Temporary power is a rodeo: a look at mobile BESS
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Temporary power is one of the most underappreciated corners of the energy world. Construction sites, film sets, festivals, disaster zones, agricultural operations, sporting events – a temporary power source can be used anywhere the grid does not reach, or does not reach fast enough. Film shoots may move multiple times per day, and need to run lights so bright that they replicate the power of the sun like an Arri 18k stage light. An occasional event may operate over acres of land, and never has a business case to put permanent infrastructure in the ground. In such scenarios, operators work under ambiguity, time pressure, and with the performance expectation of static infrastructure. For decades, that power belonged to portable, diesel generators, but an emerging market of mobile battery energy storage systems (BESS) is starting to gain market share.
One of these mobile BESS units was recently spotted at a slightly unusual event, known for bull-riding competitions and grandstands packed with spectators, and not necessarily known for being early adopters of new technology — a rodeo. Such venues hold multiple events a year, with permanent structures in the dirt, built specifically for such conditions. Yet they need temporary power to run the competition every time.
That’s not an isolated case of one fairground. Even places specifically designed for an activity, sometimes don’t have the right power at the right time. So, someone has to bring it. Up until recently, loud, portable diesel generators dominated the market. Now, a battery-powered unit can show up, and nobody notices – which is exactly what good infrastructure is supposed to do. Nobody at the rodeo was thinking about it. You had to look closely to even notice it was there.
Defining mobile BESS is tricky
Search online and you will discover vendor descriptions, a handful of trade press articles, and a strong sense that the industry hasn’t fully agreed on defining its terminology. These systems are more than stationary battery storage mounted on wheels, or oversized consumer power stations. It’s something else, and the something else represents an emerging category in its own right, still being worked out in real time as new use cases emerge across industries.
So, the easiest way to describe it is by behaviour. A mobile BESS is a self-contained power source, which is sometimes mounted on a trailer, sometimes on fork pockets and a flatbed, and sometimes small enough to carry by hand. No interconnect, no electrician, no substation upgrade needed in the installation process. You pack it up, go, then just plug in. These units can recharge from the grid, from on-site solar, from portable wind generation, or from a backup generator.
Mobile BESS, much like the automotive market, spans several classes designed for different applications. At the smaller end are hand-carry units, commercial-grade systems capable of supporting the high surge loads required by welders, pumps, and power tools, as deployed by Ecovolta’s EcoPower Trolley, that integrates ADVANTICS power module, ADM-PC-BP25.
The middle of the market is occupied by hybrid mobile BESS solutions, which combine battery storage with generators, and in some cases, solar generation to create flexible microgrids capable of supporting loads for extended periods. At the largest end of the spectrum are full-electric mobile BESS systems, designed to deliver substantial amounts of power for demanding applications such as concert main stages, construction sites, temporary grid support, and even supporting new DC loads like electric vehicle fast charging.
Each class addresses a specific need, but the real strength of the industry lies in flexibility. These systems can be deployed independently or combined in countless ways to support everything from traditional AC loads to emerging DC applications.
All three classes are real product categories. All three are growing. The common denominator here is that all these different shapes and sizes all need an inverter to connect the battery system and the electrical loads. ADVANTICS has been working on this problem since 2020 and developed a product line up of scalable bidirectional power modules, running on the same mature controls platform, that enables the exact type of operational modes these applications demand.
While traditional generators, which are factory-configured for specific voltage and frequency outputs, our power electronics are fully programmable. In 2024, we launched our AC Droop control algorithms which enable bidirectional AC Coupling into low inertia systems commonly found in microgrids. The combination of these feature sets also allows for generator hybridization, even with legacy generators that were never designed for AC parallelling, enabling a straightforward path to integrating existing fleets into modern hybrid power systems.
The global mobile energy storage market was valued at $8.4 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $22.7 billion by 2034, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.6%, driven by surging demand across residential, commercial, industrial, and utility applications worldwide. Mobile BESS has earned its way by showing up at tens of thousands of events such as the rodeo, and not getting bucked off on film sets where the silence sold itself, on construction sites where the fuel savings did, at festivals where noise ordinances forced the question, and in disaster zones where the grid wasn’t coming back for months.
Malibu Disaster
In January 2025, the wildfires burned through the town of Malibu, California. Over 6,800 structures in the area were destroyed. Southern California Edison (SCE), a primary electric utility company in the US, is now rebuilding the area, and they are not just stringing wire back up the way it was. They are undergrounding it. SCE has announced an $860–925 million rebuild plan covering 153 circuit miles across Altadena and Malibu, with roughly 145 kilometres or 90 miles in the Malibu area alone. In 2025, the first full year of the programme, SCE undergrounded about a fifth of it in Malibu already. The work will continue for years.
