By Lee Krevat
CEO of Krevat Energy Innovations
Founder/Host of The Climate Champions Podcast

Introduction

This article focuses on the benefits of the Orison Energy Storage Solution (Orison).

Compared to other residential energy storage systems, Orison provides an installed base system at less than one fifth the cost of other systems.

Orison can grow to any size required and leverage its modular design to optimize against requirements rather than being too large or small.

Leveraging its stylish look, small footprint, and capability to be installed anywhere as easy as plugging it in, home ownership is not a requirement; it can follow you anywhere.

Orison can better optimize resiliency and financial benefits for customers.

Orison does not require significant space, a solar system, a large investment, or remaining in the same residence long term to deliver benefits. Anybody that uses energy can benefit from Orison.

Below is a more detailed discussion of the features and benefits.

Self-Install

Unique among its competition, Orison is installed by the customer. Like any other appliance, the customer just plugs it in. And because Orison comes in 2.2 kWh modules, expandable to 4.4kWh, the correct amount of power can be placed wherever critical devices, such as a refrigerator, are located.

Pinpointing Resiliency

Orison, like many competitors in the energy storage space, provides resiliency but its customers gain great flexibility. When the utility grid fails, Orison will continue to power critical loads.

Other battery products are centrally installed and the stored energy is discharged and delivered to the entire circuit or circuits. The customer does not get to decide which devices have priority for energy and are forced to turn off non-critical devices. They also need to unplug those devices that continue to draw energy even when turned off, such as DVRs. Orison enables customers to pinpoint resiliency by connecting only those appliances and devices they want to power in an emergency.

Any devices that are identified as critical are plugged into Orison. This ensures that Orison provides back up for the refrigerator instead of video games.

Mobility

The high cost of installing other energy storage products means that, financially speaking, a customer needs to know that they are remaining in their current residence for a substantial percentage of the duration of the battery life to extract full value. This can be 10 or 20 years. If they move prior, the cost to move the infrastructure is likely too high to justify, since both removal, transport, and re-installation must be paid for.

With Orison, when you move, the battery modules are easily unplugged, moved, and plugged back in at the new location, just like any other appliance. The full value of the customer’s investment is maintained.

Sized to Need

Other energy storage products come in one or potentially a few sizes. Because installation will drive a significant cost of the product, customers are offered a larger capacity system than they need to lower the perceived cost of the average kWh. If they need just a little more energy, they pay an electrician to install another full system.

Because Orison is self-installed, by simply plugging it in like any appliance, customers don’t have to purchase a large amount to ensure the electrician’s time is worth the cost; they don’t need an electrician at all. And because it is designed to be modular, a customer can start with less modules and increase if requirements grow. Again, without a costly installation.

A customer can start with a $1,800 module, and get much of the benefits of a Tesla Powerwall system that costs over $12,000 installed. For most power outages, the common critical devices – the refrigerator, some LED lights, and phone charging – one module can last two or three days. If a customer needs to support additional devices or experiences longer power outages, modules can be added to the system.

This enables the customer to match their needs more exactly and grow the system over time if needed.

Financial

Installed energy storage is currently approximately $800 per kWh. However, with Orison, the system can be sized to a customer’s need (modular design) and the minimum cost is significantly less. For $1,800, the benefit of resiliency is secured. This compares to approximately $12,000 for a Tesla Powerwall. The lower cost also means that financing is not required, another savings.

More important is the capability of Orison to pay for itself. A single kWh of energy storage, intelligently charged and discharged, under the right time-of-use (TOU) rate, can pay for itself over time. For example, in San Diego under the EV-TOU-5 rate, a battery can pay for itself in approximately ten years, significantly reducing the cost of the resiliency benefit.

Orison can optimize this benefit better than other battery companies. For energy storage to leverage this financial benefit, discharging must often take place against energy being used during the peak hours. In California, for example, TOU rates are highest during evening hours, when customers are using electricity to watch TV, cook, refrigeration, and lighting. For a larger battery, the number of kWh is more than these devices require, so they may not able to leverage all their stored energy to offset the high rate – a large amount remains in the battery – unused and not providing financial benefit.

