Don’t forget the batteries

Bat­ter­ies of the AA and AAA vari­ety are a sta­ple on my Wal­mart orders this time of year. Just in case the box reads “bat­ter­ies not includ­ed,” I have a stash. After all, bat­ter­ies help pow­er the hol­i­day sea­son, from the dec­o­ra­tions that deck the halls, to the toys you give at Christ­mas­time.

For most of us, bat­tery stor­age refers to a draw­er in the kitchen. But the kind of bat­tery stor­age designed to pow­er your home is an emerg­ing ener­gy trend. Coop­er­a­tive mem­bers are look­ing for green­er ways to pro­duce ener­gy and con­sume the elec­tric­i­ty used to pow­er their dai­ly lives. York Elec­tric and coop­er­a­tives across the coun­try are eval­u­at­ing and test­ing this new bat­tery tech­nol­o­gy.

As renew­able ener­gy such as wind and solar has become a more sig­nif­i­cant part of our ener­gy mix, so has the need for stor­age options. In 2017, wind and solar elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion set a record by exceed­ing 10% of U.S. ener­gy gen­er­a­tion, accord­ing to the Ener­gy Infor­ma­tion Agency (EIA) and this has grown each year. Bat­tery stor­age offers a solu­tion to con­tain unused ener­gy from renew­able ener­gy gen­er­a­tion to use at a more con­ve­nient time.

What does this mean for YEC mem­bers?

We are test­ing the poten­tial of large-scale bat­tery units for increased reli­a­bil­i­ty, back-up pow­er, renew­able elec­tric gen­er­a­tion pair­ing and peak demand shav­ing to hold down costs. This new tech­nol­o­gy is promis­ing, but it has an expen­sive price tag—both for your home and as part of our dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem. Rest assured, we’re mak­ing sure these types of invest­ments are best for our mem­bers.

Bat­tery stor­age at home

Large or small, the con­cept of bat­tery stor­age is the same. An aver­age res­i­den­tial bat­tery stores 13 kilo­watts, which can pow­er an elec­tric water heater for two to three hours. You need a lot more pow­er to make every­day life com­fort­able. While a typ­i­cal res­i­den­tial bat­tery won’t pow­er your whole house, it can pro­vide enough pow­er to pro­vide a more resilient lifestyle in the event of an out­age. Addi­tion­al­ly, bat­ter­ies can be cou­pled togeth­er to pro­vide a more robust sup­ply of ener­gy that will pow­er more things for longer peri­ods of time.

Using the bat­tery from an elec­tric vehi­cle (EV) as a pow­er source for your home opens the door for even greater stor­age pos­si­bil­i­ties. While this process is still being devel­oped and test­ed, adding the stor­age capac­i­ty from an EV’s bat­tery to a res­i­den­tial bat­tery sys­tem could more than quadru­ple the out­put of sup­ply. Charg­ing your car could mean peace of mind that your refrig­er­a­tor could be pow­ered for weeks dur­ing a large-scale out­age.

While YEC mem­bers who are using rooftop solar have the most to gain from bat­tery stor­age, it is new and excit­ing for every­one. Just like your bat­tery stor­age draw­er helps you pre­pare for the unex­pect­ed pow­er needs, YEC is here to help you learn and nav­i­gate these new tech­nolo­gies.

We’re always look­ing out for you (and your bat­tery-pow­ered toys) and wish you a Mer­ry Christ­mas.

Sin­cere­ly,

 

 

Paul Basha
Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer

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Holiday Closings

YEC offices will be closed to cel­e­brate the fol­low­ing hol­i­days:

• Thanks­giv­ing Nov. 24 and 25
• Christ­mas Dec. 23 and 26
• New Year’s Jan. 2, 2023

Crews will be on stand­by in the event of an out­age. YEC wish­es you and your fam­i­ly a healthy, safe, and hap­py hol­i­day sea­son. Mer­ry Christ­mas from your co-op!