Energy Resilience - California Climate and Energy Collaborative

Barrier 3: Energy Resilience

Barrier Statement

Outdated, centralized energy infrastructure, increasing capacity demands, and limited local authority, funding, and coordination – leave communities increasingly vulnerable to outages, heat, wildfire, and flooding, undermining resilience, safety, and affordability.

Filterable Database

How communities are experiencing this barrier

View the details on what communities have shared with SLECC from across the state.

Key challenge discussed in - Los Angeles, Inland Deserts

Extreme heat, wildfire, and flooding are increasingly disrupting California’s power infrastructure, leading to widespread Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) and prolonged outages that endanger vulnerable residents. In the Inland Empire, stakeholders described week-long blackouts that halted local operations and left homes without air conditioning during dangerous heat waves. Regional studies by WRCOG found that transmission lines supplying cities pass through high wildfire threat districts—and by 2050, wildfires could destroy entire transmission corridors—while flooding and heat are projected to reduce grid capacity by up to 20%. These compounding risks underscore the urgency of integrating resilience and redundancy into energy systems to protect public health and community safety.

Key challenge discussed in - Los Angeles

Limited funding and resources for projects critical during emergencies: Community stakeholders emphasized the difficulty of funding projects like resiliency hubs, water treatment plants, or school-based shelters that may not be in daily use but are essential during wildfires or PSPS events. These projects often have long lead times and complex permitting, which makes them harder to fund through conventional short-cycle grant programs

Key challenge discussed in - Los Angeles

Technology gaps for resilience: Some emerging products—like appliances with built-in batteries (e.g., GE’s 120V-to-240V upgradeable water heaters, battery-powered stoves)—could provide low-cost resilience in outages, but are not yet widely deployed or supported by policy .

Key challenge discussed in - Los Angeles

Limited funding and support for long-term community resiliency centers. Community organizations stressed that Prop 4 and other climate funds are insufficient to sustain long-term resiliency hubs. While some funding exists for infrastructure, resources to maintain and operate community centers as ongoing resilience assets are lacking. Counties like Orange expressed challenges in securing state or CEC grants for resiliency hub development, highlighting regional inequities in access

Key challenge discussed in - Los Angeles

Jurisdictional fragmentation—different utilities and counties have varying capacities (e.g., Palisades undergrounding power lines while Altadena has not)—leads to uneven infrastructure resilience

Local Solution Opportunities

SLECC stakeholders have brainstormed the following solution opportunities that can be taken by local leaders. Existing examples of progress or pathways to make further progress are highlighted if known.

Local Solution

Target support for unincorporated and tribal areas – Local programs should prioritize resilience solutions (solar, storage, electrification upgrades) for communities most exposed to PSPS events and extreme heat

Existing Examples of Progress:

The Tribal Energy and Climate Collaborative (T6)—representing 25 Southern California tribes—is pooling grant resources to conduct feasibility studies for microgrids and clean energy systems to protect tribal housing and community facilities from outage-related risks

Further Progress Pathways

Region(s): Inland Deserts, San Diego

Local Solution

Integrate behind-the-meter batteries with daily usage management to ensure backup power availability.

Existing Examples of Progress:

Further Progress Pathways

Region(s): Los Angeles

Local Solution

Consider EV batteries as supplemental energy storage for microgrids during emergencies.

Existing Examples of Progress:

Clean Coalition “value of resilience” tool to holistically evaluate energy projects (including intangible benefits like emergency assurance and community safety).

Further Progress Pathways

Region(s): Los Angeles

State Solution Opportunities

SLECC stakeholders have brainstormed the following solution opportunities that can be taken by state leaders. Existing examples of progress or pathways to make further progress are highlighted if known.

State Solution

Support funding for community resilience centers that function both during emergencies and year-round, particularly for low-income and underserved areas.

Existing Examples of Progress:

1. Orange County is developing a solar task force to seek funding for resiliency hubs and stakeholder engagement. This project supports community energy projects and aims to support community-identified energy and resilience initiatives. 2. SGC recently completed first funding round of Community Resilience Centers Program with two implementation grants in San Diego region (approximately $10 million each) to funds solar PV infrastructure for emergency resilience. This grant program is named in the $10 billion climate bond passed in November with future funding anticipated.

Further Progress Pathways

Region(s): Los Angeles, San Diego, Statewide

State Solution

Integrate climate risk and hazard vulnerability into energy and resilience planning. State agencies should align planning under the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP) framework and embed wildfire, extreme heat, and outage risks directly into regulatory processes and funding criteria to ensure energy reliability, wildfire prevention, and heat adaptation are jointly addressed.

Existing Examples of Progress:

Further Progress Pathways

Region(s): Inland Deserts, San Diego

State Solution

Invest in grid resilience and distributed energy systems by prioritizing funding and technical support for microgrids, community-scale solar and battery storage, substation upgrades, and undergrounding of power lines in wildfire-prone areas. State agencies such as the CPUC, CEC, and Go-Biz should coordinate to strengthen local energy resilience and ensure communities can maintain essential services during grid disruptions.

Existing Examples of Progress:

Further Progress Pathways

Region(s): Inland Deserts, San Diego

Solution Spotlight

SGC recently completed first funding round of Community Resilience Centers Program with two implementation grants in San Diego region (approximately $10 million each) to funds solar PV infrastructure for emergency resilience. This grant program is named in the $10 billion climate bond passed in November with future funding anticipated.

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Additional Resources

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