By Patrick Soukup
Manager of Member Services & Marketing
BATTERY ISSUE SIDELINES THE FORD LIGHTNING
New year, new challenges, and new opportunities for all to have. Moving on from December, I recently had issues arise with the Ford Lightning electric pickup. I was on my way to Kimball to visit with members. Driving down the road, I did not pay much attention to the energy use until I arrived at the member’s house. Upon arrival, I realized I had consumed over half of the battery to travel 41 miles.
It was a chilly day, and I had less than 50% of the battery left. I stayed focused on the meeting, and once we finished, the member invited me back to the farm site to inspect some equipment. Unfortunately, I had to decline due to the state of energy left in the battery. So, for the next 41 miles, the cab was a little cooler than I would have liked. My speed back to Mitchell was also a little slower than normal at 65 miles per hour. Long story short, I made it back to Mitchell with 5% of the battery left.
I took the truck to the dealer to have it checked out. Upon inspection, it was discovered that two cells in the battery were bad. The work and parts were all under warranty. I talked to the service technician, and he said it takes a little longer to order the parts due to Ford warranty practices with electric vehicles. Good safety precautions, innovative technology and new challenges.
DISTRIBUTED ENERGY UPDATE FOR WIND, SOLAR, BATTERY PROJECTS
While I have your attention, I would also like to share information about distributed energy resources (DERs). These resources include solar, wind or batteries that can be used to help offset a member’s energy use.
We are seeing some of these systems come to our area, and it seems some private vendors may lack transparency with our members. It is always important to read the fine print notes on a contract and consider consulting with an attorney and your cooperative before you consider signing it.
As your energy provider, we have our own requirements before hooking up to our system. As your energy experts, we want to protect the cooperative and its members from dishonest practices.
Before signing any DER contract, it is recommended that you take steps to understand what is expected and make sure there are no hidden issues. If you plan to install solar, wind or batteries generation, please contact Central Electric Cooperative in advance.