My name is Madeline Acri and I am the Energy Storage Manager at Soligent. My mission is to inform and empower homeowners, installers and the Soligent Team to be the most knowledgeable about residential solar plus storage systems.
Let’s dive into the question that is on everybody’s mind lately: “If I have grid-tied solar, why does it stop working during power outages?” Making the decision to add grid-tied solar to your home has many potential benefits: self-supply of power, reduction in energy purchased from the grid and potential net metering credits if you can sell back unused power to the grid. But if you are hoping that “run power in my home during a grid outage” is on the list, chances are that isn’t the case.
When a grid outage occurs, it is paramount that grid operators are safe when working on the utility. If there were a chance rooftop solar was feeding power to the grid, this could pose a major hazard to operators maintaining the power lines. To mitigate this hazard, grid-tied solar inverters are required to disconnect from the grid when the grid signal stops. This is great for the utilities but potentially frustrating for homeowners. But wait…there is good news! It is possible to install a solar system or retrofit an existing system to run power when the grid goes down. Typically, this is done by adding a battery storage solution into the equation. Reach out to a Soligent Account Manager to learn about how adding storage can keep your solar up, even if the grid is down. Watch my webinar on power outages and solar now!