Full Title: Case Study: Hurricane Helene - Hot Springs Microgrid
Author(s): Jared Leader and Jason Handley
Publisher(s): Smart Electric Power Alliance
Publication Date: March 26, 2025
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
During Hurricane Helene, heavy rains and flooding forced the shutdown of Duke Energy’s Marshall Substation, resulting in a prolonged power outage that could have left Hot Springs without electricity for over 262 hours. However, Duke Energy activated the Hot Springs Microgrid on October 2, 2024, maintaining and supplying power to the town center for 143.5 hours.
This case study examines the microgrid’s success in leveraging solar PV and battery storage to provide emergency power to the Western North Carolina community of Hot Springs during Hurricane Helene. The case study also highlighted the microgrid’s broader benefits. It includes how Duke Energy demonstrated its value for both Hot Springs residents as a source of resilience and to other Duke Energy customers in order to secure approval with its regulators as a cost-effective grid asset for grid capacity, reliability and resilience.