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Faraday Microgrid Tiers

Four tiers. One California-only commercial microgrid product line.

Compare Resilience, Endurance, Independence, and Strategic — the four tiers Faraday installs for California commercial and industrial sites. Most facilities land at Endurance.

Not sure where you fit? The Feasibility Study returns the answer in about 30 days, for a fixed fee.

Start with a Feasibility Study

Or schedule a free 30-minute screening call

Why we offer tiers instead of one custom build per site.

Custom microgrid design treats every site as a one-off. That model produces engineering bills before the project starts and timelines that stretch on the third or fourth design revision. We tier instead. Each Faraday tier is a pre-engineered scope that fits a specific facility profile — short-duration backup, multi-hour backup, multi-day backup, or beyond-the-envelope strategic scope. The tier is the starting point. The Feasibility Study confirms which tier fits your site and configures the system to your load profile.

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

Most facilities land in endurance.

How to choose a starting tier.

Three quick questions to point you to the right tier.

1

How long do you need to ride through a grid event?

  • Up to 4 hours → Resilience
  • Most of a workday (4–12 hours) → Endurance
  • Days, not hours → Independence

    • 2

    What’s the bigger driver: bill or downtime?

  • Demand charges are dominating the energy line item → Resilience (or Endurance if downtime also costs you)
  • Both — high bills AND downtime hurts → Endurance
  • Downtime risk dominates and is multi-day → Independence

    • 3

    Are your needs beyond a productized fixed-scope offering?

  • No, a fixed scope works for me → use Q1 and Q2 to choose between Resilience, Endurance, or Independence.
  • Yes — I have advanced controls, ADR revenue, heat recovery, geothermal, or portfolio-scale objectives → Strategic

    • *These are starting points, not answers. Your tier fit depends on your actual interval data, rate schedule, load profile, and resilience exposure. The Feasibility Study confirms the tier and configures the system to your site.

    The tier is the starting point.

    The Study is the answer.

    Tier selection is what we sell. The Feasibility Study is what confirms it. The tiers exist so the conversation can start somewhere concrete — most California commercial sites do land at Endurance, and the comparison table on this page is honest about that. But a comparison table doesn’t know your interval data, your rate schedule, your critical-load list, your incentive eligibility, or your facility’s actual outage exposure. The Study does. It returns the tier recommendation and configures the system to your site.

    Start with a Feasibility Study

    Or schedule a free 30-minute screening call

    Most facilities in your industry land at the same tier.

    Cold Storage

    Most California cold storage facilities align with Endurance—demand charges, 24/7 refrigeration, and spoilage risk make 4–12 hours of backup the right scope.

    Food Processing

    Most California food processing fits Endurance—driven by process continuity, demand charges, and cold-chain integration.

    Tamalpais_Project

    Biotech & Pharma

    Most biotech and pharma fit Endurance, with Independence when sample integrity or FDA cGMP risk requires multi-day outage tolerance.

    faraday

    Manufacturing & Multi-tenant

    Manufacturing and multi-tenant commercial sites fit Resilience or Endurance, with tier set by outage tolerance via study.

    Healthcare & Institutional

    Healthcare and institutional projects use Faraday’s separate model—commercial care aligns with Endurance; acute care, higher ed, and grant-funded work are separate.

    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.

    Schedule a Free 30-Minute Screening Call

    Or schedule a free 30-minute screening call