resiliency through innovations and alliances to address energy efficiency, improve peak load management and decrease grid disruptions due to climate change. Using the Honeywell city software suite, the HEER initiative can integrate multiple software systems into one platform for complete command and control across municipal, utility, and commercial assets and systems. The initiative is designed to serve as a blueprint for energy resiliency for communities of all sizes, including reducing energy usage and lowering energy costs for participating communities and their citizens.

The software – an artificial intelligence enabled IoT platform – integrates data from critical city infrastructure systems such as traffic, streetlights, environment, emergency services, public safety and security, and utilities into a single, unified view. The suite is deployed in 75 cities worldwide, helping improve more than 100 million lives, and can be scaled by communities to gauge energy consumption across city-owned facilities and utilities.

Duke Energy offers customised clean energy and resilient infrastructure at scale for private and public companies, government-led organisations, and educational institutions nationwide.