Most infrastructure projects assume power. A hospital, a housing development, a farm, a cargo facility or a water plant is designed on the expectation that the grid will be there when the doors open. In many of the markets where new infrastructure is needed most, it is not, or it is not reliable enough to run critical loads.

Building a conventional power plant and transmission line to solve that can add years. Containerized energy storage offers a shorter path. Mystic Enterprises, a technology partner Oklahoma Ventures works with, builds one such system under the name Energy in a Box™.

What Energy in a Box is

Energy in a Box is a battery energy storage system (BESS) paired with solar generation and delivered in shipping-container form. Mystic describes the system as modular, with sizes from 125 kWh up to 5 MW, and states that each unit is factory-tested, pre-wired, pre-programmed and commissioned before it leaves for the site.

The practical point is where the engineering happens. In a conventional build, electrical integration is done in the field, under site conditions, by whichever crews are available. In a containerized system it is done in the factory. What arrives on site is a tested unit that needs a pad, a connection and commissioning checks.

Video: Mystic Farm and Ranch Energy in a Box.

Grid-connected or off-grid

Mystic states that the system works in both modes. Connected to a grid, storage smooths an unstable supply, covers outages and reduces reliance on diesel backup. Off-grid, storage and solar together form a microgrid that can carry a site on its own.

Because the units are modular, capacity can be added as load grows. A development can energize its first phase with a small installation and expand it as later phases come online, instead of sizing and financing the full system on day one.

Energy in a Box: a solar array feeds containerized storage and controls, which runs grid-connected or off-grid. Modular growth from 125 kWh to 5 MW.

Where it fits

Power for farms and ranches

Agriculture is one of the clearest cases for containerized power. Farms sit at the end of long rural lines, where supply is weakest and outages last longest, and the work does not wait: wells and irrigation pumps have to run on schedule, and cold rooms, dairies and packing lines lose product when the power drops.

Mystic presents a Farm and Ranch configuration of Energy in a Box for this setting, shown in the video above. The logic is the same as on any other site. Solar and storage sit beside the load, the system can carry the operation through an outage or run it entirely off-grid, and capacity is added as the operation grows. For growers who rely on diesel generators today, storage also reduces fuel burned and the logistics of getting it to the field.

Agricultural projects often serve many users at once, such as an irrigation district, a cooperative or a government program for rural producers. That is where a developer and integrator earns its place, which brings us to our role.

Where Oklahoma Ventures fits

A storage unit is equipment. Reliable power for a facility is a project. Someone has to establish the load and the growth curve, agree the commercial model with the owner, whether purchase, lease or a power purchase agreement, secure the site and approvals, arrange shipping and installation, and connect the system to whatever it serves.

Oklahoma Ventures does that work as developer and integrator. We define the requirement with the government, owner or producer group, structure the project and its path to financing, and coordinate the technology partner, the civil and electrical contractors and the logistics. Mystic supplies the system and stands behind the product. The owner deals with one team.

Where a project still needs conventional generation alongside storage, our energy desk can plan fuel supply under the same verification standard we apply to every transaction.

Start with the load

The first question on any power project is not which technology to buy. It is what has to run, for how long, and what happens if it stops. If you can describe that, we can tell you quickly whether a containerized system is a sensible answer and what a project around it would involve.

More on our energy work · Discuss a project

Mystic Enterprises is an independent company. Product descriptions in this article are based on information published by Mystic Enterprises and should be confirmed with Mystic for any specific project. References to partners do not imply agency or joint venture unless stated in a written agreement.