A microgrid is a home that can island itself: when PG&E power fails, the property detects the outage, disconnects from the grid, and keeps running on its own generation and storage, often so seamlessly the household never notices. In the parts of Northern California where public safety power shutoffs and outages are now a fact of life, from the wooded hills of Woodside to Wine Country, this has moved from luxury to design requirement. The difference between a backup gadget and a microgrid is engineering: sources sized to the loads, switching that happens automatically, and one system orchestrating solar, batteries, generator, and the grid instead of four devices that have never met.
We design and install complete solar systems using premium panel brands, engineered for the property rather than the rebate: array placement that respects the architecture and the shade lines, capacity sized against the home's actual consumption and its electrification future, and production that feeds the batteries first when resilience is the priority. Because we are the electrical contractor as well as the designer, the interconnection, the panel work, and the permits are one scope with one accountable team.
We install and integrate the three battery platforms we believe in. Tesla Powerwall, the reference point of the category. Savant battery systems, the natural choice when the home runs on Savant automation and energy management. And FranklinWH, whose aPower 2 delivers fifteen kilowatt hours of lithium iron phosphate storage per unit with ten kilowatts of continuous output, stackable to two hundred twenty five kilowatt hours, coordinated by the aGate controller that manages solar, grid, generator, and even EV power as one ecosystem, backed by a fifteen year warranty. Which platform belongs in your home depends on the loads, the automation system, and the outage duration you are designing for, and that is a conversation, not a catalog page.
Batteries carry a home gracefully through hours; a standby generator carries it through days. We install Kohler home generators as the endurance layer of the microgrid: automatic start when storage runs low, fuel-fed power for the loads that must never stop, and quiet, code-compliant placement worked out with the site plan. In a properly designed system the generator and the batteries cooperate, the generator charging storage and cycling efficiently rather than droning through the night, which extends its life and keeps the property livable during a multi-day event.
The intelligence is what makes it a microgrid. Transfer happens automatically in a blink, loads are prioritized so the essentials always have power and the discretionary circuits wait their turn, EV charging defers to the house during an outage, and the whole energy picture, production, storage, consumption, and grid status, is visible in one place. Integrated with Savant, Lutron, Control4, Crestron, and Vantage systems, the home can even respond to an outage as a scene: shedding loads, adjusting lighting, and notifying the household, all without anyone touching a panel.
A microgrid touches the most regulated parts of a home's electrical system: service capacity, transfer equipment, panel and subpanel design, interconnection with PG&E, and inspections at every step. As a C10 licensed electrical contractor we design to code, pull our own permits, coordinate the PG&E process from load evaluation through the final connection, and size the whole system against a real load calculation rather than a brochure. It is the difference between resilience that is engineered and equipment that is merely installed.
The measure of a microgrid is a night nobody remembers: the power failed at two in the morning, the house switched itself, the refrigeration and the security and the medical equipment never blinked, and the family read about the outage at breakfast. That standard is reached in the design phase, in load calculations and switching logic and fuel planning, long before hardware arrives. Contact us to walk your property and talk through what resilience should mean for your home, or start with the design questionnaire on our smart home planning guide.
That is the first design question, and the honest answer is a load calculation. Some homes back up everything; most prioritize refrigeration, networking, security, medical equipment, well or septic pumps, and selected comfort loads. We size the batteries and generator against the real numbers rather than a brochure.
It depends on capacity and what is running. A single FranklinWH aPower 2 stores fifteen kilowatt hours and systems stack far beyond that, so hours or days are both achievable by design. For multi-day resilience, batteries pair with a Kohler generator that recharges storage and carries the long event.
No. Batteries can charge from the grid or a generator and still provide seamless backup and daily energy management. Solar changes the equation during extended outages, replenishing storage every day the sun rises, which is why full microgrids include it.
For serious resilience, yes, because they solve different problems. Batteries switch instantly and silently and carry the home through typical outages; the generator is the endurance layer for multi-day events. Designed together they cooperate, with the generator charging the batteries and cycling efficiently instead of running continuously.
We do. As a C10 licensed electrical contractor, CSLB 1033103, we design to code, pull our own permits, manage inspections, and coordinate the PG&E interconnection from load evaluation through the final connection.
The energy and electrical disciplines behind resilient homes, each covered in depth.
Regent5 now provides personalized smart home consultations, designed to kick-start your project swiftly and efficiently. Simply provide us with your contact information and a brief outline of your interests, and we will pair you with the right specialist for your project.
1300 Industrial Rd, Ste #12
San Carlos, CA 94070
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