As the age old saying goes; “Only worry about the things you can control” we are all aware after the Texas Winter Storm in 2021 and the unpredictable California rolling blackouts, grid stability and reliability is out of our control. However, we can control what is placed on our property to power our own facilities throughway of energy storage, generators and solar. Many organizations across the globe are mitigating risks such as production down time and food spoilage by the integration of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).
Utility interconnection rules across the United States allow us to essentially be our own power generator if we follow AHJ, NEC and utility guidelines. Per national electric code having solar alone will not give you resiliency, but having a place to store the produced electricity does provide resiliency. In essence you are creating your own electrical grid, or a Micro-Grid. If a battery is in place solar can continue to produce while either being absorbed by the facility or stored in the battery, disallowing the electrons to flow back into the grid. Highly sophisticated software now enables solar + BESS to forecast and prepare for weather events or operate under a bill savings mode allowing these ecosystems to become a multiuse asset.
Benefits of Solar+BESS:
- Site level/critical load grid reliability and resiliency
- Cost savings to both monthly kWh and kW charges
- Potential positive grid impact for utilities that would like to have customers dispatch their Batteries to the grid during highly congested hours
Based on the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in August of 2022 there are many unique incentives around renewable energy development, including the Investment Tax Credit.
