Weather in the Northeastern United States is beautiful, memorable, and oftentimes, completely unpredictable. In 2021, winter storms caused a record $15 billion in insured losses in the United States – plunging business owners in the Midwest and parts of New England into a season of financial hardship.
With so many weather patterns and changing seasons, Northern facility owners are at heightened risk for power outages, weather-related incidents, and energy complications related to the grid going down.
Microgrids have the potential to make a huge impact on the efficiency and financial performance of your facilities, particularly due to their unique benefits during weather emergencies.
Let’s take a closer look at why your Northern facility needs a microgrid.
A Microgrid Protects Facilities During Power Outages
According to The Associated Press, power outages have more than doubled in the US over the past two decades.
When your facility is down, operations grind to a halt. And for facilities that operate using critical equipment or that provide life-saving services, outages are far more than small inconveniences – they can mean the difference between survival, or not.
Even if a facility isn’t “critical”, the real world costs of outages mount quickly. Whether it is payroll expense without productivity, loss of inventory, inability to meet contractual obligations, or damage to sensitive equipment, facilities face a wide range of expenses that can threaten even a successful business.
So, what does this mean for your business?
The AP analysis found that the number of outages tied to severe weather rose from about 50 annually nationwide in the early 2000s to more than 100 annually on average over the past five years (2017–2022).
With power outages trending upward and climate-related disasters increasing year over year, fortifying your operations with a microgrid is the only sure way to protect your business from unseen closures and unexpected downtime.
With their unique ‘islanding’ capabilities, microgrids have the capability to continue powering your facility even when the rest of the neighborhood is offline. This means that they are designed to temporarily disconnect from the malfunctioning utility and provide services only to your facility until the grid comes back online.
This safeguard could make your business one of the only available options for customers during an extended energy crisis. In addition to preserving the continuity of your business, it signals your commitment to provide services and support to stakeholders even under the most challenging circumstances, your preparation when others have failed to do so, and your reliability over time.
A Microgrid Reduces Annual Energy Spend
Through their efficient management of energy supply, microgrids can help dramatically lower your energy bills while protecting your facility from sudden and unexpected outages.
Particularly in places where energy prices are high, microgrids help to drive down the cost of energy and also store unused resources for ‘peak hours’ when energy costs are double (or triple) of daytime rates. Facilities may reduce monthly utility costs up to 60% or more.
Especially In hot summer months or freezing Northern winter temperatures, microgrids can optimize energy production and deployment to maximally reduce utility expenses while preserving full facility performance.
Lowers Carbon Footprint
If your business could not only save money and ride through outages, that would be plenty. But if you could do so AND signal your concern for your carbon footprint, the benefits are even greater. Stakeholders are increasingly looking to businesses and facilities to demonstrate concrete reduction in their production of carbon dioxide. Faraday renewable energy microgrids achieve all of these goals – significantly reducing utility cost, allowing continued operation in utility emergencies, and doing so with clean energy production.
With eco-friendly design trending upwards, more and more customers are looking to businesses to prioritize low emissions and lessen their carbon footprint. With a microgrid, your facility has the potential to reduce that footprint by 25-50%.
When marketing your services to potential clients and investors, leveraging your status as an eco-friendly company opens the door to greater conversations about sustainability, accessibility, and your role as a business leader in your community. With a microgrid installed, you can conserve money and energy while also minimizing your emissions – a win for you and for your community.
Faraday Microgrids makes it easy to transition to a microgrid model. Get your facility analysis for FREE and see what’s possible at FaradayMicrogrids.com.