Origo Case Study | Scale Microgrids

Stuck Waiting for Power, This Cold Storage Facility Skipped the Line with a Microgrid

Cold storage facilities are a vital part of the food supply chain in the United States. But when these energy-intensive facilities are built, or when existing facilities need to expand, they can face challenges from long utility interconnection delays. Even after they are connected to the grid, they are vulnerable to blackouts caused by increasingly frequent extreme weather events, which can result in food spoilage. Microgrids are emerging as a uniquely versatile solution to these challenges, offering facilities a faster, cheaper, more resilient, and more sustainable alternative to relying on the utility grid.

Amond World-1-1

The Amond World cold storage facility is taking full advantage of the unique advantages of a microgrid. Amond World is the operating partner for Origo Investments, a commercial property developer that built a state-of-the-art 250,000 square foot refrigerated cold storage facility in the Madera Airport Industrial Park in California’s Central Valley. Faced with grid interconnection delays and mounting grid reliability and cost concerns, Origo decided to power their facility with an off-grid microgrid designed and built by Scale.

100%

Off-Grid Power

30%

Energy Savings Vs. Utility

100M

lbs Food Storage

500k

sqft Refrigerated Cold Storage

Microgrid Capacity at Amond World/Origo

In addition to the financial impact the unpredictability in California’s electric grid has had on local businesses, it also has severely impacted the US food supply chain, driven largely by the state’s Central Valley harvests.

The Origo microgrid will provide cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable energy than the local utility to keep critical loads at the cold-storage facility running during outages or Public Safety Power shutoff events.