Cummins Confidential : BESS Bullshit – Stripping Their Microgrid Saviour Spiel

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Let’s cut the crap right from the off. Cummins, diesel dinosaurs turned self-proclaimed green pioneers, are at it again with their latest PR wankfest. This “QuickChat” bollocks, peddled through their sleazy mouthpiece ACCESS Newswire, bangs on about Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) as the holy grail for grid woes, decarbonisation dreams, and energy independence. Chetan Chandore, their marketing mouthpiece, waxes lyrical about stability, innovations, safety, and customer-centric modelling like it’s all sorted. But scratch the surface, and it’s the same old corporate sleaze: hype over substance, glossing over massive flaws in tech that’s more liability than lifeline. Founded in 1919 on fossil fuel filth, Cummins raked in billions while cheating emissions tests, and now they’re pivoting to batteries like nothing happened. This isn’t progress; it’s a desperate rebrand to distract from a legacy of pollution and penalties. And with ACCESS Newswire as the distributor, a outfit we revealed as riddled with bait-and-switch scams and a history of customer harassment, you know the narrative’s as trustworthy as a politician’s promise. We’re here at TCAP to rip it apart, expose the faults, and show why this “future-ready” fantasy is just another way to fleece the public while the planet pays.

The Narrative: Greenwashing a Polluted Past

Cummins positions itself as the knight in shining armour for a world gripped by grid instability and decarbonisation demands. Their spiel? Microgrids with BESS are the answer, slashing costs, emissions, and dependence on the big bad grid. But this is textbook greenwashing from a company with a rap sheet longer than a winter blackout. Just two years back, they coughed up a record $1.675 billion penalty for fitting defeat devices to hundreds of thousands of diesel engines, letting them belch out excess NOx and screw over air quality. That’s not ancient history; it’s the foundation of their “sustainability” pivot. Now, they’re flogging BESS as eco-heroes, but the tech’s lifecycle is a dirty secret: mining lithium, cobalt, and nickel wrecks environments and exploits workers overseas, while disposal dumps toxic waste. Their 2023-2024 Sustainability Report? Pure fluff, ignoring how hybrid powertrains still prop up fossils. And this chat’s timing? Right after more fines for emissions dodges. They’re not powering a prosperous world; they’re powering their profits on the back of half-truths.

Tech Flaws: Stability Myths and Degradation Drags

Chandore crows about BESS boosting grid stability, backup power, and efficient management in microgrids. Sounds peachy, but reality bites hard. Microgrids are plagued by voltage fluctuations, power quality cock-ups, and inverter faults that turn your resilient setup into a flickering nightmare. Studies hammer home that RES intermittency and load swings make islanded modes a stability shitshow, with outages more common than promised. BESS? They degrade faster than a cheap battery in a torch: 10-20% capacity loss in 5-10 years, meaning constant replacements and spiralling costs. Emerging chemistries like sodium-ion and zinc-based? Hype over hope. Sodium-ion’s efficiency sucks in real tests, and zinc’s dendrite issues lead to short circuits and early death. Cummins’ plug-and-play containers might scale from 200kWh to 2MWh, but without addressing these, it’s just oversized junk waiting to underperform. Their “transforming performance” line? Bollocks when 72% of BESS defects hit at system level, from shoddy integration to thermal management fails.

Safety Shambles: Fires, Fumes, and False Assurances

The piece boasts multi-layered safety: thermal detection, emission control, fire suppression. Cummins claims compliance with global standards, ready for North American rollout. But BESS safety’s a house of cards. Thermal runaway turns minor glitches into infernos that fire crews can’t extinguish; they just contain and pray. In 2024-2025, 28% of inspected systems had dodgy fire suppression, 19% faulty panels, and defects in 15% of thermal setups. Fires? A global database logs dozens, often from poor monitoring, not just bad cells. Cummins’ “proactive” pitch ignores how these beasts release toxic fumes, forcing evacuations and health hazards. And emissions? Batteries don’t spew in use, but their cradle-to-grave footprint rivals years of diesel guzzling. Regulations lag tech risks, leaving gaps that turn “safe” into “sorry” when shit hits the fan. If they’re so secure, why the media blackout on recent blazes?

Economic and Market Bollocks: Costs, Compliance, and Customer Con

They tout techno-economic modelling for savvy decisions, reducing bills and emissions. But models assume fairy-tale conditions, ignoring weather whims, raw material hikes, and recycling rates in the gutter. Microgrids with BESS? Pricier than grid power, with upfront millions and payback decades away, if ever. Without strict grid exchange limits, they’re economic black holes. Global alignment? Compliance doesn’t fix weak infrastructure integration or the fact that BESS insurance is a nightmare due to undocumented failures. Customers get “independence,” but at the price of dependency on subsidies and hype. Cummins’ UAE launch and India rollout scream opportunity, but it’s small fry getting shafted while corporates cash in. Energy independence? More like indentured to overpriced tech that saturates markets and strands assets.

The ACCESS Newswire Mouthpiece: Propaganda Through a Dodgy Pipeline

This drivel didn’t materialise from thin air; it’s funnelled through ACCESS Newswire, Cummins’ go-to for blasting investor alerts and sustainability spin. As we exposed in our supplier series, ACCESS is a cesspit of deception: unresolved BBB complaints on bait-and-switch contracts, harassing calls, and botched services. Trustpilot rants call it a scam, with unauthorised charges and worthless distributions. Lawsuits over compliance fumbles show they’re no guardians of truth. So when Cummins uses them to hype BESS as the fix-all, it’s mutual back-scratching in an ethical void. ACCESS’s predatory tactics mirror Cummins’ disregard: both prioritise the bottom line over integrity. If your PR partner’s a grinder of small businesses, what does that say about your “healthy communities” bollocks?

In the end, Cummins’ microgrid mirage is just that: a shiny distraction from tech that’s unreliable, unsafe, and uneconomical. They’re not innovating; they’re distracting you whilst they count the diesel dollars. Steer clear, or join the ranks of the ripped-off. Time to demand real solutions, not this corporate con.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

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