Groundswell Inc

The RCM Project Will Develop a Community-based Energy Resilience Framework That Can Be Replicated Across the State of Maryland to Support Increased Public Safety and Improve Preparedness and Recovery in the Event of Hazardous Events and Extended Grid Outages. in Addition, the Project Will Deploy Innovations Including Community-driven Measures and Metrics for Energy Resilience; Measurement and Reporting of the Program’s Impact on Community and Energy Resilience; Application of the Emerging Framework to Identify Priority Areas for Community Energy Resilience Implementation; and, Importantly, the Application of Research Results Across Additional Communities in Maryland. Research Results Will Be Paired With Maryland’s Energy Resilience Funding Program, Enabling Communities to Demonstrate and Deploy Research Results in Concert With Grant-funded Energy Resilience Technologies at Community-determined Solar + Storage Resilience Centers. the Project Will Expand Upon Existing Cost-benefit Analyses of Proposed Ders to Account for Emergent Metrics Such as the Human and Social Impacts of Grid Power Outages. These Data Are Expected to Significantly Improve the Project Economics, Particularly for Storage Solutions, and Strengthen the Case for Greater Investment Both by Public Entities and by Mission-aligned Private Entities in Solar + Storage for Backup Power. While Many Existing Models Note the Importance of Considering Equity and Describe Known Inequities, They Do Not Include Community-driven Approaches, the Latest in Energy Equity Research (such as Energy-limiting Behavior), or How to Apply Those Metrics Within the Context of State or Local Programming and Investments. the Specific Models That Are Centrally Applied, Directly Improved, or Referenced Will Be Determined Through the Engagement With the Three Resiliency Councils and Roundtables Over the Course of the Project. RCM Will Prioritize Metrics, Measures, and Systems That Serve Vulnerable Communities in Alignment With the JUSTICE40 Policy in Year 1, RCM Will Develop an Initial Resiliency Framework by Studying Performance-based and Non-performance-based Data From Baltimore City’s Existing Resiliency Hub Program, Relying Heavily on Community Input. the Project Will Also Initiate Testing and Validation of This Nascent Framework in Montgomery County, Maryland. in Year 2, RCM Will Test the Initial Framework Within Montgomery County and Within One Municipality of the Rural Eastern Shore of MD. RCM Will Produce a Documented Framework and Case Studies and Create a Research Dissemination Plan. the Plan Will Be Shared Broadly Through Team Member Networks and Will Shape the Direction of Energy Resilience Investments at the State Level. in Addition to Creating a Community-defined Measure of the Positive Social Impact (PSI) of Resilience That Can Serve as a Guide for Other Related Resilience Projects, RCM Will Also Create More Equitable Decision-making Structures Across the Three Maryland Jurisdictions That Can Continue to Function Beyond the RCM Project Period.