Inside a home office, the lights flickered for a fraction of a second, then steadied. The Wi-Fi remained active, and the air conditioning continued to hum against the Texas heat.
It wasn’t until a phone buzzed minutes later with an automated text alert from CenterPoint Energy that the reality set in: the local power grid was down.
“I looked at my Base Power Company app, and sure enough, my home was being powered by the battery,” said Tim Graney, a current Base Power Company customer who lives in Katy.
The outage lasted roughly 25 minutes: a window typically long enough to derail a professional call, reset every digital clock or pull a homeowner into a familiar cycle of checking breakers and waiting for power to return. Instead, the interruption passed unnoticed, and the workday continued as planned.
Base Power Company was designed specifically to address the unique challenges of the Texas grid. For a growing number of Texans, the primary value of its home battery backup system represents the ability to remove power outages, not just from the grid, but from daily decision-making.
The end of the micro-outage
While catastrophic storms grab headlines, the more common reality for many suburban neighborhoods is the micro-outage: disruptions lasting anywhere from five minutes to a few hours.
These short-term failures are often the most frustrating because they arrive without warning and force homeowners to constantly judge how serious the situation really is.
Historically, homeowners have had to choose between a permanent standby generator, which can exceed $12,000 to $20,000 in upfront costs, or portable units that require manual setup, fuel and extension cords.
“You have to decide, ‘How long do I wait before I drag out the generator when my power is out?’” Graney said. “If it’s out for 20 minutes, you’re not going to drag out your generator. After two hours, you’ll say, ‘Well, maybe I should drag it out,’ but as soon as you plug it in, the power’s going to come back on.”
For households running home offices or supporting remote work, even a 60-second outage can interrupt meetings, drop connections and create professional friction that lingers long after the power returns.
“I work in IT, so it’s important to have power because I’m connected to networks and I have to do maintenance,” said Nicolas Funes, a current Katy Base Power Company customer.
Base Power Company’s system is designed to eliminate those moments of uncertainty. It uses an automatic, near-instantaneous switchover that keeps homes operating without intervention.
The mental math of backup
On average, one battery can get a Base customer 24 hours of backup, and two can get them up to three days, depending on energy consumption. When the grid is up and running, Base helps balance it by charging and discharging the batteries at optimal times. This helps lower energy costs for their members. When the grid goes down, the battery powers their home.
Beyond the hardware, the service-based model removes another common barrier: cost uncertainty.
The Base battery system is a fraction of the cost of a traditional backup solution, and its business model allows members to take advantage of their fixed low rate: currently 8.5¢/kWh before delivery fees.
The model also addresses a long-term concern of battery ownership: degradation. Instead of leaving homeowners responsible for diagnosing or repairing failing components, the system is monitored remotely. If there are any issues with the battery, Base handles all service and maintenance.
A simple set-up process
The ease of Base Power Company’s service extends beyond outages to the installation itself. Current Katy customer Honor Prouty described the setup process as straightforward and minimally disruptive, with most of the work completed in a single morning.
She said equipment delivery took only minutes, and the installation team walked through each step before beginning work. Power interruptions were brief and shorter than expected. By early afternoon, the system was fully operational.
“They cleaned up, and everything looked great,” Prouty said. “It was like nobody had been there, except now I had this backup system.”
By removing complexity at every stage, the system reinforces its central promise: reliable power that works quietly in the background without demanding attention from the homeowner.
Base Power Company is built and based in Austin, and thousands of Texans have already made the switch to their service.
Click here to learn more about Base Power Company today.
The above story was produced by Multi-Platform Journalist Sydney Heller with Community Impact’s Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their “sponsored content” purchase through our advertising team.