Blackouts in the summer, blackouts in the winter - The benefits of Cactos One

July 27, 2022
Oskari Jaakkola

As energy security and costs to consumers continue to dominate the news headlines and extreme summer weather events are triggering action from Grid Operators around the globe, at Cactos, we are focused on helping address these challenges. We are focused on helping our clients plan for the disruptions that we are facing now, and the ones we will likely face during the winter months ahead.  

Once again, we note that grid operators, such as ERCOT, have issued alerts for energy conservation in order to avoid a situation of rolling blackouts given the imbalance between supply and demand during the current extreme temperatures. We see grid maintenance being postponed in a number of regions to avoid capacity reductions, which in turn may create future availability risks. Leading industry figures are highlighting the peril that lies ahead, with CEO’s such as Shell's Ben van Beurden warning that ‘“It will be a really tough winter in Europe”.

We are already seeing stress in the European energy markets, such as the planned nationalisation of EDF in France, the government bailout of Uniper by the German Government, over 30 retail utilities having gone bankrupt in the UK, as well as many EU Countries issuing warnings of potential for blackouts in winter 2022. It is absolutely critical that steps are taken at national and international levels to safeguard energy supplies and prepare for the winter, but in addition businesses themselves should take action to safeguard their operations and energy security.

At Cactos, we have developed the Cactos One smart energy storage system to do out part in helping in exactly these circumstances. With a cost effective commercial model with no upfront investment, reliable and proven technology, we offer our clients the opportunity to:

  • Maintain power supply to critical systems during a blackout
  • Potential for reducing costs by utilising the Load Shifting function of our Cactos Spine cloud-based software system
  • Ability to utilise the Peak Shaving function for reducing max. power -based energy billing or for compensating for temporary loads higher than what is allowed by the grid connection, such as an EV fast charger
  • The ability to continue to generate from solar panels during a blackout.

To many people, it is assumed that solar panels will always continue to provide power during outages, however, this is in fact not the case. During outage events, the inverter for the solar generation will receive a signal that the grid is ‘down', which will in turn shut down the solar panels and eliminate the ability to generate one's own power. This is the case for all roof top solar generation systems unless a system like the Cactos One is installed at the premises. With the Cactos One, we ensure that solar power is not discharged onto the grid during blackout events and our unit creates a microgrid, keeping the solar power flowing into your business.

With the great uncertainty of what lies ahead for our power markets in Europe and beyond, we believe that taking action to safeguard one's own supply is the only logical step.

If you would like to learn more about the Cactos One, please reach out to us for a consultation or quotation.

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