Is your microgrid working for you? How the right backup power solution can do more for your business than keep the lights on

Apr 13, 2023

allan-schurr
Allan Schurr

Although we’re excited about the increasing investment in electrical infrastructure — including the recent passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — grid outages are still of increasing concern across the United States. This issue is costly to ratepayers and will only continue to worsen as demand rises for electricity, the grid gets older and frailer, weather gets more extreme, and cybersecurity threats increase.
For critical facilities like hospitals, data centers, and grocery stores, outages can cause expensive, and sometimes even life threatening, repercussions. As a result, backup power has become an essential component of all mission-critical operations. Traditionally, diesel generators have been the go-to option, but these are becoming increasingly incompatible with sustainability goals and are also expensive to maintain. With these limitations in mind, natural gas and renewable natural gas (RNG) microgrid solutions are growing in popularity for their environmental and reliability benefits over diesel.

But the beauty of microgrids goes beyond their improvements to diesel backup’s offerings. The best microgrids offer something other backup systems don’t – an opportunity for organizations to take advantage of a new revenue stream that is not only profitable, but also supportive of overall grid resiliency.

How can microgrids help your bottom line?

In many utility structures nationwide, the cost of power is tied to its demand. This means that electricity is most expensive during peak usage hours, which is usually the late afternoon and early evening. For many mission critical operations, reducing energy use when it is expensive to use is not an option. As a result, they face the all-too-common risk of sky high power bills. However, businesses equipped with microgrids can make use of their own power during these peak hours, avoiding the price surge while reducing grid stress.

Alternatively, businesses can take their grid contributions one step further and feed energy back into the grid, helping expand the supply during periods of peak demand. As a result, participating facilities can enjoy a new revenue stream, profiting from their sale of much needed power back to the energy market. Managing microgrids effectively can mean protecting yourself from outages, and also helping the grid from failing in the first place, all while supporting your bottom line.

Enchanted Rock’s Microgrid Solutions

Enchanted Rock’s dual-purpose microgrid solutions provide additional value for its customers beyond backup power. They enable reduced energy bills and can even take advantage of flexible pricing to provide an additional revenue stream, all while operating as a grid support during periods of intense stress. Enchanted Rock’s microgrids have achieved revenues surpassing $120/kW-yr, providing facilities the opportunity to massively offset the cost of backup systems while improving reliability through increased run hours under load.

What makes Enchanted Rock special is that each microgrid is customized to participate in local energy market programs, including demand response and time-of-use initiatives. GraniteEcosystem™ — Enchanted Rock’s proprietary management software — keeps track of the various factors impacting the energy market, utilizing machine learning to help optimize participation in the market to achieve maximum value. We make sure your facility keeps its operations running smoothly, first and foremost, and then also find the best opportunities to maximize your energy sales.

Enchanted Rock’s microgrid solutions offer businesses the chance to secure their assets, protecting them from the increasing threats of grid failure. The fact that we can also provide additional income while supporting grid stability is a sign of an evolving grid, where everybody can participate.