Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are some ways that cities can incorporate resilience strategies that utilize energy systems and take a different approach to electricity. 

• Can other cities replicate these efforts? What is the role of local donors in helping to develop resilience strategies? 

• Learn how wildfires will continue to shape our future. 

As California experienced uncharacteristically low precipitation in February, normally its peak rainy season, parts of the state are moving into drought conditions. This is likely to increase wildfire prevalence in the state in 2020, and it underscores the point that communities need to think about a range of strategies to increase their resilience to wildfires. One of these strategies is the way that communities approach their electricity systems.

Distributed energy resources (DERs) — on-site solar, battery energy storage and microgrids — can help decrease the likelihood of wildfires and protect communities from their worst effects. City governments have an important role to play to help accelerate deployment of these technologies and solutions by lowering the barriers to adoption, investing in critical facilities and community microgrids, enhancing energy efficiency and engaging in utility planning and regulatory processes.

One way in which cities are acting to build resilience is by taking greater control of their energy systems. At the extreme end of the spectrum, San Jose and San Francisco are evaluating the potential to municipalize their energy systems (buying the local electricity infrastructure and running it as a city utility), which could allow them to emphasize investments such as local microgrids in their resource planning. Others are using their community choice aggregation programs to implement similar solutions (PDF).

However, cities can promote the same aims within the structure of a conventional city-utility relationship several other ways, including:

  1. Streamlining permitting for solar-plus-storage for individual homes and businesses.
  2. Enhancing community-wide resilience through investments in critical facilities and microgrids.
  3. Promoting building energy efficiency to address the demand side of the resilience equation.
  4. Helping bake resilience into electricity system planning through engagement with utilities and regulators.

Read the full article about how cities can build resilience toward wildfires by Madeline Tyson and Rushad Nanavatty at GreenBiz.