Posted: 12/06/2021 18:40 PM Modified: 12/06/2021 18:00:12 On Thursday October 28th, the South Hadley Electric Light Department held...
Posted: 12/06/2021 18:40 PM
Modified: 12/06/2021 18:00:12
On Thursday October 28th, the South Hadley Electric Light Department held a very interesting meeting on the topic of using batteries to cover the peak period of electricity use on hot summer days.
The cost of a 1.5 megawatt battery (plus installation) to cover two peak hours has been estimated to be around $ 2 million. The return on investment for such a battery is six to seven years. A peak power source is used for approximately 12 hours during the year. The location of the peak power source is important for its footprint and for the wiring of the power distribution. It was also mentioned that battery technology is where computer technology was years ago. He is growing rapidly. What is installed today will be obsolete in a few years.
For all these reasons, it was recommended that SHELD wait a few years and enter it slowly. I am okay! The batteries will be much better in the future.
There is another answer to the peak problem: electric school buses. Amherst has already started the change. Today’s diesel buses are highly toxic to those who use them, not to mention the environment around them. We poison ourselves, and more importantly, our children, with many pathogenic chemicals.
Electric school buses are used not only for transportation, but also as advanced batteries. They can be recharged at night when electricity prices are low. At South Hadley, we are forced to sell our extra overnight electricity at a loss. School buses are ideal for battery use as they follow a fixed route day in and day out. They are also not used much in the summer, when peak hours occur.
Electric school buses don’t come cheap and in South Hadley they are owned by a third party. They could meet the needs of the school department and solve the problems of the SHELD. When the school bus company purchases a new bus, it will pay the usual cost of the diesel bus and the South Hadley School System and SHELD will pay the additional cost of an electric battery.
The school bus company would pay SHELD for electricity to recharge the bus. The South Hadley School Department would install charging stations. When the bus was used as a peak power plant, SHELD paid the school service for this electricity at a lower rate than it does now. Everyone would spend a little and get a little. Gradually, our climate would be much cleaner.
The above is only a possibility. I’m sure there are a lot of them. I don’t see that happening next year or even the next three, but it’s a good thing to plan. The Environmental Protection Agency already has grants for electric school buses. If the bills currently in Washington are passed, we could find new government subsidies for school buses. At this point we will have to have some idea of what to do or we will be the losers. The opportunity is not a long visitor.
John Howard lives in South Hadley.
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