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JJ Energy.Palm Desert, CA

Customer success stories

Six projects, written up the way they actually went.

Three residential and three commercial. Each one sets out the problem we found on site, what we recommended, and what happened afterwards. Below them are the full transcripts of three recorded customer interviews.

Read the interview transcripts

Residential

Three houses, three completely different problems.

A tile roof with a 1979 panel hiding behind it, an array abandoned when its installer folded, and a property the utility wanted too much money to reach.

ResidentialPalm Desert

A tile roof, a 1979 panel, and a summer bill that would not come down

The Ashford residence

System9.2 kW rooftop solar, 13.5 kWh storage, 200A service upgrade

Challenge

Two previous contractors had quoted an array roughly twice the size of what the household actually consumed, on the assumption that bigger is better. Neither had opened the electrical panel. The original 1979 service could not have accepted the systems they proposed without an upgrade that neither quote mentioned.

Approach

We pulled twelve months of billing history and found that the household was not a heavy annual consumer at all. The problem was concentrated almost entirely in the four-to-nine evening window through June, July and August. That is a load-shifting problem, not a production problem. We designed a right-sized array paired with storage, upgraded the service to 200A first, and set the battery to discharge through the peak window.

Outcome

The system now covers the household through the evening peak on stored production rather than exporting at low value at midday and buying back at the top of the rate schedule. The customer reports a summer bill of thirty-one dollars against four hundred and twelve for the same month the year before.

  • Roughly halfArray size against original quotes
  • Covered by storagePeak-window grid draw
  • $412 to $31Reported July bill
  • 52 daysTime from contract to switch-on
ResidentialRancho Mirage

An orphaned array nobody would touch, brought back to full production

The Kessler residence

System11.4 kW existing array, adopted, diagnosed and repaired

Challenge

The original installer went out of business in 2021. For two years every company the homeowners called declined to work on another contractor’s installation. Production had been falling steadily and the monitoring portal had been offline long enough that nobody could say when the decline started.

Approach

We inspected the physical installation rather than the paperwork, which is a distinction that matters on orphaned systems. Two optimisers had failed outright. One string had never been commissioned correctly and had been underperforming since the day it was energised. We restored monitoring first so we could measure, then replaced the failed hardware and recommissioned the string.

Outcome

The array is back to its design production and the homeowners are on an annual maintenance plan. We also reviewed the manufacturer warranty position and established that the modules remained covered, which the previous companies had not checked before declining the work.

  • 2Failed optimisers replaced
  • Found and correctedString never correctly commissioned
  • Still valid, confirmed in writingModule warranty status
  • Restored with fault alertingMonitoring
ResidentialThermal

A property too far from a service drop for the utility extension to make sense

Private residence and workshop

SystemOff-grid solar, storage bank and propane generator integration

Challenge

The utility quoted a service extension to the property that exceeded the cost of a complete standalone system. The property runs a domestic load, a well pump and a workshop with tools that draw hard on start-up, which is exactly the load profile that catches out systems sized on annual averages.

Approach

Marcus ran a full load study including the well pump inrush and the workshop equipment before any hardware was specified. The system was then sized against worst-case December production rather than an annual average, with a propane generator integrated to cover consecutive overcast winter days and to recharge the bank when required.

Outcome

The property has run independently since commissioning, including through the winter shortfall period the design anticipated. Remote monitoring over a cellular connection means faults are flagged to our service team rather than discovered by the owner.

  • Lower, standaloneCost against utility extension
  • Worst-case December, not annual averageSizing basis
  • Modelled at inrushWell pump and shop loads
  • Cellular, with fault alertingMonitoring

Commercial

Three businesses, and a bill that was not what it looked like.

A demand charge set by coincidence, a restaurant that stayed open through a nine-hour outage, and a warehouse roof with a warranty nobody wanted to void.

Two workers in safety vests and hard hats on scaffolding
CommercialIndian Wells

A demand charge set by two machines starting at the same time

Verano Medical Group

System186 kW carport solar, 120 kWh storage, load sequencing

Challenge

The practice assumed its bill was driven by consumption. It was not. Interval data showed that the monthly demand charge, which is set by a single fifteen-minute peak, was being established by two pieces of equipment that happened to start within the same window each afternoon.

