A nor'easter knocks out power for two days, and suddenly you're emptying a full walk-in cooler, calling customers to cancel, and hoping the basement sump situation isn't as bad as you think. Craig Faria Electrician has handled commercial generator installation in Taunton, MA, and nearby areas since 1996, working with business owners who decided they would rather not go through that again. Backup power turns a multi-day emergency into something your customers never even hear about.
Taunton, MA, is where Craig Faria Electrician is based, and our service territory covers Bristol and Plymouth counties. Our crew specializes in commercial generator installation for restaurants, medical and dental offices, retail stores, apartment buildings, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities, handling load calculations, equipment sizing, pad and mounting work, automatic transfer switch installation, fuel supply coordination, permitting, and startup testing. Generac and Kohler are the brands we install, and our company belongs to the Massachusetts Electrical Contractors Association.
Storms take out power along the South Coast often enough that most business owners have a story. The lights go, the registers go, and everything on the schedule for the next two days becomes a question mark. Refrigerated inventory has maybe four hours before it turns into a loss, and that assumes nobody opens the door.
What makes it worse is how restoration works. Utilities prioritize by the number of customers affected, so a commercial block on a smaller circuit can sit dark well after residential neighborhoods come back. Coastal weather, aging overhead distribution, and heavy tree cover across this part of the state all contribute, and outages tend to cluster in the seasons when businesses can least afford them. Portable generators help a little, though running cords through a commercial space creates its own set of code and safety problems.
A permanently installed standby system removes the guesswork. Our process starts with a load study to determine what genuinely needs to stay live, since covering an entire building costs considerably more than covering the circuits that matter. From there we size the unit, set the pad, run the feeders, install an automatic transfer switch that isolates you from the utility, coordinate natural gas or propane supply with your fuel provider, pull the permits, and complete a full startup using the manufacturer's commissioning process. Everything gets labeled and documented, and your staff gets walked through what happens during a transfer.
After that, an outage becomes a non-event. The generator senses the loss, starts on its own, and picks up the load within seconds, then shuts down and returns to standby once utility power stabilizes. Nobody needs to flip anything or hunt for a fuel can. Most owners tell us the first storm after installation is when they stop thinking of it as an expense.
Backup power projects vary a lot by building, and here's what tends to matter most across all of them.
Oversizing a generator wastes money up front and runs the unit inefficiently, while undersizing leaves you short during the outage you bought it for. Measuring actual demand and identifying which circuits are truly critical produces the right answer. Restaurants, for instance, usually need refrigeration, hood systems, and point of sale far more than they need full dining room lighting.
The transfer switch is what makes a standby system worth having, since it isolates your building from the utility and brings the generator online without anyone present. Installation includes proper interlocking so backfeed to the utility line is impossible, which protects line workers during a restoration. Transfer typically happens within about ten seconds of an outage.
Both manufacturers build commercial-grade standby units with real support networks behind them, which matters when parts are needed years down the road. Air-cooled and liquid-cooled options cover everything from a small storefront to a full facility. We'll explain the difference in terms of what your building actually requires.
Natural gas hookups involve the gas utility, while propane systems require tank sizing and placement that satisfies both code and your supplier. Arranging all of that is part of the job rather than something handed back to you. Permitting with the local wiring inspector and any required fire department sign-off gets handled the same way.
A generator that has never been tested under load is an assumption rather than a plan. Commissioning includes a full startup, a load test, and a walkthrough with whoever will be responsible for the unit. Our labor carries a one-year workmanship warranty alongside the manufacturer's equipment coverage.
Standby power often comes up alongside other projects happening in the same building.
New tenants with equipment that can't lose power sometimes drive the generator conversation in the first place. Our tenant improvement electrical services handle circuit layouts, panel work, rough-in, and inspections for office, retail, and restaurant build-outs.
Cutting a building's overall load makes a generator project less expensive, since smaller demand means a smaller unit. Commercial lighting installation and LED retrofits reduce consumption significantly while improving how the space looks and feels.
Our commercial electrical services cover the everyday work that keeps a building running, from service upgrades and troubleshooting to maintenance visits and general service calls. Plenty of customers add us to their regular rotation after a generator install.
Generators sit unused for months and then have to perform on the worst day of the year, so installation quality carries real weight.
Sizing a system for a manufacturing floor calls for different thinking than a retail storefront, and our crew has worked in both across nearly three decades. That range includes some genuinely demanding environments, including complete asphalt plants.
Taunton and several nearby towns are served by Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant, while much of the rest of our territory falls under Eversource. Requirements and timelines differ between them, and knowing that ahead of time keeps projects from stalling at the coordination stage.
A standby system that won't start is an urgent problem, particularly during the storm it was meant to cover. Our crew answers emergency calls and gets someone out to your building rather than putting the issue in a queue.
Conduit runs, labeling, and equipment placement all get thought through rather than improvised. Craig has built the company's reputation partly on workmanship and cleanliness, and generator jobs make that visible since the equipment stays out where people see it.
All work happens under permit and gets performed by licensed electricians, then inspected by the local authority. Our membership in the Massachusetts Electrical Contractors Association keeps the crew current on code, which changes more often than most people expect.
That depends entirely on which loads have to stay live, not on the square footage of the building. A restaurant protecting refrigeration, hood systems, and registers needs something very different from a medical office covering exam rooms and cold storage. We run a load study on your building and size the unit from real numbers.
Coastal storms, nor'easters, and summer thunderstorms all take out power in this region with some regularity, and heavy tree cover along overhead lines makes it worse. Commercial customers on smaller circuits sometimes wait longer for restoration than dense residential areas do. Most business owners here can name at least one multi-day outage from the past few years.
Yes. Electrical permits come from the wiring inspector in the city or town where the building sits, and fuel connections, tank placement, and clearances may require additional review from the fire department or the gas utility. We handle the filings and coordinate the inspections as part of the project.
Most projects run somewhere between a few days and a couple of weeks of on-site work, with equipment lead time and utility coordination usually being the bigger variables. Pad work, fuel supply, and transfer switch location all affect the schedule. You get a realistic timeline once we've walked the site.
Standby units run a self-test on a schedule and need periodic oil changes, filter service, battery checks, and a load test to confirm everything performs under real conditions. Annual service is typical for most commercial installations. Expectations get set at commissioning, and your team gets walked through what to watch for.
FAQs reviewed by Craig Faria, a licensed electrician and the owner of Craig Faria Electrician, serving Taunton, MA, and Bristol and Plymouth counties.
Tell us about your building and what absolutely has to keep running, and we'll put together a load study and a realistic scope. You'll know what size unit makes sense and what the installation involves before committing to anything.
Business Name: Craig Faria Electrician
Address: Taunton, MA, 02780
Phone: 508-509-0076
Business Hours:
Mon - Fri: 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Sat-Sun: Closed
Emergency Service Available
One-year workmanship warranty.