Energy: Community Plan
Step 1. Set up your community’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to ensure enough backup power for disaster-related power outages. You may require industrial or municipal generators and plenty of stored fuel.
Step 2. Meet with first responders to ensure they have appropriate backup energy supplies as well.
Step 3. Because climate change will bring more and more extended power outages, plan in your community for green power sources including solar and wind farms.
Step 4. If you have the funding, consider investing in mobile generators and power trucks.
Step 5. Store key power supplies and equipment to power the EOC and Community-Level Meeting Places, like the Disaster Medical Center, Severe Weather Shelters, the Child Reunification Center, and the Disaster Animal Care Shelter. These supplies include
☐ Gas-powered generator
☐ Batteries
☐ Charged-up phone chargers
☐ Solar panel systems
☐ Large battery storage
☐ Charging stations for volunteers and the public
☐ Large battery reserves
☐ Power cords to reach between the generator and the different sections of the Hub
☐ Tripod lights for the medical area
☐ Electric or solar-powered lanterns for other areas
☐ Repair materials
Step 6. Assess the feasibility of solar installations at Community-Level Meeting Places.
Step 7. Get your local government officials to meet with local gas station owners to make a commandeering agreement for the event of a disaster. Although your community government may already have the legal authority to commandeer fuel supplies in a disaster, a memorandum of understanding or other legal contract can prevent resistance and confusion in the moment and can clarify proper procedures that protect everyone’s interests. Make sure the businesses will be covered by your community’s insurance plan in the event of a disaster and that they will be reimbursed later. Such agreements protect the community and the business owner who then doesn’t need to worry about tense and desperate customers fighting over supply or trying to take it without paying.
Step 8. Ask the local utility company to explain the neighborhood grid layouts and restoration priorities. Identify locations suitable for community charging stations.
Step 7. Engage utility companies, municipal government, emergency management, hospital systems, and neighborhood representatives in conversations about emergency energy supplies. Develop a community plan for backup energy and restoring power after a disaster. Find out if there are ways the community and your preparedness organization’s volunteers might be able to help. Ask if the electrical substations have backup systems.
Step 8. Establish a legal framework for community power coordination. Assess current critical infrastructure backup power capabilities.
Step 9. Develop public-private partnerships for large-scale power projects. Issue municipal bonds for critical infrastructure if needed.
Step 10. Meet with power facilities in your community to ensure they have proper safety plans in the event of a disaster. For example, what happens to your local nuclear power plant during an extended power outage or an earthquake?
Step 11. Meet with your local utility company to develop a community plan for backup energy and restoring power, including restoration priorities after a disaster. Make sure the power restoration plan prioritizes community emergency facilities and ensure it is equitable. Find out if there are ways the community and your preparedness organization’s volunteers might be able to help. Ask if the electrical substations have backup systems.
Step 12. Determine if there are any areas of your community, such as college campuses or hospital campuses or large work campuses that would benefit from developing a microgrid. These campuses are likely to be full of people who might get stuck there, away from home, during a disaster. A microgrid is a defined power network that can operate independently from the main electrical grid. It’s often powered by distributed energy resources like solar panels, wind turbines, battery storage, and generators. The system is managed by a localized control system.
Step 13. Create distribution networks to ensure power at Disaster Hubs. Include plans for fuel distribution to keep generators running.
Indicators of a Successful Community-Level Energy Plan
Strong collaboration with power companies
Proper permitting and grid integration
Long-term sustainability through maintenance funding and operational agreements