Two Winneshiek County families are now taking part in a MiEnergy pilot project testing battery-based electricity

It's pretty common that the hours of greatest electricity usage are between 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.--when many people are coming home from school or work and getting meals cooked and doing the laundry.

A pilot project being conducted by MiEnergy Cooperative is testing whether large battery systems can be used to supply electricity during these peak hours, then use non-peak hours to charge the batteries.

MiEnergy Cooperative President and CEO Brian Krambeer says his utility is doing a test project at the homes of four co-op members to see whether the battery system can "live up to the hype."

Krambeer says the large batteries were installed earlier this month.  MiEnergy is working with the battery manufacturer, Sonnen, to review data on electricity usage at the four locations.  Krambeer says so far it's been "pretty amazing" that the batteries can supply electricity for most of the day.  He notes, however, that the batteries can't handle the load of air conditioning or other heavy uses.

What the batteries can do is shift the demand for electricity to a time when the cost is just 5.6 cents per kilowatt hour, rather than the 18 to 20 cents per kilowatt hour that is typically charged during peak hours.  Of course, the battery systems are expensive, too, so the test projects--including one near Ridgeway--will be very important to MiEnergy Cooperative to study in order to decide whether the new systems can be distributed more widely.