- [Tom] Basically what we've built here at this site is a bit of a microcosm of what the Duke Energy grid and our customer's experience may look like in the future.

(upbeat music) We have electric vehicles, we have thermostats in customer's homes.

Some customers are adopting battery technology as a backup system for their home in case of an outage.

We have more and more digital operated devices on the electric grid and our job as the emerging technology office is to explore that concept of how do we make all of these devices interact together in a seamless way so that we can increase the reliability of the electricity going to the customer, but also maximize the usage of the assets that we have?

We really would like not to have to build large generating plants.

And if we can maximize what we have available today and make that the most effective use of that possible, that really needs to be the first thing that we do for our customers.

And we're actively involved in testing that and actually setting up test scenarios here to prove out that concept so that when we do get to the grid, to the larger electric grid, that our customers are fed from in a couple of years, we actually truly understand what it's like to operate all of that.

The latest technology system that we've deployed here at the Mount Holly Innovation Center is our GKN Hydrogen battery.

The industry is actively exploring hydrogen and how we can use hydrogen as a potential energy source in the future.

What you see behind me is a Generac home energy storage system.

So as customers install more solar power on their roofs during the day, the battery gives them the opportunity to store that solar energy and then release it at night or use it for backup services in place of a generator.

We have days during the summer where we have congestion on the grid, we have a peak situation and instead of us actually starting another fossil fired power plant, we go out and ask for our customers to give us access to that battery and then allow that battery to power their home for a period of time and incentivize that customer through a payment to have access to that asset so that we can use it for the benefit of the customer and us.

Outside, we have a Ford F-150 vehicle to grid and we're trying to understand how can concepts like using the battery in a truck not only power the home, but when we need it, can we call on that customer to potentially provide us the electricity that's in that battery to provide services to the grid when we may need it?

- So SPOT is our robotic dog working with Boston Dynamics to augment some of our work practices that we use at our nuclear stations.

Some people are familiar with robotic technology, but actually seeing it be applied and actually something that they can see and touch in real life, they're actually really amazed that there's a company like us who's actually using it.

We actually look at new and innovative technologies to be able to augment how we do business to be more effective.

- This facility has been great for our students.

To be able to come over here to the emerging technologies facility and see what the future looks like, to see how dynamic it is, to see how it's changing and to see what the opportunities are for our students.

It's just, it's the highlight of their semester.

- We envision a future here where we're gonna have a lot of levers, okay, if you wanna simplify it, okay.

I need batteries, I need solar, I need electric vehicle charging.

All of these things are gonna have to be interactive.

As a utility, our number one and number two things that we have to provide to our customers is reliable power and affordable power.

So we want to make sure that everything we do has a focus on that.