Span just landed $10.2 million in venture capital to modernize and replace one of the more basic and ubiquitous pieces of home electrical hardware — the electrical panel. Span’s ambition is to “transform the electrical panel into an intelligent gateway” and help expand the adoption of solar, energy storage and EVs.
As Span puts it, “The standard electrical panel has not seen major innovation for nearly a century.”
Span founder and CEO Arch Rao told pv magazine that as the size of rooftop solar systems increases, the electrical panel has to be replaced to grow service, for example, from 100 amps to 200 amps.
That replacement panel box can be an off-the-shelf Siemens or Square D panel — or the the solar/storage installer can install a Span smart panel that includes energy management software, an output meter, a communications gateway and a separate critical loads panel. These functions would usually require their own enclosures and wiring.
Rao said the Span smart panel provides a reconfigurable home backup during power outages with the ability to turn circuits on and off from a phone. The CEO said that Span adds sensing, actuation and logic between the busbar, where the mains come in, and the circuit breakers. The panel is interoperable with any home breaker from Schneider, Siemens, or Eaton.
The $10.2 million Series A round was led by ArcTern Ventures and joined by Capricorn Investment Group, Incite Ventures, and existing investors Congruent Ventures, Energy Foundry, Hardware Club, Incite Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, Wireframe Ventures, and 1/0 Capital.
Mary Powell, former CEO of Vermont utility Green Mountain Power, will join Span’s board as an independent member.
UL listing and easier installs
The CEO acknowledged the importance of the fund raising news but stressed the company’s recent UL certifications: UL standard 67 for the regular electrical panel, UL 916 for energy management equipment, and UL 869A for service equipment.
Span’s panel is designed to monitor and control up to 32 circuits, all managed through a smartphone app. When the power goes out, Span islands the house and lets homeowners choose which parts of the home they want to power.
In addition to better functionality and aesthetics, the reduction in total number of components reduces labor time by up to 50% compared to current offerings, according to the company.
Although the Span panel is more expensive than a traditional panel, Rao said that the total installed cost was roughly the same when the reduction in labor and parts count is considered.
Span has started establishing channel partnerships with solar and storage installers. The startup has a partnership with LG Chem and its initial systems use LG inverters and batteries. The CEO noted that Span will soon have other battery partners in addition to LG.
The startup is initially focused on the California and Hawaii markets. The CEO see the product as suitable for new homes and retrofits.
Rao told pv magazine, “We’ve spent the last decade installing solar and storage and we’ve seen the problems first-hand. Our panel will be in the home for next 30 to 40 years as a very capable and persistent gateaway.” He envisions the roll-out of new functions with over-the-air updates for functions such as EV charging and water heater control.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Sounds a lot like the Atom Power digital circuit breaker panel. I wish these panels were a few years ahead. I need to replace my panel and I really want one of these advanced panels.
I have come across some articles on both the Atomic Power digital panel and the Span “smart” panel. Some of the prices I’ve seen mentioned are around $5,000 for the Span solution, $5,000 plus, plus, plus, for the Atomic Power solution. One article mentioned a house digital C.B. for the Atomic power panel for a 200 Amp C.B. is $2,500 each. I’d take a good long look at Span first.
As a NABCEP certified solar installation professional, this panel is a welcome improvement! Please keep me posted as the panel develops and notify me when it becomes available to consumers.
Would it not be nice if the new modern guts for these systems would fit in the old metal enclosures already built into the wall. Disconect the wires, pull them aside, remove all the old componants , install the new modern ones and then re-hook the wires. Programable breakers with load monitoring, bigger buss for more power for solar instalations and slimmer breakers so you can add circuits. No demolition or wire splicing to make them long enough for the taller panels now required.
This is great and long overdue!
How Interesting is this new direction in replacing the current day circuit breaker panel? As one that has and continues to work with various utility companies and AHJ’s this transition to a panel so far different than the norm will be an arduous task, one worth taking on. The question is showing, proving, and believing.
Utilities like PG&E, in California, are very restrictive because they make money selling their own PV, Hydro, nuclear, gethermal and wind power and with net metering, they lose money on every hook up. On June 22, 2020 PG&E will require all new PV home systems have an on grid inverter they can read remotly to so they can count the PV power as part of their production of renewable energy to reach the mandated 50% mix. Current micro inverters and some of the older inverters have no such comunication ability. However, building an “off grid” electrical system that has a transfer swich that can turn on the utility power when your off grid PV/Battery system is getting low on reserve power and does not feed any power back onto the grid would be great for utilities that do not buy back power or have unreasonable restrictions. You just buy the power you need instead of running a back up generator. A smart distribution panel that has the built in transfer switch, the new programable breakers and a 200 amp main bus would be great.