First, was the high cost of hail insurance as the plains of Colorado are notorious for frequent and extreme hail events. Second, the dealership had been experiencing three to six power outages annually causing a disruption in operations and costing sales and customer satisfaction. Third, reducing the utility bills would deliver additional money to the bottom line.

The solution was to build a resilient microgrid around a solar canopy to protect the majority of the vehicles from hail damage. With 386 kW of SunPower solar PV modules, SMA CORE1 PV inverters, a Dynapower MPS-i125 energy storage system, and the Ageto ARC controller, the site delivers on all three.

In partnership with IPOWER Alliance, the Ageto ARC microgrid control solution coordinates and optimizes the power system. The site is optimized for resiliency with a portion of the energy storage system reserved for outages. The balance of the battery is deployed for self-consumption of solar, utility rate optimization including demand charge management and TOU (time-of-use) shifting. Due to limitations at the utility transformer, the Ageto ARC controller curtails PV as necessary to maintain the utility defined export limit.