Government officials in Montgomery County, Maryland don’t have to speculate about the importance of energy resilience. In 2012 a derecho hit the mid-Atlantic, leading to the deaths of 13 people. The derecho also caused extended power outages for more than 250,000 residents, and this combined with the extremely hot temperatures led to an additional 29 deaths.
In the aftermath of the storm, Montgomery County launched an aggressive effort to improve resilience at its expansive government facilities. Part of the wide-ranging solution the county ultimately settled on and completed last year was to combine electric vehicle (EV) charging with the construction of two microgrids at critical government buildings.