The building was built by incorporating a Civil War-era barn, originally located in Ohio, that was disassembled, transported, and rebuilt in Winter Park. An ‘off-the-power-grid’ facility, the Headwaters Center derives the majority of its energy from the sun, which is stored in and used from batteries onsite.

From the initial design, the facility was never connected to the electric utility grid, and is instead powered by an off-grid microgrid. Much of the facility load, including the air handling and HVAC systems, are directly powered from the DC bus shared by the 300 kWh of energy storage. Facility AC loads are served by the grid-forming Princeton Power energy storage inverters. The site operates generator-off as conditions allow with backup power from the natural gas generators.

The Ageto ARC microgrid controller provides the primary user interface, real-time controls, and performance monitoring of the system.