How One Factory Doubled Production While Off the Grid for Six Months
An electrical fire cut power, but Critical Loop’s rapidly deployable microgrid kept production running while providing stable power with less emissions.
Time to get factory up and running
High quality power
Max power provided
Key Takeaways (TL;DR)
A transformer fire took out power to a company's only production line, putting the business at risk of going under. The company found that even basic manufacturing equipment like welders and CNCs needed high power stability that a diesel generator couldn't provide. By integrating Critical Loop’s high-capacity battery energy storage system with their existing generator, the facility restarted manufacturing, doubled production capacity, and cut fuel use in half, all while operating completely off-grid during the utility outage.
Situation
When extreme weather led to an electrical fire that took out critical utility infrastructure, one West Coast factory attempted to run their entire manufacturing facility on a diesel generator. After discovering the diesel generator’s unstable power was causing equipment failure and the utility had no repair date planned, they reached out to Critical Loop for help.
Solution
Critical Loop deployed a temporary power system that enabled the factory to run its welders, CNC machines, and milling equipment that require stable power by pairing the factory’s existing generator with a Critical Loop smart switch gear, controller, and battery. The system was able to drastically reduce fuel consumption while providing increased power quality by predominantly energizing the building with high quality battery power, and only turning on the diesel generator to recharge the 500kW 1MWh battery.
Results
The factory was able to stay in business and ultimately doubled their production line throughput and power consumption while off grid, and didn’t spend millions of dollars on the engineering and equipment required to provide off-grid high quality power from a diesel generator. Critical Loop provided the turnkey power solution this company needed at the right service level, with the right equipment, for the right amount of time.
