Power Outages Are Getting Worse. Microgrids Are One of the Best Answers We Have.

Power outages in the United States are happening more often and lasting longer than at any point in recent history. That's not a feeling or an anecdote. It's a documented trend driven by two converging forces: extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent and severe, and an aging electrical grid that was not built to handle them.

For the companies, hospitals, data centers, and communities that depend on reliable power, this trend has moved from a background risk to an operational priority. And for Nick Casas, Vice President of Sales at Enchanted Rock, it represents both an urgent problem and a clear opportunity for solutions that already exist.

Casas joined the Driving Mobility podcast for a conversation with host Kristin Slanina, ParkMyFleet's CIO, about the outage crisis, the limitations of conventional backup power, and why microgrids represent a cleaner, smarter path forward.

The Scale of the Problem

The US grid is aging. Much of the transmission and distribution infrastructure in operation today was built in the 1960s and 1970s, with an expected lifespan that is now long past. Investment in grid modernization has been chronically insufficient relative to the scale of need.

Meanwhile, the climate is changing in ways that test the grid in new ways. Heat waves create peak demand spikes that exceed historical maximums. Wildfires threaten transmission corridors that weren't designed with that risk in mind. Hurricanes, floods, and ice storms hit with greater frequency and intensity.

The result is a grid under stress that was already fragile, and outages that are both more frequent and more prolonged than the system was designed to produce.

Why Traditional Backup Power Falls Short

The conventional answer to power outages is diesel generators. And while generators solve the immediate problem of no power, they come with a set of costs and limitations that are increasingly difficult to justify.

They're dirty. Diesel generators produce particulate emissions, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide. In healthcare settings, data centers, and dense urban environments, this is a real concern. In a world where organizations are setting decarbonization commitments, a diesel generator fleet is a significant liability.

They're loud. Generator noise is not a trivial issue. It affects the quality of operations in any setting where generators run for extended periods.

They're logistically demanding. Diesel generators need fuel, and fuel supply chains are vulnerable to exactly the conditions that cause extended outages. A multi-day ice storm that knocks out power also makes fuel delivery difficult. A generator that runs out of fuel during an extended outage has failed its primary purpose.

They're expensive to operate. Diesel fuel costs money. Maintenance costs money. The total cost of operating a diesel backup fleet over a multi-year period is often higher than decision-makers realize when they make the initial purchase.

What Microgrids Do Differently

Enchanted Rock's microgrid solution is built on natural gas, which is generally more reliable and cleaner than diesel as a fuel source, and is designed as a net-zero carbon solution. That combination of reliability and environmental performance is what distinguishes it from conventional backup options.

A microgrid is more than a generator. It is a local energy system that can operate independently from the main grid when the main grid fails. It can include local generation, battery storage, and smart controls that manage how energy is produced and consumed within the system.

The "resiliency as a service" model that Casas describes is particularly significant. Rather than requiring organizations to purchase, own, and maintain their own backup power infrastructure, Enchanted Rock provides microgrid capacity as a managed service. The customer gets reliable backup power. Enchanted Rock handles the equipment, maintenance, and operations.

For organizations that don't have the capital or the operational expertise to build and run their own microgrid, this model makes resilient power accessible in a way that wasn't previously available.

Who Needs This Most

Casas is direct about the populations and organizations most vulnerable to extended outages: hospitals and healthcare facilities where power loss can directly threaten patient safety; cold storage operators where outages mean spoiled inventory; data centers where downtime has immediate financial consequences; and communities where vulnerable residents, those dependent on home medical equipment, extreme temperatures, or refrigerated medication, face serious health risks when power fails.

These are not edge cases. They are widespread, and the number of them is growing as the grid becomes less reliable.

The Opportunity

The power resilience market is expanding rapidly, driven by a combination of worsening outage conditions and growing awareness of the limitations of conventional backup solutions.

Companies that can provide clean, reliable, cost-effective backup power at scale are positioned in front of a real and growing demand. Enchanted Rock's approach, cleaner than diesel, quieter than conventional generators, available as a managed service, is designed specifically to meet that moment.

Listen to the full episode of the Driving Mobility podcast to hear Nick Casas and Kristin Slanina's conversation about the outage crisis, how microgrids work, and what "resiliency as a service" actually means for the organizations that need it most.

Driving Mobility is ParkMyFleet's podcast covering the trends, technologies, and leaders shaping the future of mobility.