These six components form the foundation for understanding, measuring, and valuing microgrid resilience performance.
Assessment of how often outages occur and how long they typically last, including both routine and extreme events.
Identification of essential loads that must remain powered to protect life, safety, and core operations.
Estimation of the financial, operational, and societal costs associated with losing power to critical functions.
Evaluation of how effectively the microgrid can supply critical loads during grid outages, including transition speed and fuel or energy availability.
Assessment of how the microgrid reduces the time required to restore normal operations following a disruption.
Consideration of broader benefits such as sheltering capacity, continuity of public services, and support for vulnerable populations.
These complementary approaches help quantify resilience value based on data availability, project maturity, and the type of impact being measured.
Represents the economic cost of unserved energy to a facility or community, often expressed per unit of electricity not delivered during an outage.
Best for
Monetizing outage impacts
Output
$ / kWh not served
Why itâs useful
Fast, comparable valuation
Calculates costs avoided by reducing outage frequency, duration, or severity through microgrid operation and critical load support.
Best for
Feasibility + justification
Output
Avoided downtime costs
Why itâs useful
Shows direct value benefits
Tests microgrid performance under disruption scenarios and compares outcomes with vs without the microgrid system.
Best for
Design trade-offs + sizing
Output
Scenario outcome comparison
Why itâs useful
Real-world stress testing
Uses structured scoring frameworks when precise monetization is difficultâespecially for community, social, and equity outcomes.
Best for
Social & community impacts
Output
Scores + priority ranking
Why itâs useful
Captures hard-to-price value
Resilience value analysis complements traditional CAPEX and OPEX evaluation by revealing benefits that energy cost savings alone do not capture.
Traditional feasibility focuses on upfront and operating costs. Resilience value adds the missing piece: avoided outage lossesâprotecting mission continuity, safety, and long-term risk reduction.
CAPEX
Upfront build cost
OPEX
Operating + fuel
Resilience
Avoided downtime
Informs storage capacity, generator sizing, and fuel redundancy based on outage performance goals.
Balances upfront cost against continuityâprioritizing critical loads and multi-day capability when needed.
Strengthens the case for public and mission-critical projects by quantifying avoided downtime and risk.
Supports applications where resilience outcomes are a primary evaluation criterion.
By integrating resilience value into feasibility analysis, teams justify investments that prioritize long-term stability and risk reduction.
MYTHS â REALITY
Misconceptions often slow down microgrid investment decisions. This section breaks down the most common mythsâand the real truth behind them.
People assume value must be perfectly priced to be real.
â Truth
While not all impacts can be priced precisely, many outage-related costs can be estimated or bounded using established methods (lost productivity, spoiled inventory, emergency repairs, equipment damage, overtime labor, service disruption penalties, tenant displacement costs). Resilience value often shows up in avoided costsânot just what is gained, but what is prevented.
Why it matters
Power is not the same as performance.
â Truth
Generators helpâbut they often lack seamless transition, load prioritization, and multi-day operational capability. They can also face fuel delivery delays, emissions restrictions, testing/maintenance failures, and limited flexibility. Solar + storage systems with controls can deliver longer, more stable critical-load support.
Common generator limitations:
Decision lens
The most frequent pain is often âsmall outages.â
â Truth
Even short or localized outages can cause major harmâespecially for critical facilities and vulnerable communities. Frequent âsmallâ outages may not make the news, but they still create ripple effects.
Small outages can disrupt:
Community impact
Reliability protects people during ordinary daysânot just headlines. Resilience planning prevents âslow harmâ from compounding.
For these stakeholders, resilience is not optionalâit is a core performance requirement.
Center
Quantifies avoided outage costs and continuity benefits.
Power continuity is tied directly to patient safety and life-support operations.
Shelters, response centers, and coordination hubs need uninterrupted power.
Downtime disrupts core operations, research, and mission-critical systems.
Limited grid redundancy makes continuity essential for daily stability.
Higher disruption risk makes resilience planning a long-term necessity.
Alex Deal
Founder of Level Up
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