When Tom Feist and his wife, Linda Schadler, moved to northern Vermont last year, they knew they wanted a backup power source to protect them from bitter cold and snow and for added peace of mind in a relatively remote home. They immediately decided on a solar array to provide electricity, but had choices to make for a backup power system.
While a propane generator was cheaper than the initial $12,000 they eventually spent on the battery, the costs penciled out comparably over the lifetime of energy credits from the system in addition to lower maintenance expenses than what a generator would require.
“Long-term it looked like a better deal, for environmental and financial reasons,” Feist said.
Their home has a 10-kilowatt-hour battery with the solar system rated at 7.2 kilowatt peak power. “We can run a well, septic, heater, a refrigerator and some lights to keep comfortable, even if the power was out for an extended period,” Feist said.
The installation is part of a larger effort by a Vermont utility to encourage distributed energy and save money by reducing peak demand.
Feist enrolled in a pilot program launched by Green Mountain Power last year that has signed up more than 500 customers to test acceptance and operations of combined solar and battery storage systems. Results were so promising that a second and enhanced pilot program was announced in February.
‘We now see peaks after dark’
Green Mountain Power has worked to integrate battery storage into its system on a small scale, but in the past year it has deployed an increasing number of units. It began offering solar-storage platforms more than a year ago. It started a “bring your own device” program with batteries provided by third-party suppliers, first as a pilot and now as a consumer option.
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