In case the power goes out, residents of Thebes Illinois can now keep the lights on, thanks to Ameren Illinois' one point four million dollar back-up battery.
Rod Hilburn, a manager with the utility, says this one megawatt Lithium - Ion battery takes up a lot of space.
"It's essentially a 40 foot long transport container, like you would see come across on ships."
Hilburn says this year the battery has kept electricity on through three outages, one of which lasted for four hours. And work is being done to make these batteries last even longer.
"One of the major research is at Argonne National Laboratory up in Chicago. They have something called the Energy Hub, that is being supported by the department of energy."
The backup battery gives the crews more time to fix any outage in the heavily-forested area.