Orison can discharge the optimal amount of energy to maximize the financial benefit. If a customer has higher energy requirements when electricity costs are most expensive, they can expand the number of Orison modules to optimize the benefit. Competing systems don’t have this capability to match usage as closely. They are restricted by their limited size offerings and lack of expandability of their systems.

Market Size

Competitors’ energy storage products, for all intents and purposes, can only be leveraged by homeowners with significant income, space, and energy usage. Minimally sized units are large and expensive, with installation fees almost as high as the energy storage itself. They are most commonly installed in the garage of a house, with a high degree of performance.

Orison can be leveraged by the same homeowners, except that if they choose to move, they can take their systems with them.

Non-home owners, renters of houses or apartments, or condominium owners, can leverage Orison in the same way as homeowners. Because of the smaller size, the easy installation and removal capability, the attractive look of the product, and the low cost, renters can enjoy Orison’s resiliency, financial, and mobility benefits without committing to long term ownership or a commitment to a specific residence.

This significantly expands the market size for energy storage, with only Orison being able to supply product to this new, larger market segment.

Utility Rebate Programs

While it is theoretically possible for utilities to offer a rebate program for all energy storage products, it is more likely they will put programs in place for Orison. Competitors to Orison require significantly larger, more expensive systems usable only to home owners with the money, space and ability to make a long-term commitment.

With Orison, utilities will be able to offer less stringent contracts to their customers because of the lower costs, mobility, and ease of installation. Because Orison does not require expensive installation and relocation, the result is a much simpler rebate program. Also, because Orison is so much less expensive and can be plugged in by any customer, the utility can offer the rebate to all residential customers in a fair way, which is significant to utilities – no customer preference.

Because the system is less expensive, the utility can afford to offer the rebate to more
customers equally within a reasonable budget. If the customer moves within the service territory, there is no issue, as they can plug Orison in at the new location, and if they move outside the service territory, they can return the product. Orison already contains the communication requirements to enable utility control, meeting program requirements out of the box.

No Solar, No Problem

Many of the energy storage solutions on the market today are priced, marketed, and technically designed to pair with a new solar system installation. Without solar, costs are often higher and sometimes not made available at all. Orison customers benefit whether they have solar or not, are getting solar one day, or have no roof and are never going to have solar.

There is no requirement to have solar, but Orison is compatible with any solar product. For solar systems that can provide power during an outage, Orison can recharge with the excess solar energy for use later, when the energy requirement is higher or the sun sets.
Utility Services

Like other energy storage products, Orison may take advantage of battery control financial incentives made by utilities. Many utilities offer, or are considering offering, demand response programs that offer monetary rewards for reducing energy usage at a specific time, sometimes controlled by the utility, the utilities agent, or an aggregator. These incentives can increase the financial benefit of the system. Orison comes with wireless communication and enables all electric users to take advantage of these utility incentive offers.

Weather Events

Energy storage provides resiliency for the weather events numerous regions of the US and world are facing. Orison can disconnect from the grid when there is an outage and reconnect once power is restored – essentially providing microgrid functionality. Most important, Orison provides resiliency to a wider range of customers at a significantly lower cost of entry for all customers. Not just wealthier home owners can have resiliency protection against these weather-related outages.

Looking Ahead

Utilities have significant cost pressure. The people they employ get paid more each year, the materials to build infrastructure continue to increase in cost, the aging system is requiring new investment, and the increasing complexity of the grid requires investment of advanced technology. This drives utility costs – and therefore, rates – continually higher.

In contrast, technology is constantly reducing the cost of an Orison module. This enables higher profits for Orison. As component prices fall, Orison has the capability to lower the retail price of the product to the customer, making customer finances even better and the resiliency benefit less expensive. This results in Orison being available to even more customers.

Summary

Orison’s small modular design, self-install capability, stylish “in the home” look, low starting cost, take-it-with-you and protect your investment benefit, safe microgrid resiliency feature, and in-the-box standard wireless connectivity is a better fit for existing energy storage market segments, opens up entirely new market segments encompassing everyone that uses electricity, encourages utility and aggregator partnership opportunities, and delivers on the promise of wide-scale energy storage benefits.