On Saturday afternoon, four microbursts tore through Lower Merion, Narberth, West Philadelphia, and South Philadelphia in the span of 30 minutes — wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph that toppled hundreds of trees, sheared roofs off buildings, and took the grid down with them.
Lower Merion declared a state of emergency. Mayor Parker declared a disaster emergency. At the peak, more than 46,000 PECO customers lost power — roughly 7,500 in Lower Merion alone, about a third of the township.
That was Saturday. Today is Tuesday, and some of our neighbors still don't have electricity.
Our Customers Never Noticed
While the grid went down around them, our solar-plus-battery customers experienced something very different: nothing happened.
Their lights stayed on. Their refrigerators kept running. Their AC — in the middle of a July heat wave — never stopped. They charged their phones from their own walls while neighbors drove to firehouses to plug in.
Four days later, these homeowners haven't skipped a beat. Solar panels charge the batteries during the day, the batteries carry the house through the night, and the cycle repeats — completely independent of the grid. No rationing. Just normal life.
How It Works
Solar panels alone shut off during a grid outage — that's a safety requirement so your panels don't energize lines that crews are repairing. A battery system changes that. When the grid drops, your system "islands" — it disconnects from PECO and runs your home directly from solar and stored power. The switchover happens in milliseconds.
During long summer days like this week, a properly sized solar array fully recharges a home battery by mid-afternoon while powering the house simultaneously. You can run like this indefinitely.
The systems keeping our customers' homes running right now include Tesla Powerwall, Sigenergy SigenStor, Enphase IQ, and FranklinWH. Each handles the transition automatically — no switches to flip, no generators to fuel, no running to the gas station with traffic lights out across the township.
This Keeps Happening
This isn't the first time, and it won't be the last. Severe storms knocked out power across the region just last month. The grid wasn't built for 70 mph microbursts and the aging tree canopy we have in Lower Merion and West Philadelphia. Restoration takes days — longer when back-to-back storms compound the problem.
A battery on your wall doesn't fix the grid. But it makes the grid's problems someone else's problem.
What It Costs — and What This Weekend Cost Without One
Battery systems start at around $15,000 installed. Whole-home backup setups typically use two units. We break down costs and options here.
But consider what this weekend cost homeowners without backup: spoiled food, hotel stays, lost workdays, and the stress of not knowing when the lights come back. For some, there's property damage from sump pumps that quit when the power cut. A battery pays for itself partly in dollars and partly in never having to deal with any of that.
If This Weekend Was Your Wake-Up Call
If you're in Lower Merion, Narberth, West Philadelphia, or anywhere in our service area, we'll walk through what a solar-plus-battery system looks like for your home — sized to your actual usage and backup priorities.
Get a free estimate or call 610-900-6405.
