Energy and Grid Resilience

Climate Resilience and Adaptation Toolkit

Overview

The United States Department of Energy defines energy resilience as “the ability of the grid, buildings, and communities to withstand and rapidly recover from power outages and continue operating with electricity, heating, cooling, ventilation, and other energy-dependent services.” Grid and energy resilience are especially important for schools, where disruption in services like food delivery or electricity can result in school cancellations and disruptions to learning.

The impacts of climate change are exacerbating strain on our grid while causing extreme weather events that threaten more frequent and longer power outages. Climate change is causing more frequent and intense storms, which can cause more prolonged power outages. Extreme heat events put stress on the grid as residential and commercial customers alike turn up the air conditioning, threatening outages. And the threat of wildfires from extreme heat and wind are causing “Public Power Shutoffs,” where utility companies preemptively shut off the power to prevent a wildfire from starting.

With longer and more frequent power outages on the horizon, we expect more disruption to learning at schools, unhealthy or unsafe learning conditions, and cancellation of classes. School districts have many factors to consider when deciding whether or not to cancel school, with the primary concern being safety for students and staff. Power-related considerations include whether access to the school site is impeded, whether or not there is backup power and/or daylighting available, if the school has functioning bathrooms and access to drinking water, if the school can maintain fire and life safety alarms, and if the school can serve meals. Even if schools remain open during a power outage, classrooms may not be conducive for learning without air conditioning, internet access, or light.

The technologies below can help schools stay open, on, and safe during power outages. Each technology has a definition of the technology, an explanation of how it works, an explanation of how it can improve resilience, an explanation of how it can benefit schools and students, and an example LEA utilizing this technology.

LEA Action Examples for Energy and Grid Resilience

Energy Resilience with Microgrids

Santa Barbara Unified School District

SBUSD is situated on a particularly grid-vulnerable stretch of land, and needed to be more resilient to outages as climate impacts threaten the region. They worked to install microgrids that are able to maintain power at school sites even when there is a grid outage.

Learn More:

Santa Barbara USD Energy Resilience - Spotlight (June 2024):
Open Door (Watch from 24:35 to 35:53) - (May 2024)

Laying the Foundation for Energy Resilience

Modesto City Schools

Modesto City Schools is laying the foundation for resilience by investing in electrification. They have installed an electric transportation yard, which includes 30 electric school buses and 32 vehicle chargers. They have also installed solar carports at four high schools, with plans to add 2 more once they receive federal reimbursement from the Inflation Reduction Act. They are leading this transition to clean energy technologies while investing heavily in career and technical education for their students to be leaders in the green economy.

Learn More:

Open Door (Watch from 35:54 - 47:45) - (May 2024)

Explore Your Data

Explore the data for your region regarding vulnerability to power shut offs from wildfire or storms. This will largely be due to threat of wildfires (wind and public power shutoffs), high heat, and extreme precipitation.

Climate Impacts Data

Additional Resources to Explore

IRA and Schools One-Pager (UndauntedK12 Sept 2024).pdf

Federal reimbursement for schools to install clean energy technologies: 2-pager

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the largest investment in climate and clean energy in United States history. Billions of dollars are now available to schools to protect student health and learning, enhance resilience, reduce spending on infrastructure, and decrease emissions all while addressing equity and environmental justice.

CA Schools and the IRA Fact Sheet (UndauntedK12)

California Fact Sheet: Schools Leading the way on Clean Energy and the Inflation Reduction Act

This fact sheet provides an example of a handful of the first California school projects that will be leveraging federal reimbursements from the Inflation Reduction Act.

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