A reliable power supply is critical to your business’s profitability. Even the briefest power outage can cost money in the form of lost work time, potential damage to equipment, decreased productivity, and in the case of manufacturing facilities potential loss of work in progress at the time of the outage.
Reliable Power in Jeopardy
Lately, environmental factors are compromising the reliability of the power supply.
Drought conditions – Water levels in lakes and reservoirs have fallen to record lows. As the available water supply drops, utilities have fewer resources to generate hydroelectric power. This loss of power capacity increases the odds of a power outage, especially in regions that are heavily dependent on hydroelectricity.
Public Safety Power Shutoffs – As the risk of wildfires increases in today’s dry conditions, utilities are taking greater precautions to avoid them. This includes shutting off power during high winds to prevent debris from damaging live power lines and creating sparks that could start wildfires. This imperative for public safety is causing power shutoffs that could last anywhere from hours to days.
As power outages become more frequent, microgrids are becoming more critical to preserve uninterrupted business operations.
What is a Microgrid?
A microgrid is a hardware and software platform installed on-site that acts as the brain of your power system by using sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms to manage your power. Microgrids are vital to your operations if your facility obtains its power from multiple sources such as solar, geothermal, central grid, a gas generator, or battery storage. The microgrid monitors all of your power sources and instantly calculates the best mix of power that will provide the lowest cost, cleanest energy, or highest reliability.
In the event of losing power from the central grid, your microgrid will instantly and automatically start drawing power from another source to prevent shutdowns and avoid interruptions to your business operations.
Without microgrid control to coordinate power usage, your facility is more vulnerable to shutdowns. And even though you may have alternate sources of power such as solar panels, they may not function when central power goes down. Without a microgrid, transitions to other power sources may not happen quickly enough to prevent an outage that disrupts your business.
How Hunt Can Help
A microgrid is a complex piece of equipment that requires an experienced contractor who can design and install a system of automated transfer switches, relays, transformers, and motor-operated breakers customized to meet your facility’s needs. Hunt Electric is ideally qualified to design, install, and program your system because we have not only installed microgrids for other businesses, but we have also installed our own microgrid and we have used it to successfully manage the power in our technology building for the last four years.
Our real-life experience of installing and using a microgrid control system every day has given us valuable insights into how to create a power strategy for you that minimizes electrical costs and maximizes reliability.
We Perform All Your Electrical Work
In addition to installing a microgrid, you can take other actions to make your power supply less vulnerable to shutdowns and more efficient, and all it takes is one phone call to Hunt Electric.
We have the broad expertise to enhance your electrical supply by designing and installing additional power sources including solar arrays and battery storage systems. We can also help you reduce power consumption and cut costs by upgrading to LED lighting and incorporating smart lighting control systems and occupancy controls throughout your building.
As factors beyond our control jeopardize the uninterrupted power supply we take for granted, a microgrid can equip your business with the reliable electrical supply it needs to do the work your customers are counting on.
Learn how to get started with microgrids today.
