What is a stand-alone power system (SAPS)?

A stand-alone power system, or SAPS, generates and stores electricity at the point of use instead of taking supply from the distribution network. In Australian utility practice it typically combines solar generation, lithium battery storage, an inverter that produces standard 230/240 V AC, an energy management system, and often a small backup generator, all installed at the site it serves, with no connection to a distribution feeder.

SAPS are used in two distinct ways in Australia, and it is worth being clear which one you mean. Distributor-led SAPS replace an existing network connection: a DNSP identifies a long, low-customer-density feeder, often a single property at the end of several kilometres of line, and substitutes a SAPS for the poles and wire. Site SAPS power infrastructure that never had a grid connection at all: remote telecommunications, water pumping, mine infrastructure, monitoring stations, rail trackside assets.

The engineering is similar. The commercial case, the regulatory treatment and the reliability standard applied are quite different. Vantara is built for both, but the sizing conversation starts differently depending on which you are doing.