Approach

We analysed fifteen-minute interval data before proposing any hardware. The first recommendation cost nothing: re-sequence the two machines so they no longer start together. We then designed a carport array across the staff parking field, which produces power and shades vehicles, paired with storage sized to clip the remaining peaks.

Outcome

The demand component of the bill fell by roughly a third from the sequencing change alone, before any panel produced a kilowatt-hour. The array and storage then addressed the consumption and the residual peaks. Staff parking gained shade, which in this climate is not a trivial benefit.

  • Down roughly a thirdDemand charge from sequencing alone
  • 186 kW across staff parkingCarport array
  • 120 kWh for peak clippingStorage
  • NothingCost of the first recommendation
CommercialLa Quinta

Nine hours of outage, and the restaurant never closed

Cortez Cocina

System48 kW standby generator, automatic transfer switch, refrigeration continuity

Challenge

A restaurant loses money in two directions during an outage: the covers it cannot serve and the inventory it cannot keep cold. The existing arrangement put the walk-in refrigeration on the wrong side of the panel, so the one load that most needed protecting would not have been carried.

Approach

We re-mapped the critical loads before specifying the generator, which is the step that gets skipped. The walk-in, line refrigeration, point of sale, hood and lighting were moved onto the protected side of a new automatic transfer switch. Placement was planned around the local noise ordinance and the neighbouring properties. Kitchen staff were walked through the transfer sequence at commissioning.

Outcome

During a February wind event the restaurant ran for nine hours while two blocks of Highway 111 were dark, and served dinner throughout. Because the sequence had been rehearsed at handover, nobody on the floor had to work out what to do.

  • 9 hours, no closureOutage covered
  • Moved onto protected loadsWalk-in refrigeration
  • Automatic, no manual switchingTransfer
  • Completed at commissioningStaff training
CommercialThousand Palms

A flat warehouse roof, a live roofing warranty, and heavy daytime demand

Valley distribution facility

SystemBallasted flat-roof array with phased expansion

Challenge

The facility had close to an ideal load profile for solar, with demand concentrated in daylight hours. The obstacle was the roof: a membrane system with a live manufacturer warranty that penetrating racking would have compromised, and a capital budget that could not absorb the full array in a single year.

Approach

We specified ballasted racking that sits on the membrane without penetrating it, with the roofing manufacturer consulted before installation so the warranty position was documented rather than assumed. The array was engineered as a whole and built in phases matched to the customer’s capital cycle, with the conduit and interconnection sized at phase one for the finished system.

Outcome

Phase one is operating and phase two connects into infrastructure that was already sized for it, avoiding the rework that catches out phased projects designed one stage at a time. The roofing warranty remains intact and documented.

  • None, fully ballastedRoof penetrations
  • Intact and documentedRoofing warranty
  • Phased to capital cycleBuild approach
  • Sized for the finished arrayPhase one infrastructure

Interview transcripts

Three customers, recorded and printed in full.

Each block below is the complete written transcript of a recorded customer interview, published as text rather than as a player so it can be read straight through.

Denise AshfordHomeownerPalm Desert
Runtime of the recorded interview2 minutes 40 seconds

Full transcript, in the order it was said.

We had three companies out before JJ Energy Inc. and I want to be fair about this: they were all polite and they were all quick. Every one of them gave us a number within about twenty minutes of walking through the door. Not one of them opened the electrical panel.

Priya came out and the first thing she asked for was a year of bills. Then she went away and came back with a model that showed our annual usage was actually pretty ordinary. The whole problem was the evening, June through August, between about four and nine.

What she recommended was a smaller array than anyone else had quoted, with a battery. Her explanation was that under the current rules the power we sent back at midday was worth very little, and the power we bought at seven in the evening was worth a great deal, so the job was to move it rather than make more of it.

I asked her directly whether that was a cheaper job for them. She said yes. She recommended it anyway.

The panel turned out to be from 1979 and needed replacing before any of it could go ahead, which the other quotes had not mentioned at all. That was an extra cost and I would rather have heard it at the start, which is exactly what happened.

