5 Keys to Resilient Power: Do Your Generators Pass The Test?

Power resiliency matters now more than ever. Resilient power systems can withstand disruptions and keep mission-critical facilities such as hospitals and manufacturing plants running smoothly, even in the midst of a weather-related outage or grid failure. For most organizations, generators act as backup systems to provide that resilient power — but can your generators provide uninterrupted service when the lights go out? 

Why Power Resiliency Matters

With growing dependency on technology-driven solutions in healthcare, manufacturing, and other sectors, maintaining a steady, dependable flow of power is essential. Businesses face tremendous financial burdens when outages occur. According to a 2023 global survey, unplanned outages cost industrial businesses nearly $125,000 per hour. And in healthcare facilities, loss of power could be devastating for patients receiving critical care.

Much of the U.S. power grid was built in the 1960s and 70s, and this infrastructure is showing its age. New challenges posed by fluctuating energy demands across the country, an increasing number of severe weather events, the threat of cyberattack, and integration of renewable energy also contribute to the volatility of the U.S. grid.

Because of these challenges with the public grid, many organizations look to solutions such as generators to achieve resilient power. 

Is your organization’s generator equipped to deal with these challenges? Let’s look at five key factors critical to achieving resilient energy.

Key 1: Continuous Grid Synchronization

It’s essential to provide continuous grid synchronization — seamless integration of power sources, including storage systems, generators, and renewable energy sources. To do this, you must have a system that can maintain steady voltage, frequency, and power flow. 

The Foundation of Resilient Power

Continuous synchronization of power sources helps to provide seamless transitions between grid and backup power when needed. That means factory floor machinery, power-dependent healthcare technologies, and even lighting systems continue to operate without interruption. On the other hand, failing to maintain synchronization increases the risk of power quality issues, system instability, reduced efficiency, and blackouts. Keeping your generators synchronized with the public grid requires synchronization equipment, links between grid operator and generator control systems, and monitoring oversight. 

Technology Spotlight: Advanced Synchronization Systems

New technologies can simplify grid synchronization. Real-time monitoring and control systems, often part of a microgrid, provide an easier route to power resiliency. When equipped with the right software and controller, a microgrid can optimize energy usage — even to the point of evaluating whether it’s more cost-effective to use distributed energy resources (DERs) or tap into the main grid as needed.

Key 2: Off-Grid Capabilities

Another key to energy resilience is the ability to stay in operation and achieve power regulation even when the grid is down. Many generators are designed to operate in tandem with the grid, relying on public infrastructure for voltage and frequency regulation, power factor correction, and load balancing. 

Independence From the Grid

Despite potential complications, generators that can operate independent of the grid are a great asset to any organization — especially during power outages. Off-grid capabilities ensure that your facility maintains a steady flow of conditioned power from generators and DERs without grid oversight. Innovations such as turnkey microgrid solutions with built-in power conditioning and management systems are making grid-independent generators a more achievable goal for businesses and organizations.

Off-Grid Success Stories

Some remote businesses, such as eco-friendly resorts, rely on renewable resources such as solar for most of their electricity, helping to reduce dependence on the public grid. Similar systems power remote agriculture sites, and manufacturers are starting to catch on. Since 2018, Apple’s 175-acre campus in Cupertino, California, is powered by 100% renewable energy, in part from one of the world’s largest solar installations. The campus’s power is managed by a microgrid that includes battery storage and contributes clean energy to the main grid when possible.

Key 3: Superior Battery Management Systems (BMS)

Battery management systems (BMS) are critical to maintaining resilient power. Having a superior BMS in place goes a long way toward ensuring dependable energy flow to your facility.

The Backbone of Energy Storage

The BMS monitors and manages battery voltage, temperature, state of charge, and overall health. It also protects against thermal runaway and ensures the safety and longevity of the batteries. A high-quality BMS can help your system extend battery life, improve energy efficiency, and enhance overall system reliability.

BMS Features To Look For

Seek out a BMS system that’s scalable, powerful, secure, and able to carry out cell balancing and manage battery safety, including temperature management, to avoid potential complications. Real-time monitoring capabilities and predictive maintenance features are essential, and a good BMS should be configurable from the operator side.

Key 4: Continual Monitoring

Just as continuous grid synchronization is important for maintaining a clean, steady flow of power, so is constant monitoring of your site’s overall power system. Many things can go wrong when it comes to a local power management system, from equipment failures, to mishandling of equipment, to power quality problems.

The Importance of Vigilance

Continual monitoring of power systems helps you detect and address potential issues before they lead to failures. A quality monitoring system relays real-time data on system performance, helping to prevent outages and inefficiencies. A constant flow of data also allows predictive maintenance, empowering you to assess the health of vital components like batteries, generators, and DERs. 

Monitoring Solutions

Modern software solutions allow 24/7 monitoring of power systems and often fold in AI-driven analytics, making it simpler than ever to maintain an onsite power system. For example, the R3Di^® System, along with Virtual Utility^®, provides continuous monitoring of energy assets, weather, and market conditions via e2’s Grid Response Optimization of Virtual Energy (Grove 365) software, allowing you to optimize energy usage at your facility.

Key 5: Advanced Software and AI

As technological evolution enables real-time analytics and insight, new power management software is helping optimize power system performance. When you add AI in the mix, the possibilities keep expanding.

The Future of Power Resiliency

AI-enhanced analytics can look at historical energy use data to find patterns and identify times of peak demand in advance. Then, software uses those insights to automate system adjustments and maintain power sustainability, optimize energy use, and even determine when it’s more cost-effective to rely on the public grid or switch to local energy sources.

AI in Action

New AI-based tools are emerging to help consumers monitor and optimize energy usage at the individual home level. And on a larger scale, as the U.S. struggles to keep up with growing demand on aging power infrastructure, the Department of Energy (DOE) is investing in AI-enabled smart grid technologies. A recent DOE report explores AI’s potential to enhance four areas of grid management — including grid resilience.

Assessing Your Power Resiliency

It’s time to assess your generators and how they contribute to — or detract from — your organization’s power resiliency. While it requires an initial investment, future-proofing your energy system now can pay off in the long run.

Do Your Generators Pass the Test?

• Does your current solution provide continuous synchronization with the grid? 
• Can it operate even when the public grid is down? 
• Does it have a reliable, modern battery management system? 
• Is it capable of continuous monitoring with advanced software and AI analytics? 

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no,’ it’s time to think about upgrading to a microgrid.

Take the Next Step

Choosing a turnkey solution instead of building a traditional microgrid allows you to get the system online much sooner — and makes it easier and more cost-effective to implement and maintain. R3Di^® is a utility-grade, onsite power generation system that delivers conditioned, uninterrupted power to end users. R3Di^® relies on a self-contained, turnkey power platform installed without requiring an interconnection agreement or costly public utility upgrades. It’s capable of providing instantaneous full-load pickup in the event of an outage and sustaining power during long-duration blackouts. Relying on safe and sustainable lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery chemistry for energy storage, R3Di^® can store and provide up to 1 MW of power and includes a natural gas generator for additional support.

With Grove365, you’ll be empowered to uncover savings with the help of our energy management team. We’ll use historical data and advanced analytics to predict peak demand times — so you can avoid increased charges.

Ready to achieve resilient power at your facility? Schedule a consultation today.