Surviving the PSPS

Published by Electriq Power on November 15, 2019

BACKGROUND

We live in a 24-hour, 7-day a week society. Consumers’ lives have become totally dependent on uninterrupted power – from that first cup of homebrewed coffee in the morning, to those late-night emails sent from home in the evening. This constant, consistent access to energy allows us to withdraw money from an ATM, pump gas into our cars, pedal through those after work spin classes and everything in between, all without a moment of thought as to how this consumer lifestyle is made possible.

PROBLEM

In the Fall of 2019, over 3 million people in Northern California faced a startling realization as PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) commenced, leaving homes completely powerless for days at a time. The PSPS program is a safety measure taken by PG&E to preemptively de-energize transmission lines considered to be “at risk for failure” by the heightened fire threat due to dry conditions and gusty winds.

The October 2019 PSPS events were the worst suffered in California’s history, leaving over 940,000 PG&E customers without power on two separate occasions, thus disrupting nearly every aspect of their daily lives.

SOLUTION

Adrian D. is an Electriq Power customer living in the Redwood Valley area of Northern California. On a typical day, Adrian uses his PowerPod in Savings Mode, cycling his batteries and discharging them during peak periods of energy demand in order to maximize his cost savings. When PG&E announced that Adrian would be in the threat-area affected by the PSPS, Adrian received a notification from the Electriq Power app on his phone informing him that he was in a potential fire zone and should switch his system into Backup Mode.

Adrian quickly confirmed the action, and his PowerPod operated in Backup Mode for the duration of the PSPS outage. Combined with his home’s onsite solar PV, Adrian was able to generate and store all the energy he needed for daily use – without any disruption of power – until the PSPS period came to a close. Once the fire threat ended, Adrian received another app alert notifying him that it was now safe to change back to his original mode of use.

The increased frequency of weather and climate events is now the leading cause of major power outages. Millions of customers are at risk of experiencing recurring blackouts that endanger businesses, homes and lives. We want to protect more customers like Adrian by offering an intelligent energy storage solution for your home.