Energy project finance reference. This educational resource covers project investment and financing concepts. It is separate from Jaken Energy’s commercial electricity and natural gas procurement service; it is not a financing offer or a promise of funding.
Microgrid financing and the value of resilience
A microgrid combines equipment and controls that can support designated loads when the normal supply is interrupted, if designed and approved for that purpose. Installing solar or a battery does not automatically create an islandable system. Electrical design and operating responsibility are central to the project.
What to evaluate
Begin with critical loads, required duration and acceptable interruption. Quantify credible outage impacts using the facility’s own records and operational assumptions. Keep avoided-outage value separate from annual utility savings; the owner may value resilience even if conventional energy savings do not repay the installation.
Build a defensible comparison
Compare ownership and service structures using fuel, testing, maintenance, controls, replacement and standby tariff costs. Check interconnection and protection requirements, especially for multiple buildings or tenants. A service agreement should specify availability, restoration performance, fuel responsibility and remedies for failure.
Documents and questions to prepare
- Critical-load inventory and duration requirement
- Island-mode design and interconnection approval
- Fuel, maintenance and replacement plan
- Separate savings and resilience scenarios
For commercial property owners
Start with the property’s actual accounts, lease responsibilities and plans for ownership or sale. Keep commodity procurement, building improvements and project investment as separate decisions. Include the costs you retain and the savings you retain after tenant reimbursement. An improvement that lowers a tenant-paid expense may benefit tenants without producing the same increase in owner income.
Prepare a base case and a downside case using dated evidence for costs, revenue and funding. Any financing rate, tax benefit or return is a project assumption until supported by current documents. Legal, tax, engineering and lender review should follow the actual transaction.
For the existing property’s supply-cost decision, use the contract-cost calculator or request a property energy review.
Primary sources
Reviewed October 12, 2026. Program rules, tariffs and financing terms should be checked again before a transaction.