Impact of Power Outages in California - Solar Storage and Panels

Adding a solar battery to your solar panel system will provide consistent power to your home during the event of a blackout. As long as your solar battery is properly charged, you can power your home even when the sun isn't shining, at a consistent throughput. The amount of power your Energy Storage System (ESS) will provide to your home during a blackout is less than the amount of power that your home receives when powered by the grid.

Therefore, until the size of batteries dramatically increase at an affordable rate, you will have to decide which circuits in your home should be powered during a blackout. Your highest priority household circuits being powered is known as your Critical Load, (CL). You need to manage that power carefully since you need to ensure that you have enough electricity to power your home adequately until the next sunny day, where your solar panels can recharge your solar battery system.

Solar Pro Tip: An Energy Storage System (ESS), includes a battery backup and power processing unit like an inverter. Check out our solar acronym guide for other useful solar and battery-related acronyms.

The devastating fires such as the one that impacted Mendocino Complex and Paradise have impacted the way our utility companies prepare for fire season by preemptively implementing a power outage. California utility companies have decided to reduce the risk of a wildfire by shutting off power to high-risk transmission-line areas on high fire-risk days.

We started to see the preventative blackouts implemented by California’s largest public utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). With the other major utility companies like San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE) following in suit. This practice is likely to open up the window for more and more widespread extended blackouts all across California. In addition, to the unplanned power outages, these planned outages can leave homeowners and businesses without power for days, even weeks.

Did you know that during the day when your solar energy system is working the most, California utilities are compensating you for that power at a rate that is lower than the rate they are charging you for power during the evening. Homeowners between the hours of 4PM – 9PM will see charges as high as 57 cents ($.57) per kilowatt-hour (Kwh) for some homes.

During the daylight hours, California utility companies may pay as little as 24 cents ($.24) per Kwh. With the shift to Time-of-Use (ToU) by California’s major utility companies like Southern California Edison (SCE), Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) makes the effectiveness of a solar energy system less impactful. By adding a solar battery solution, you can store the electricity generated during the day and consume it when electricity costs are most expensive, at night.

California is incentivizing both business and homeowners to install a solar battery through a state-sponsored program known as the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP). The SGIP provides an incentive of up to $400 per KwH of installed battery capacity, which helps to significantly reduce the cost of installing a solar battery.

To calculate the full SGIP credit for a Tesla Powerwall installation. We would take the size of the Tesla Powerwall, which is a 13.5 KwH system and multiply it by the full SGIP credit per kilowatt-hour of $400, would equal a credit of $5,400 per Tesla Powerwall. The value of the SGIP credit steadily gets reduced as more and more battery capacity is installed. There is a commercial and residential SGIP credit and the residential SGIP credit is close to expiring. To maximize your SGIP credit, it is beneficial to install your solar battery as soon as possible.

The biggest solar batteries on the market today from the Tesla Powerwall to LG Chem are unable to be charged by your solar panels during the event of a blackout. For homeowners in California who need to have protection against outages for multiple days should consider a battery backup system that has an “islanding” capability. This is a condition where a solar panel system can continue to power a solar battery even though the electrical grid is no longer available. Battery backup solutions like a microgrid can provide such capabilities for homeowners looking for long term outage independence from the grid.