Businesses often have machines that produce products 24/7/365. They might also have computer or data operations that need to run all the time.
What happens when a power outage lasts for an extended length of time?
They are losing income which in turn can hurt the business, its workers, its shareholders, and even its customers especially if the business provides crucial products, services, or support that helps people stay alive.
Think about your average local community.
We have hospitals, police, firemen, community centers, and government infrastructure that needs an uninterrupted backup power supply.
During a crisis or disaster, your community’s lifesaving first responders should always have the power to help them save more lives.
If you happen to live in California, then you know that Major Storms, Fires, and Public Safety Power Shutoffs cause power outages that can wreak havoc on your business’ and/or community’s critical operations especially if the outage lasts for a few days.
This is where a renewable and standalone energy source or the electric power system can help us.
We would like to introduce you to the best new technology for energy management solutions… Microgrids.
A Solar plus battery storage Microgrid system can provide power when the main power grid is down and energy savings when the power grid is operating. Plus this is clean energy.
How do Microgrids Work?
To understand the working mechanisms of a Microgrid, one must know how electrical grid power works.
A power grid links residential homes as well as business areas to a centralized power system.
Microgrids are independent power grids of renewable energy sources that rely on solar panels (or wind) to produce the electricity and battery backup systems to store the power.
Microgrids work coupled with power grids and when the power goes down a Microgrid works as a standalone backup mode of electricity.
Benefits of Microgrids
A Microgrid is like a small & private power plant that generates its own power and can distribute this power to small neighborhoods, business offices and warehouses, community centers, police & fire stations, and hospitals.
For business owners, there are several key things to know about Microgrids and the first is that they are run by intelligent control systems that tell your distributed energy resources when to kick in for the optimal usage of your equipment and thus reduce as much energy costs as possible.
For example, there are higher demand fee times, usually from 4 pm to 9 pm when the fees are the highest.
Your power bill is calculated off of those peak demand fees and if you have a battery system to store your solar power from the day in, the Microgrid controller will tell the system to use that stored energy during the 4 pm to 9 pm time frame and save your business lots of $$$$ money.
Microgrid deployment can increase your business’ profitability by dramatically reducing electrical costs, sometimes up to as much as 60% or more. Wow!
Security and Reliability
According to the College of Engineering & Applied Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, U.S. residents experience more minutes of power outages than people in other developed nations.
Outages can impose safety concerns, inconvenience, and economic loss.
Microgrids are part of the solution, as they rely on locally generated power and can even store green energy.
A microgrid improves electric reliability.
Most big cities rely on a few power plants for power supply.
In 2012 when Superstorm Sandy knocked out power to about eight million electric customers in 15 states and the District of Columbia, some people who were suffering in the darkness noticed that neighboring buildings still had their lights on. Those were facilities with microgrids.
Microgrids are capable of becoming electrically isolated from the grid in the event of an outage.
When the grid goes down due to anything from a severe weather event to a knocked over telephone pole, you need to be disconnected from the grid or “islanded” to continue to produce and use electricity.
As such, one key feature of a microgrid is its ability to continue operating even when the larger centralized power grid goes out.
Reduce Your GHG Emissions
If you own a Business in California, it is important to be aware of the regulations that might affect you in the future!
California’s annual statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventory is an important tool for establishing historical emission trends and tracking California’s progress in reducing GHGs. Read more here
State and/or Federal Grants can help with Microgrid installation costs.
If you own a business in California, there is NO COST to your business for us to help you get a grant which can pay for most of or at least 50% of the Microgrid development & installation costs depending on the grant.
We also have investors willing to pay for the upfront costs of these projects and you can still enjoy significant savings with no up-front capital investment.