Rising utility rates, volatile natural gas prices, and multi-year interconnection queues are pushing commercial and industrial (C&I) energy consumers to reevaluate how they procure power. While traditional grid reliance exposes companies to unpredictable marginal generation costs and expanding transmission fees, onsite clean energy solutions offer a direct path toward cost certainty and operational resilience.

To explore how businesses are navigating these grid constraints and capital requirements, pv magazine USA spoke with Mary Beth Mandanas, chief executive officer of Onyx Renewables. In this interview, they share insights on fixed-to-floating energy swaps, the role of third-party ownership models, and why distributed solar-plus-storage is becoming the fastest route to meeting commercial energy demand.

pv magazine: How does shifting from grid-supplied power to onsite generation protect commercial users from the volatility of gas-driven energy prices?  

Mandanas: Because the retail price of generation for grid-supplied power is determined by the marginal unit of power cleared by gas generating units, the volatility of natural gas pricing directly impacts the price that customers pay for each kilowatt hour. As opposed to grid-supplied power, onsite solutions typically allow a company to hedge their power prices through a physical energy hedge. At Onyx, we utilize solar for our projects’ fuel source, so we have no volatility in fuel pricing. We provide our customers fixed pricing for the electricity generated from our onsite solar and storage systems for a 20-to-25-year term.  In essence, it is a fixed-to-floating swap for the portion of power supplied by an onsite solution.  

Plus, onsite solar paired with energy storage provides an opportunity to reduce peak demand and shift power to cheaper time-of-use periods.

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