With a Vegas Electric grid-interactive solution, your home or small business will receive power from three sources - solar, batteries, and the utility company.

During daylight hours, solar will deliver power to the electrical load, while simultaneously charging the batteries.  During night time hours (or when it is cloudy), the system will draw power from the batteries and then from the utility grid.  During a power outage, stored battery power will be provided to critical electrical items.  

To ensure backup power is available when needed, the battery bank is never fully discharged.  A percentage of battery storage is reserved to meet your critical load requirements in the event of a power outage.  The remaining battery storage is available for night time usage.  Critical loads, those essential electrical services needed during an outage, are determined by the customer. 

A grid-interactive system may be the right solution for you if a seamless transfer to backup power during an outage is essential (i.e. you are working remotely, have a home-based business, or a luxury small business). Or you want more energy independence than is offered by a grid-tied system.

How it Works:

1. Solar panels capture the sunlight and turn it into direct current (DC) electricity. The DC current is sent to the charge controller.

   *The inverter converts DC current to alternating (AC) current, the form of energy required by most appliances.

   * AC current flows through the power distribution panel which organizes the renewable system’s electrical connections and provides overcurrent protection for the equipment.

   The charge controller regulates the solar and generator power to charge the batteries.
   

2. The Power Management system includes the inverter and power distribution panel and charge controller

3. The batteries are charged during the day and discharged at night or during outages. Two types of battery technologies are available, Lithium Ion and AGM**.

4. The critical load panel is a secondary panel that includes breakers and circuits for services needed during an outage. During and outage, this is a seamless switchover.

5. The main service panel is the existing load panel which will receive power needed for the household load.

6. The household electrical load receives solar, battery and, when needed, grid power to meet the energy needs.

7. The bi-directional meter measures all the energy the home uses both from the utility grid and from the solar panels. 

8. The utility grid provides energy when the solar production and battery storage is not enough to meet the household load requirements. When solar production is greater than needed for the household load and battery charging, the utility grid will receive the excess energy.

Optional: real time and historical monitoring system of solar production and energy usage is available for additional purchase.

**Vegas Electric offers two types of battery technology: absorbed glass mat (AGM) or Lithium Ion.   The choice of battery technology impacts both the cost and the performance or the system.  Lithium batteries are more efficient in the charge/discharge process and have a greater discharge depth compared to AGM.  Because they are more efficient lithium batteries can be half the size of AGM and have a longer life, but are more expensive.