Faraday Microgrid Tiers
Four tiers. One commercial microgrid offering.
Not every facility needs the same level of energy resilience. That’s why Faraday offers four microgrid tiers: Resilience, Endurance, Independence, and Strategic.
During the feasibility study, Faraday evaluates your facility and determines which approach delivers the best combination of savings, reliability, and energy security. While every site is different, most commercial and industrial facilities are ultimately classified as Endurance, providing meaningful resilience and energy cost reduction while remaining practical and cost-effective.
Not sure where you fit? The Feasibility Study returns the answer in about 30 days, for a fixed fee.
Why we have tiers versus custom builds for each site.
Most custom microgrid projects begin with extensive engineering, multiple design iterations, and long implementation timelines. Faraday simplifies the process with a tiered approach. Our pre-engineered tiers are designed around common facility types and resilience objectives, from backup power during short outages to multi-day energy security and strategic independence. Rather than reinventing the wheel for every project, we start with proven system architectures and customize them to your needs.
The process begins with a Feasibility Study, which identifies the right tier for your facility and optimizes the system based on your operational and financial goals.
The four tiers at a glance.
|
Attribute
|
RESILIENCE
 |
ENDURANCE
 |
INDEPENDENCE
 |
STRATEGIC
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Primary outcomes
|
Backup power for critical loads during outages
|
Extended outage protection with daily cycling
|
High Energy Autonomy with PV + storage
|
Full energy autonomy with advanced optimization
|
|
Typical duration
|
Hours
|
4–12 hours
|
Days
|
Weeks to indefinite
|
|
Typical use cases
|
Life safety, IT rooms, critical refrigeration, minimal ops
|
Most commercial & industrial facilities.
|
Sites with limited grid reliability or high costs
|
Mission-critical campuses, remote sites, microgrids as a service
|
|
Solar PV
|
Optional / limited
|
Standard
|
Standard
|
Standard (large scale)
|
|
Battery storage
|
Small
|
Sized for 4–12 hours
|
Sized for multi-day operation
|
Large scale, long duration
|
|
Generator / CHP
|
Optional
|
Optional
|
Typically included
|
Typically included (or alternative fuels)
|
|
Grid interaction
|
Backup only
|
Backup + daily cycling
|
Minimized
|
Islanded / grid optional
|
|
Resilience complexity
|
Low
|
Medium
|
High
|
Very high
|
|
Typical timeline
|
8-12 weeks
|
12-20 weeks
|
16-24 weeks
|
20+ weeks
|
|
Best fit if you...
|
Need short-term backup for critical functions
|
Want reliable daily resilience with ROI
|
Want energy autonomy for days, not hours
|
Require bespoke architectures and tailored capital structures
|
The vast majority will end up at the endurance tier.
Selecting the initial tier for your microgrid project.
Three key questions that will help you find the right tier.
How much time do you spend cycling through a grid?
Which is a more important factor: revenue or downtime?
Are your requirements more than what a productized and fixed scope solution can accommodate?
*These are guidelines to your tier level but the actual answer will depend on your interval data, rate schedule, load shape, and resilience exposure. This is all determined through our Feasibility Study.
The tier is the starting point. The Study is the answer.
Think of the tiers as a starting point, not a final answer. While many facilities are a good fit for Endurance, the right solution depends on your operations, energy usage, utility rates, incentives, and resilience goals. The Feasibility Study is what determines the best fit for your facility.
The majority of facilities in your field fall under the same category.
Cold Storage
Most California cold storage facilities are aligned with Endurance—because of their need for demand charges, 24-hour refrigeration, and spoilage risks, the ideal amount of backup would be 4–12 hours.
Food Processing
Most California food processing plants match Endurance, with drivers like process continuity and demand charges.
Manufacturing & Multi-tenant
Manufacturing facilities and multi-tenant buildings can fall under the Resilience or Endurance categories, depending on what the outage tolerance study finds.
Healthcare & Institutional
In healthcare and institutional facilities, Faraday uses their own distinct system—commercial facilities align with Endurance, but acute facilities, higher education, and grant-funded projects have their own.
Ready to find out which tier fits your site?
Most California commercial buyers start with the Feasibility Study. If you want to talk first, the screening call is free and takes 30 minutes.