As you're reading this, all of Puerto Rico is out of power. Following hurricanes Irma and Maria, the island's electric system is "completely destroyed", and officials say residents will likely be dealing with power issues for as many as six months. Across the waters, Irma's trek through Florida left thousands without power, and some of the most devastated areas have yet to get it back. Natural disasters have a well-documented history of devastating urban infrastructure, and power grids are rarely exempt from their wrath. In 2003, severe storms knocked out power in almost all of Italy and parts of Switzerland, affecting 56 million people. During hurricane Sandy in 2012, large swaths of New York City and other metropolitan areas across the East Coast were plunged into darkness for days. And after the catastrophic earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011, power outages led to a malfunction at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that caused one of the worst nuclear radiation disasters in recent history. In many of these cases, the failure of power grids had a massive negative impact on the cities that depend on them, disrupting their transit and sanitation systems, and leaving millions of people to fend for themselves. It often take ages for power grids to get repaired, and when they are, they're merely updated to an improved version of their previous state. But in the wake of such a sweeping and traumatic catastrophe, the northern city of Higashi Matsushima and dozens of its surrounding towns are trying something different by building their own self-sustaining micro-grids, effectively decentralizing from any national power grid and thereby strengthening local resilience. This different approach to power is unlike anything Japan has done before, and it may be gaining traction in Japanese cities nationwide. 

What We See

It's not just the effects of natural disasters that can plunge millions of people into darkness. System glitches and failures, cyber attacks and even rogue monkeys have all contributed to major power outages that have affected millions of people, environments, and economies. Going dark dramatically shows how dependent and interconnected all systems within a city are, and how easily everything can be brought down by one rogue cog in the machine. But inter-dependence isn't the problem in cities; it's a necessary component to how the urban world works. The issue is rather how to stop "system failure" and one promising approach lies making these intricate urban networks that support cities with millions of people rely on themselves for power, instead of on widespread national lines. The micro-grids that urban areas in Japan are testing take responsibility into cities' hands, and give them the opportunity to harness enough of their own power to keep their systems running for days without draining the larger power grids. Large powers grids may be more economically efficient and stronger, but in doing this, cities with decentralized power grids are put in a less fragile position when disasters strike, as they can detach from the larger grid and run by themselves. Having severable systems makes it more resilient and harder for weather, terrorism or malfunctions to completely dismantle an entire system or completely incapacitate a large urban area. 

As cities around the world continue to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change, many have also championed the use of renewable energy and the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 7, which aims to ensure affordable and clean energy for everyone. Decentralizing power grids can give regions and cities more control over their energy use, and thus give them the opportunity to adopt alternative, environmentally friendly forms of energy. Countries such as Germany and France have turned to nuclear energy for their decentralized power grid, and due to overwhelming popularity, Denmark adopted wind power for their decentralized grid in the 1980s. These moves have made the countries and their cities less susceptible to  long-lasting blackouts and crises in the oil market. As a proponent for the health of cities worldwide, IHC Global sees decentralized, clean energy grids as a chance for cities to protect themselves from the potential effects of disasters and strengthen local resilience, as well as a significant opportunity for urban areas and surrounding regions to become both environmentally and economically sustainable.

Read more here,  here, here and here.