California wildfires highlight that the inadequa-cies of standalone photovoltaic systems, as thousands of customers with solar were left in the dark during outages. Worse still, many solar plus battery systems were inadequate, as battery companies have not prioritized installing intelligent home load management which prevents short-circuiting at the worst moment when the power goes out and the spotlight is on the battery to perform.
Instant ON was created when the older paradigms on sustainability and energy efficiency could not address the resiliency challenges of the new decade. Traditional energy storage, solar, and generator systems created piecemeal, single solution benefits to society, yet never were interconnected into a broader networked solution. Smart grids of the new century demand integrators which push for plug-and-play, holistic systems. As the market is plagued by false claims and promises, solar alone cannot guarantee a resilient or sustainable future. The grid needs dependable and reliable power since the sun and the weather is out of human control.
Instant ON looked at these resiliency and renewable products and technologies as a whole solution rather than a set of products that needed to be ‘put together’. The idea was to save time and money for the installers, integrators and customers and avoid blaming installers, products or technologies for not performing.
With its new and higher incentive for batteries in California, Instant ON has witnessed more companies looking to serve this segment of the market and realizing that the rebate process is a challenge. Instant ON ensures that its projects get the full incentive and has created a solution to help solar contractors who want to start offering batteries but don’t want to deal with the rebate issues. By including the SGIP Compliance Pack, contractors can now focus on taking care of their customer while knowing that they will get the full rebate allowed. In this system, all reporting is done for the necessary term and a third-party Operations and Maintenance agreement is in place for the entire term to ensure that the full rebate is received and the system performs as prescribed for the customer.
The company has also developed the IO-5M, a mobile 5kWh battery that can power a wide range of applications including household appliances and more importantly, medical devices such as a stairlift, oxygen concentrator, and CPAP machines. It can be plugged directly into a home without installation or permits, meaning that this solution can easily help families without them having to wait 30 to 90 days to install a full home microgrid. To help protect more families, Instant ON has started a B1G1 program (Buy 1, Give 1) in which a customer can pay full price through its non-profit partner, who will donate an IO-5M to a registered medical baseline customer in Tier 2 or Tier 3 fire zone.
Instant ON’s solutions are not only AI-powered with the learning capabilities often discussed, but also helps communicate with most devices, platforms and technologies. This coordinated response capability connects energy generators, energy distributors and energy consumers and delivers embedded networks, Virtual Power Plants and facilitates smart grids by helping create a future where energy is consumed sustainably and shared fairly. “Machine learning and AI are going to be some of the most disruptive technologies.There will be a continued trend towards connectivity among technologies, devices and platforms,” says AJ Perkins, President of Instant ON.
Benefits of the System:
- Energy consumers can see and control their energy consumption and production. They can decide how and when to share excess energy and be compensated for this and their participation in demand response events.
- Solar and battery companies can now deliver an even greater return on their customers’ investments. Their solutions are actively and pre-emptively monitored and optimized in line with the user’s unique energy usage.
- Energy providers can better anticipate and manage supply and demand and avoid excess over-production. Advanced insights and control capability enable greater customer transparency and support new, innovative services to manage demand response.
Instant ON is working with a developer building homes for US veterans, who wanted to ensure that the home would be a part of a resilient community that could be a safe haven. They are offering ‘Housing As-A-Service’ which would have one monthly payment including all utilities associated with the home. To help achieve this, Instant ON is building a microgrid for each home by installing rooftop solar, 40kWh of batteries and an advanced Home Energy Management System.
Instant ON is also putting a 1MW battery and CHP system for their community center for on-site generation and storage as well as their new IO Eye, solar LED/Camera to provide safety and security for the community. This will not only give the community the ability to withstand power outages of any length, but the home and community microgrids will also support the grid with power on demand for the utility. Furthermore, Instant ON is presently creating “resiliency kits” with housing developers, including technologies which will promote fire resiliency for homes and new construction.
AJ Perkins says, “As our society addresses the environmental and energy challenges of this new decade, Instant ON is creating an environment to come together and collaborate with technologies, engineers, installation companies and integrators. Instant ON believes that only through cooperation, will communities become truly resilient.”
