Energy Resilience in a Changing Climate – the Role of Microgrids

As climate-driven events such as hurricanes and wildfires become increasingly common, solar and storage microgrids have an essential role to play in maintaining access to critical facilities and services during larger grid outages. During this session, the panel will explore how the deployment of resiliency hubs and microgrids can effectively mitigate communities’ reliability challenges and enhance resiliency, providing critical support precisely when it is most needed. The speakers—representing industry, nonprofits, and academia—will delve into potential methodologies for assessing the value of resilience to ensure accurate estimations that validate the benefits of resiliency investments. Speakers will share accounts of communities that have grappled with electric infrastructure failures during extreme weather events, including case studies from Lahaina, Hawaii and New Orleans, Louisiana. These case studies will help illustrate how microgrids and energy storage systems have proven instrumental in helping communities access essential resources during times of disaster.