Leverage municipal EV fleets as resilience assets by pairing their batteries with local microgrids. Coordinated planning to reserve capacity for emergencies, alongside stationary storage at critical facilities, can unlock supplemental energy storage during outages and strengthen community resilience.

Deploy solar microgrids with guaranteed battery backup at critical community sites (city halls, libraries, schools, water treatment plants).

Funding and administrative gaps for microgrid implementation: Even when technical solutions exist, cities often have only “one person” to manage a grant or technical application, creating bottlenecks in project development

Need for stationary backup for microgrids: Stakeholders stressed that solar + EV fleets are not enough; critical sites require stationary batteries to ensure reliability in emergencies.

Day-to-day operational complexity: Municipal fleets and other DERs require coordinated planning for battery use across multiple functions (mobility, backup, grid services). Without active management, projects stall because the complexity exceeds most agencies’ capacity.

CCA role in enabling projects: Some CCAs are able to push microgrid projects forward because they can leverage procurement data and grid advocacy resources that private developers cannot access. Without this support, scalability remains out of reach .