Let’s talk about resilience. During a blackout or extreme weather event, hospitals need to keep operating rooms running, ventilators powered, and medicines refrigerated. Schools, increasingly used as emergency shelters, need to stay lit, heated, and safe. DERs allow these facilities to maintain critical operations even when the main grid fails. Instead of waiting for days or weeks for the power to return, they can keep functioning immediately.

DERs also help reduce strain on the grid. During peak usage times—like hot summer afternoons when AC systems are blasting—local solar panels and batteries can supply power to the facility directly. That means less electricity has to travel long distances over vulnerable wires, reducing the risk of overloads or rolling blackouts.

From an engineering perspective, DERs also offer flexibility. Battery systems can be programmed to charge when energy is cheap and plentiful, then discharge during peak hours. Microgrids can automatically switch between grid-connected and islanded (independent) modes, based on real-time conditions. All of this happens behind the scenes, but the outcome is reliability you can feel.