Last week, Wake Electric, in partnership with Raleigh-based Advanced Energy, hosted a free electric vehicle (EV) workshop and test drive on at its downtown Wake Forest office.   Approximately 30 people participated, including co-op members, general public and local town leaders and officials.  All joined together to learn how electric and hybrid vehicles work, the benefits of driving one, and their impact on the community.  Speakers included representatives from Advanced Energy, the Town of Wake Forest, Wake Electric, Julian Prosser (former Raleigh assistant city manager), and Glaxo Smith Kline.

Wake Electric regularly analyzes  technological advances that are of benefit to our members.  Already, the co-op has installed free public electric vehicle charging stations:

• One of the stations is located at its Youngsville, NC office at 228 Park Avenue.
• Two stations are available at our downtown Wake Forest office at 100 S. Franklin Street.

Wake Electric also offers a residential electric vehicle rate: an 18 percent discount off the regular rate (2 cents per kWh) to charge your vehicle during the off-peak hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.  In addition, Wake Electric will purchase and retire the renewable attributes (wind RECs) associated with 5,000 kWh for each year on the R-EV rate.  That amount of renewable energy should be more than enough to cover recharging your electric vehicle for the year.  Of course, the wind RECs purchased and retired for this program are in addition to those purchased and retired for our REPS compliance strategy.

After the panel discussion there was a question and answer period, followed by an EV showcase which included a Chevy Volt, a Nissan Leaf, a BMW i3, Smart ForTwo ED, and a Tesla.