Our July bill last year was four hundred and twelve dollars. This July it was thirty-one. I have the two bills on the refrigerator.

Ramón CortezOwner, Cortez CocinaLa Quinta
Runtime of the recorded interview3 minutes 05 seconds

Full transcript, in the order it was said.

The wind came through in February and the power went out across a good stretch of Highway 111. Two blocks either side of us were completely dark. We served dinner that night and every table we had booked came in.

What I did not understand before Tomás walked me through it was that a generator is only as useful as the loads you put behind it. The way our panel was originally arranged, the walk-in was on the wrong side. If we had installed the generator without changing that, we would have kept the lights on and lost the entire inventory.

He found that before the installation, not after. That is the part I tell other restaurant owners about.

The other thing was the training. At commissioning he brought the kitchen staff over and walked them through what happens when the transfer switch fires: what the noise is, what the delay is, what to do if it does not start. It took twenty minutes. When it actually happened nine months later, nobody on the floor panicked because they had already seen it.

People ask me whether the generator was worth it. We ran nine hours. We did not close. I do not really need to do that arithmetic.

Angela WhitfieldFacilities Director, Verano Medical GroupIndian Wells
Runtime of the recorded interview2 minutes 25 seconds

Full transcript, in the order it was said.

I came into this assuming our bill was about how much electricity we used. Marcus pulled our fifteen-minute interval data and showed me that a large part of it was not consumption at all. It was the demand charge, and a demand charge is set by one fifteen-minute window in the entire month.

Two pieces of equipment in our building happened to start within the same window most afternoons. That coincidence was setting the demand charge for the whole month, every month.

His first recommendation was to change the sequencing so they did not start together. That cost us nothing. He told us to do that before we bought anything from him, and the demand line on our bill dropped by about a third before a single panel went up.

Then we did the carport array across the staff parking and the storage to clip what was left. The shade over the cars was not why we did it, but in August it is genuinely the thing staff mention.

I have worked with a lot of vendors. Very few of them lead with the recommendation that does not involve buying anything.

The short version

Four customers, and the system each one is talking about.

These quotes also appear on the home page. Here the system is listed first, because it is usually the part people want to compare against their own.

9.2 kW solar and 13.5 kWh storageDenise AshfordHomeowner, Palm Desert
We had three companies out before JJ Energy Inc. and every one of them handed us a number within twenty minutes of walking in the door. Priya asked for a year of bills first, came back with a model that showed our summer peak was the whole problem, and recommended a smaller array with a battery instead of the enormous system the others wanted to sell us. That was a cheaper job for them and it was the right call. Our July bill went from four hundred and twelve dollars to thirty-one.
48 kW standby generator and automatic transferRamón CortezOwner, Cortez Cocina, La Quinta
The generator paid for itself in one afternoon. We lost power for nine hours during a wind event in February and the restaurant never closed. Two blocks of Highway 111 were dark and we were serving dinner. Tomás had walked our chef through the transfer sequence at commissioning, so when it happened nobody panicked. They also spotted that our walk-in was on the wrong side of the transfer switch and fixed it before we ever needed it.
11.4 kW orphaned array, adopted and repairedHarold and Miriam KesslerHomeowners, Rancho Mirage
Our original installer went out of business in 2021 and we spent two years being told by everyone else that they could not touch someone else’s system. Curtis took it on, found two failed optimisers and a string that had never been commissioned properly, and got us back to full production. He also went through the manufacturer warranty and found that the modules were still covered. We are now on their annual maintenance plan and I wish we had started there.
186 kW carport solar and 120 kWh storageAngela WhitfieldFacilities Director, Verano Medical Group, Indian Wells
They put a carport array across our staff parking and shifted our demand peak with a battery. Marcus pulled our fifteen-minute interval data and showed us that two pieces of equipment starting together at 2pm were setting our demand charge for the entire month. We changed the sequencing and installed storage, and the demand line on our bill dropped by a third before the panels produced a single kilowatt-hour. That was advice, not a sale.

Your project

Your situation is probably close to one of these.

Bring twelve months of bills to a thirty-minute consultation and we will tell you which of these it resembles, and whether the numbers support doing anything at all.

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