Energy Solutions
Distribution feeders get congested locally, and the cheapest megawatt is often the one sitting behind the substation that is running out of headroom. Because a distributed system fits on less than an acre, it suits a far wider range of sites and landowners than a hundred-megawatt project ever could, which lets us put capacity at many points on the system instead of one. That spread is what diversifies and strengthens the grid, and it is the scale these local problems actually have.
01
A utility-scale battery plugs into the transmission system and serves a region. A distributed battery plugs into the distribution system and serves the feeder it sits on. Same chemistry, same four hours; the size, the connection point, the customer and who ends up owning it are all different.
Bulk power arrives on the transmission system and steps down at the substation. Everything past that point is the distribution system: the local feeders that serve a town, a county road, an industrial park.
Our battery connects at distribution voltage on that feeder, close to the load or the constraint it serves. One to ten megawatts, not a hundred.
It charges and discharges within the same few miles of wire. The energy never crosses the transmission system, and the feeder serves its own peak instead of importing through it.
Distributed storage sits downstream of the substation, on the same wires as the customers it serves.
A day on one distribution feeder. The line has a fixed ceiling. Left alone, the evening peak runs through it; the battery charges while the feeder is quiet and discharges into the peak, so the load stays under the limit without rebuilding the line.
One to ten megawatts, placed where the distribution system is running out of headroom, rather than where the transmission map happens to be convenient.
These are standalone storage systems, developed, permitted and interconnected as their own projects, placed where the distribution system needs the capacity.
Distributed storage is the part of the portfolio Cloudbreak owns and operates for the long term. The utility-scale book is built and transferred; this one stays.
02
| System size | Roughly 1 to 10 MWac, connected at distribution voltage, sited close to the load or the constraint being served. |
|---|---|
| Configuration | Standalone front-of-meter storage on the distribution system, typically four hour duration. |
| Programs | State and utility storage procurements, and bilateral contracts with the host utility. |
| Land | Parcels of less than an acre, near three-phase distribution, leased before a queue position is filed. |
| Ownership | Cloudbreak typically retains distributed storage as a long-term owner and operator. |
03
Our distributed portfolio sits in three territories picked for the same reason: distribution systems that are short of capacity, and states whose procurement rules let storage compete to supply it. Colorado is home and the deepest part of the book. Washington is where utility resource plans are leaning hard on storage for winter capacity, and the distribution system is the fastest place to add it. Maryland has opened one of the clearest paths in the country for distribution-scale batteries. Twenty-two sites are under lease across the three.
04
For utilities
Distribution-sited storage defers feeder and substation upgrades, holds capacity through the evening peak, and can be built and energized on a timeline a transmission project cannot match.
For resource planners
Utility resource plans are leaning on storage for peak and winter capacity. A distribution-scale system can be sited, permitted and energized inside the window a plan actually has.
For landowners
A battery needs less than an acre of flat ground near three-phase distribution. Twenty year fixed term, zero cost to the landowner, one counterparty for the life of the lease.
For communities
Storage helps keep power flowing through local outages and disturbances, and it generates property tax revenue for the county that hosts it.
For offtakers
Commercial and institutional buyers increasingly want delivery that matches their load, not just annual volume. Distribution-sited storage is how a portfolio delivers that.
For the grid
Smaller interconnections clear faster. A portfolio of distribution-scale systems can add the same capacity as one large project, in more places, with less exposure to a single queue position.
05
For utilities
Cloudbreak owns and operates the asset and contracts its capacity and energy to the utility that needs it. You get the capacity at the point on the system where it is short, without carrying development risk or capital.
For offtakers
Long-term contracts for energy delivered when your load needs it rather than when the sun is up, from systems sited inside the distribution system that serves you.
For landowners
Less than an acre near three-phase distribution, twenty year fixed term, zero cost to the landowner, and a lease signed before we file for anything.
06
Development
We sign leases before we apply for permits or interconnection, and we prioritize counties where we have already had projects approved. At distribution scale the queue is shorter, so the schedule is won or lost locally.
Equipment and construction
Standard four hour lithium-ion systems from suppliers with fleets already in operation, installed by contractors who work at this scale every day rather than treating it as a small version of a large job.
Capital
Because we keep these assets, they are financed to be held: construction and term debt, structured equity and transferable tax credits, with a standing group of partners.
07
Storage projects rarely die on the economics. They die in the queue, in the county, or on a piece of land the developer never actually controlled. Cloudbreak was built as a land and interconnection business first, which is why our storage projects continue to move forward successfully.
We sign leases before we apply for permits or interconnection. We prioritize permitting in counties where we have already had projects approved, so we know the planning commissions. We engage with planners early in the development process and perform comprehensive zoning code research to ensure we implement all permitting requirements into our original project plans.
At distribution scale that discipline compounds. The interconnections are smaller and clear faster, so the constraint moves to permitting and land, which is exactly where we have spent the last decade.
08
Cloudbreak develops both. On a site plan they look like the same asset. They are two different businesses.
20 to 100 MWac, four hour duration, front-of-meter.
1 to 10 MWac, sited feeder by feeder.
Transmission or high-voltage distribution, at a point the utility picked.
Distribution voltage, downstream of the substation, close to the load.
Regional capacity a utility needs sooner than new thermal generation can be permitted and built.
A local constraint: a congested feeder, a substation out of headroom, a pocket of the system that needs capacity held through the evening.
Large parcels under long-term lease, secured before a queue position is filed.
Parcels of less than an acre, near three-phase distribution, leased before a queue position is filed.
Build-transfer to a utility, or sale at notice to proceed.
Cloudbreak typically retains it as a long-term owner and operator.
Pueblo Battery Resource: 50 MW, built and transferred to Black Hills Colorado Electric.
81.1 MWac across 22 sites in Colorado, Washington and Maryland.
We work with utilities planning distribution capacity, commercial and institutional offtakers, and landowners with parcels near three-phase distribution. Tell us which one you are.
Cloudbreak has over 66.3 MWdc of sites under active development in major East Coast markets such as Virginia, New York, and others. These projects span large distributed projects with utilities such as Dominion as well as community solar projects in National Grid and NYSEG service territories.
Cloudbreak Energy has been awarded 8 MWdc of distributed solar projects in Iowa. Cloudbreak is actively developing more than 23 MWdc of distributed and community solar projects in several Midwest markets and across multiple utility territories, such as WE Energies, WPS, and Xcel.
Cloudbreak Energy has 70+ MWdc of distributed solar and solar plus storage projects in active development in various counties across the Pacific Northwest and in California. The West Coast is a large focus area for the firm as community and distributed solar legislation gains momentum in some of those key markets.
Cloudbreak has been awarded 70+MWdc of distributed and community solar projects with Xcel, Black Hills, and Mountain Parks Electric which are in various stages of maturity, ranging from permitting to COD. Cloudbreak also has 180 MWdc of utility scale solar and 212.2 MWdc of distributed and community solar projects under active development.
