Want to keep your home powered during an outage? Try a big battery that lasts 3 days

Nova Scotia Power says it will take the next year to evaluate whether it can expand a pilot project that put electrical storage batteries into 125 households across the province.

But it's already a success as far as Tom MacPherson is concerned.

"I've been extremely happy with it," said the spry 87-year-old.

For MacPherson, having a three-day power supply in an outage is worth the $35 a month he pays on the 18.6-kilowatt-hour Sunverge Infinity battery installed in his home as part of the Nova Scotia Power's $19-million smart grid program.

"At my stage in life, I didn't look forward to going out in the middle of the storm and dragging a gasoline generator out to the house and hooking it up and then having to feed gasoline over a period of time," said MacPherson.

"The cost to me [$4,200] was roughly one-third of what it would cost from a general contractor. So to me it was a very good deal and then you could pay for it over 10 years, no interest," he said.

"So I said, 'well, it's for me.'"

MacPherson lives in Little Harbour, Pictou County, on the Northumberland Strait.

The wall-mounted batteries in his garage are monitored remotely in Halifax by NSP, which ensures they are charged.

"Before a storm I get an email. The email says we are topping up your batteries because there's a storm coming, so the batteries become topped up and then when the power goes out, the batteries automatically kick in and they usually last about three days."

The few times the power has failed the batteries have clicked in automatically with enough for essentials including water pump, refrigerator, lights, heating and cooling and TV.

During post-tropical storm Fiona in September 2022 the supply lasted three days. He was two days without power. But his home was entirely cut off and he figures he would have run out of gasoline for a generator, anyway.

The smart grid program also includes separate initiatives for electric vehicle charging and community solar gardens. Ottawa contributed $12 million along with money from the provincial government.

The company began recruiting for the battery storage pilot project in November 2020 and 500 people applied.