Context
Becoming “America’s Next-Generation Power Company” is no small ambition — it’s a bet on ourselves, our team, and the future of energy in this country. Every team at Base Power pours their heart into innovations driving this mission, taking us from CAD files to batteries backing up homes across Texas. Deployments actualizes these efforts, turning grit into grid-connected hardware. Traditionally, battery, generator, and solar installs are treated like custom construction jobs. That doesn’t scale. At Base, we’re deadset on building hardware deployment like a factory: repeatable, efficient, and engineered for speed.
Challenges to Scale
When I joined, Base had deployed roughly 70 batteries. The first 50 installations were managed directly by our team on site. Even at 5 to 15 installs per week, due to numerous manual checkpoints and constant troubleshooting, the process was breaking and couldn’t keep pace with our ambitions. Our goal was bold: scale to 30+ installs per day with next-to-no direct contact or support, what we call “Base-Free” installs. To get there, we had to rethink processes, build tools, and team up across the company, all while holding fast to our high standards. The stakes were high: reliable, affordable electricity depends on nailing deployment at scale.
Key Blockers:
- Permitting and Regulatory: Getting permits for one address is hard. Securing permits daily for dozens of addresses across multiple jurisdictions that all enforce different code is a critical obstacle.
- Installer Capacity and Ability: Electricians are in short supply. How do we recruit, train, and oversee enough crews to meet demands while keeping quality and customer service top-notch?
- Supply Chain: We can’t run out of materials, but overstocking is not an option either. Once materials land, we’ve got to kit and deliver them statewide, every day.
- Commissioning, Day-of Issues, and Install Intervention: Systems need perfect testing to work, but customer tweaks, installer slip-ups, and troubleshooting means 3+ interventions per install.
- Lack of Tooling Causing Redundancy: Manual settings, updates, and tracking create slow, repetitive tasks.
- Hardware Issues: Equipment failures on or after install day can lead to difficult headaches down the road.
- Data Visibility: We needed clear, accurate data that everyone could see and use on the spot.
Rebuilding the Deployments Model for Scale
Making small tweaks to the system wasn’t an option. Here’s how we rebuilt the system from the ground up:
Full-Court Press
- Easing Regulatory Burden: We built a tool to automatically generate “permit packets” based on the battery configuration being built, equipping us for 100+ permits per day. We’re now working with policymakers to implement a system that standardizes code enforcement across the state.
- Adding Capacity while Maintaining Quality: Pooling directly from our installer network helped us quickly develop a reliable pipeline. We hired foundational master electricians to establish Base installer hubs in our large metro areas. We revamped manuals and built processes to hire, onboard, and prepare installers for field readiness.
- Acquiring a Warehouse, Onboarding an ERP: We set up a central warehouse in Austin and built its logistics to operate as the locus of Base operations. Next, we mapped delivery routes across Texas, ensuring our own trucks, warehouse personnel, and drivers make just-in-time deliveries to our members’ homes. An ERP system keeps our inventory dialed in as we grow, preparing Base for supply at scale.
- Empowering Installers with Tech: Without automation, manual system testing limits each installer to about six installs per day. Scaling beyond that would require hiring at the same pace as installation growth. Instead of hiring to match growth, we built a powerful, installer-facing app. It gives installers everything they need to bring a system online–commissioning, uploading close-out photos, accessing manuals, tracking progress, taking notes, and even troubleshooting independently. Several Base-free installs now happen every day.
- Establishing an Ecosystem: Alongside all of these changes, we developed an entire suite of helpful internal products. We informed the design of tools that significantly increased our ability to conduct site surveys, adjust battery settings, send address-specific firmware changes, track system issues fleetwide, and deploy batteries without intervention.
- Fixing Hardware Hiccups: By noting recurring issues and recovering failed hardware, we diagnosed and prevented system-critical failures such as water ingress through RJ45 connectors in battery modules or shorted PCBAs in hubs.
- See More: Visibility is everything when you’re coordinating dozens of installs and field services daily. We designed real-time dashboards for a clear view of installations and services, now widely used across teams.
These improvements were a relay across operations, software, hardware, fleet, and customer support. Every group brought their A-game, resulting in 10x-ing our daily installs while tracking for 50x by the end of the year. Deployments fuels Base’s push for energy abundance, scaling backup power to thousands of homes and boosting storage capacity at record pace, one household at a time.
About the Author
David “DWilly” Willson works on the Deployments team as a Deployments Engineer. He focuses largely on install operations and tooling improvements, occasionally moonlighting as a growth guy. He’s also referred to as Base’s “Chief Vibes Officer”.
