Cold storage has always stood apart in industrial real estate. These facilities are more than warehouses—they are critical infrastructure that underpins our national food supply, pharmaceutical distribution, and e-commerce fulfillment. Without reliable cold storage, essential goods cannot reach communities safely or efficiently.
Our team has extensive experience providing energy systems to cold storage, and it was the energy challenges in this sector over the past several years that helped drive the founding of PowerStack Microgrids. We saw firsthand how energy costs and availability could make or break a project. While cold storage is known for its resilience, the real threat facing operators today is not temperature loss during outages, but the relentless rise of grid rates and demand charges that can cripple the business model.
Cold storage facilities are inherently resilient. The thermal mass of the product inside these buildings functions as a kind of battery. A well-sealed building can hold safe temperatures for days, even without active refrigeration. But that physical resilience doesn’t shield operators from financial pressures. Electricity is typically the second-largest operating expense after labor, and the trajectory of utility costs has put cold storage operators in a difficult position. Across the country, some facilities are paying $50,000 to $60,000 per month in demand charges alone. These costs eat directly into margins and erode competitiveness in an industry that already operates on thin lines.
The answer lies in rethinking how energy is delivered to cold storage. Onsite microgrids provide a powerful tool to stabilize costs and reduce exposure to utility-driven volatility. Unlike traditional energy supply models, a microgrid can be designed to anticipate and manage the unique load profile of a cold storage facility. By deploying fast-acting technologies such as batteries and linear generators, operators can blunt the spikes that drive costly demand charges. In markets where even base rates are high, adding dedicated baseload generation provides a further hedge, delivering predictable costs and shielding facilities from the uncertainty of utility rate cases.
Roof-top solar continues to play an important role as well. Even with the sunset of many incentives, rooftop solar remains a cost-effective way to produce inexpensive electrons for cold storage facilities, particularly when paired with storage or dispatchable generation in a balanced “Power Stack.” By layering these technologies together, operators can enjoy systems that are not only resilient in performance but also financially efficient in operation.
The importance of these solutions cannot be overstated. Cold storage is not a sector where energy can be treated as an afterthought. Energy strategy is now a determining factor in whether a facility can compete, expand, or even move forward in development. Without a plan to stabilize costs, the growing wave of demand charges will continue to undermine profitability.
At PowerStack, we approach cold storage projects with the recognition that energy is both a challenge and an opportunity. By designing technology-agnostic, client-first microgrids, we help operators turn energy from a risk into a competitive advantage. Our systems are engineered for speed to power, long-term stability, and alignment with client goals. For cold storage operators, this means more than just lowering costs—it means protecting critical infrastructure that supports entire industries and communities.