Mobile BESS has become a part of this rebuilding story. Residential properties are on local microgrids and enjoy the peace and quiet at their home provided by mobile BESS. Together, they are proving and demonstrating something genuinely practical: a relevant sized battery system, integrated with residential solar and supported by a small generator for the edge cases, can meet the vast majority of a household’s energy needs without relying on a centralized grid connection. This is no longer a science project or research study.
None of this is speculative. The batteries exist. The parts exist. The power electronics and interconnection logic exists. What remains unresolved is the business model that brings all those pieces together.
Here’s a question to reflect upon. By the time SCE finishes the undergrounding, residents will have spent two or three years on something close to autonomous power. Solar covering the daily cycle, storage carrying overnight, a small generator handling the worst week of the year. Minimal maintenance.
Then, why reconnect?
That’s not a rhetorical question.
The pull of habit and convenience is real. The mature reliability of a grid, when it works, is real. But the pull of I’m not on anyone’s bill, and the lights stay on, is also real, and it compounds with every month that passes.
Central distribution made sense when you had one big power plant and a lot of wire. It was the right answer to the question being asked in 1920. That question isn’t being asked anymore. Generation is distributed. Storage is mobile. Demand is lumpy, fast, and increasingly impatient with infrastructure that moves at the speed of permitting. If electric cars had existed first and someone tried to sell a combustion engine today, the conversation would be short. The same inversion is starting to apply to centralized power — and mobile BESS is the linchpin. Not because it’s better than the grid feature-by-feature, but because it makes the question of whether you need the grid at all a question you are allowed to ask.
That sounds simple enough in theory. In practice, building a mobile BESS that can survive the road, satisfy regulators, integrate with existing infrastructure, operate quietly, handle demanding loads, and still make economic sense is anything but simple.
In the next edition of Current Affairs, we will explore what the first wave of mobile BESS companies learned the hard way, why some succeeded while others struggled, and how the lessons from those early deployments are shaping the next generation of systems now coming to market.
Our key partners on this journey
Ecovolta AG, headquartered in Brunnen, Switzerland, develops and produces innovative battery systems and mobile energy solutions for a wide range of applications, mainly agriculture, construction, pipe welding for waste water management and events.
One of ecovolta’s flagship products is the ecoPowerTrolley, a mobile battery generator that offers an emission-free alternative to conventional diesel generators. Thanks to its 230 V and 400 V connections, it reliably supplies energy to construction sites, events, municipal facilities, service vehicles, and many other applications. The ecoPowerTrolley operates quietly, produces no local emissions, and can be flexibly deployed in locations without a mains power connection.
The ecoPower Trolley integrates ADVANTICS module, ADM-PC-BP25, a versatile and easy to integrate bidirectional AC/DC inverter and DC/DC converter.
The ADVANTICS Advantage
Mobile BESS is a rapidly growing emerging market that sits at the crossroads of EVs and stationary power. ADVANTICS has been supporting this market since 2020, when we first launched control modes targeting generator usage.
ADB-PC-GN01 new release
A 90kVA bidirectional four-wire DC/AC converter operates on-grid, off-grid, or as part of a smart microgrid. The on/off grid four-wire inverter platform that can balance loads across phases, manage active and reactive power, therefore, turning a storage asset into an active grid participant. It functions to stabilize voltage and frequency, balancing demand peaks, and delivering cleaner, more reliable power to the grid.
ADB-PC-DC02 coming up soon
A high-power, bidirectional, non-isolated DC/DC converter operating up to 950V. High-power density and economical where every pound counts.
ADB-PC-DC01
A 100 kW high-power, bidirectional, isolated DC/DC converter operating up to 1500 V. Wide enough to handle traditional LFP and emerging wide-range chemistries like sodium-ion without forcing an upstream redesign, with galvanic isolation placed where it belongs: at the battery interface.
ADM-CS-EVCC
Electric Vehicle onboard charge controller for DC and AC charging standards. Aimed to be embedded in any kind of electric vehicle using conductive charging. Enables advanced features such as bidirectional charging using latest standards and Plug’n’Charge.
ADM-PC-BP25
Bidirectional AC/DC inverter and DC/DC converter with an ultra-high efficiency of up to 99% in a wide operating range.
Watch this video demonstrating two ADVANTICS Active Frontend modules in action: one used as a boost and synthetic Neutral generation, and the other Frontend module generating the L1, L2, and L3 phases from a 700 V DC link. The demo showcases system start-up, a laptop load, and a drilling machine load.
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