Sustainability
Navigating Future Energy Needs
DEMEC, our members, and our partners worked hard in 2024 to deliver on the three elements that utilities must balance when planning for future energy needs: Reliability, Affordability, and Sustainability. Fulfilling the energy trifecta is complex and involves numerous considerations to balance all three components: Reliability, Affordability, and Sustainability. One of those three factors cannot be pursued in isolation from the others without causing a ripple effect that impacts customers.
Each Resource Plays a Role
Solar has grown in popularity over the years as a clean energy resource. DEMEC’s power supply portfolio has over 28.7 megawatts (MW) of solar on top of 71 MW of wind. In the City of Milford, they have both a 15MW utility solar park and customer-sited rooftop solar. Output from solar during certain seasons has triggered reverse power conditions that must be managed to avoid pushing generation back onto the transmission grid.
To balance the strengths and weaknesses of this generation source, the city is looking to store the electricity generated during low-demand periods and deploy energy during high-demand periods through a battery energy storage system. The city spent a lot of time in 2024 deciding on solutions to its solar challenge, considering different vendors, and technologies, and analyzing data and interconnection requirements.
As Tony Chipola, electric director at Milford, noted, Milford has a reputation for being an early adopter of advanced technology, such as their deployment of smart meters. Battery storage was a natural progression of that innovation. The proposed battery storage project would have a capacity of 8 MW that could be used over multiple hours of the day. The project is in a preliminary feasibility stage now, but if all goes as planned, it could come online in 2026.
Mr. Chipola said many residents of Milford pay close attention to their electric bills. This battery project would capture electricity generated by the sun and reduce the loss of that electricity, gaining greater efficiency from the utility solar park and reducing transmission and capacity costs for customers.
“We feel we are pioneers in Delaware’s energy sphere,” said Chipola. “We want to show that we can innovate without regulatory requirements and stay on top of our game when it comes to emerging technologies.” This project would be a win-win for the community and Milford’s customers. Avoiding large capital expenses helps their local utility keep rates down while also providing increased capacity for residents and businesses that want to personally invest in renewable generation.
“It’s no small feat to achieve a true balance between energy reliability, affordability, and sustainability,” Mr. Chipola said. “Our customers are trusting us to do the right thing.”
Partnership with University of Delaware
The only significant wind generation resource installed in the State of Delaware is in a DEMEC municipal service territory. The power is generated by a utility-scale 2-megawatt (2MW) wind turbine at UD’s Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes. DEMEC purchases 100% of the renewable energy credits (RECs) generated by the University of Delaware’s wind turbine. In addition, DEMEC supports student research fellowships on wind energy in the University’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment.
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