Case file / Cold storage and packing
Kern Ridge Packing
A grape packing and cold storage operation whose annual demand charge was being set by a single week of intake in late July. The array covers the daytime refrigeration load; the battery exists purely to hold the monthly peak down during pull-down.
- Array
- 842 kW DC
- Inverters
- 700 kW AC
- Annual output
- 1,412 MWh
- Permission to operate
- March 2025
Specification
The numbers on the record
| Client | Kern Ridge Packing Co. |
|---|---|
| Location | Delano, CA |
| Array rating | 842 kW DC |
| Inverter rating | 700 kW AC (DC to AC ratio 1.20) |
| Modules | 1,530 at 550 W |
| Structure | Ballasted rooftop, 10 degree south-facing rows |
| Storage | 500 kW / 1,000 kWh lithium iron phosphate |
| Modelled annual production | 1,412,000 kWh |
| Specific yield | 1,677 kWh per kW DC per year |
| Load offset | 63 percent |
| Construction window | 11 weeks |
| Permission to operate | March 2025 |
What made it hard
The constraints
- Interval data showed the July demand peak at 1,180 kW against a 12-month average of 690 kW, driven entirely by warm-product pull-down during intake.
- The 2009 TPO membrane had roughly eleven years of life left, enough to install over but not enough to ignore in the ballast plan.
- Twenty-two rooftop condensers with tight service clearances removed almost a fifth of the gross roof area from the usable layout.
What we did about it
The approach
- Array sized to the year-round refrigeration base load rather than to the roof, keeping self-consumption above 90 percent of generation.
- Battery sized in kW first: 500 kW of continuous discharge to cover the pull-down peak, with 1,000 kWh of usable energy to hold it for the two-hour event window.
- Ballast blocks kept off every seam and drain path, with manufacturer-approved slip sheets so the membrane warranty was continued in writing.
- Condenser airflow and service access mapped before layout, with a 4-foot maintained clearance at every unit and a continuous walkway spine.
Result
Outcome
- System size
- 842 kW DC / 700 kW AC
- Modelled annual output
- 1,412,000 kWh
- Load offset
- 63 percent
- Peak demand reduction
- 410 kW in the July billing period
- Self-consumption
- 92 percent of generated kWh
Kern Ridge Packing, Delano, CAThe array was the easy part. What changed our bill was sizing the battery against the one week that sets the whole year.
More work
Other case files
Bring us the bill before you bring us the roof
Every project starts with twelve months of interval data and a load shape. The array comes after that, sized to what you actually use.
CSLB #1071482 (sample). Prevailing wage on public works. Engineers answer, not a call centre.