Brilliant Harvest is proud to be a Certified Installer of the Tesla Powerpack commercial battery system. We are one of only a handful of companies around the country to have installed this industry-leading commercial energy storage system.
The Tesla Powerpack (and new Megapack), in coordination with a solar photovoltaic array, provide battery backup for critical operations at municipal and commercial facilities, while also providing regular paybacks in the form of monthly utility savings. These commercial energy storage systems can provide power for even the largest facilities, taking the place of traditional diesel, natural gas, or propane fired generators.
In addition, solar and battery backup offer the following benefits over traditional generators:
- Limitless fuel supply: Traditional generators are often at risk due to natural gas pipeline shutdowns and/or difficulty of getting diesel fuel or propane deliveries after a major storm or other emergency. Roads can be out, and diesel and propane supply pumps can be without power. Solar power is available nearly every day to recharge the battery system and ensure continuing operations at critical facilities.
- Dramatically reduced maintenance: Traditional generators require regular (weekly or monthly) operation and maintenance to ensure they will work when needed. Stale fuel, spark plugs, oil changes, and countless other issues with generators require regular attention and incur significant ongoing costs. Solar and battery, while not absolutely 100% maintenance-free, require drastically less ongoing maintenance, and the products themselves have much longer warranties (typically 10 years vs. 3-5 for generators).
- Monthly solar savings: Unlike a traditional generator, solar and battery systems will save you money every month. The energy generated by the solar reduces your utility bill, and the battery system can be used to reduce monthly demand fees by doing something called “peak shaving.”
- Monthly demand fee savings: Demand fees are determined by looking at the highest rate of electricity consumption for the month, as measured in 15-minute increments throughout the month. “Demand shaving” or “peak shaving” allows the battery system to send power into the building during peak demand times, reducing the height of demand peaks and, thus, reducing monthly demand fees.
Explaining demand fees
In commercial electrical service, the monthly electric bill is often split into two portions: first is the traditional energy and fuel portion, which is billed on a per kWh (kilowatt hour) basis; second is the demand fee, which is billed on a per kW (kilowatt) basis. A good analogy is to think about water. In that case, the kWh is equivalent to the total gallons of water consumed, while demand kilowatts is equivalent to gallons-per-minute. The higher the gallons per minute consumed, the bigger the pump the utility must have to provide water (electricity in our case) to you, so the more the utility will charge every month.
The above graph shows the grid (red), solar (yellow), and battery (blue) usage for one of our Powerpack clients, Carl’s White Glove Storage in Naples, Fla. The graph shows the battery system is exporting power into the building, keeping grid demand at or below 10kW (the red data points). As the sun rises each day, the solar recharges the battery (the blue areas below the line).