AUSTIN, Texas — It's no secret that once extreme weather rolls in, all eyes shift to the Texas power grid – because once temperatures keep rising, so will people's energy use, leaving Texans worrying whether or not the grid will fail.
It's a lingering thought any time summer or winter temperatures creep in, and it's why a new company has taken form to challenge the grid's stability.
Base Power is led by Zach Dell – the son of Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell – and Justin Lopas. The company provides a distributed battery storage to homeowners, which allows them to have a "reliable and affordable" backup source if there is an outage. The battery itself, according to Lopas, allows the grid to be more efficient.
"If the grid goes off, the battery automatically kicks in and you might not even know you're in an outage and the battery protects you from that outage," Lopas said.
Lopas said the model is unique because there is no need for solar panels.
"That's not a requirement for part of our system. So the batteries is the energy that is used to charge. It can come from solar and or it can come from the grid," Lopas said.
The idea came into fruition because of the known instability of the grid and wanting to tap into a tool that would give customers an outlet that could not only help them, but also the grid itself.
"People really, really want protection from those outages and, unfortunately it's really, really expensive for somebody to go buy a battery or buy a generator," Lopas said.
Matt Boms is the executive director of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA) and serves on the Backup Power Advisory Committee. He said addressing outages is a never-ending conversation, and he believes battery storage has a critical role to play.
"Thinking about them as kind of providing more energy back into the grid when we need it and, again, thinking about those really hot summer days in August where we might need to tap into those extra features," Boms said.
When asked if there are any downsides, Boms said there aren't and that systems such as Base Power are ones he believes the Texas market is leaning into.
"Hardworking Texans deserve to have lower energy bills, and I think that's, again, a really important role that batteries are playing," Boms said.
The battery storage through Base Power is a one-time, $2,000 fee that includes the installation. However, it varies through cities.
Lopas said the company is set to expand further throughout the state and only sees its success taking off.
"We think that Texas should be a leader in in energy technology and in affordability of power and the reliability of power," Lopas said.