Summary

Michael Gillogly, manager of the Pepperwood Preserve, understands the wildfire risk that power lines pose firsthand. The 3,200-acre nature reserve in Sonoma County, California, burned in 2017 when a privately owned electrical system sparked a fire . It burned again in 2019 during a conflagration started by power…

Can utilities replace power lines with solar and batteries in remote areas?
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Can utilities replace power lines with solar and batteries in remote areas?

Expanding the grid to reach far-flung customers can be acostly fire hazard. So utilities likePG&E are testing out microgrids using solar, batteries, and generators.

ByJeff St. John
8 September 2025

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A solar array built by BoxPower is charging batteries and keeping five PG&E customers supplied with electricity at a remote grid project in Briceburg, California. (BoxPower)
Michael Gillogly, manager of the Pepperwood Preserve, understands the wildfire risk that power lines pose firsthand. The3,200-acre nature reserve in Sonoma County, California, burned in2017when aprivately owned electrical systemsparked afire. It burned again in2019during aconflagrationstarted by power linesoperated by utility Pacific Gas&Electric.
So whenPG&E approached Gillogly about installing asolar- and battery-powered microgridto replace the single power line serving aguest house on the property, he was relieved.“We do alot of wildfire research here,” he noted. Getting rid of“the line up to the Bechtel House is part ofPG&E’s work on eliminating the risk offire.”
PG&E covered the costs of building the microgrid, and so far, the solar and batteries have kept the light and heat on at the guest house, even when adozen or so researchers spent several cloudy days there, Gillogly said.
Over the past few years,PG&E has increasingly opted for these“remote grids” as the costs of maintaining long power lines in wildfire-prone terrain skyrocket and the price of solar panels, batteries, and backup generators continues to decline. The utility hasinstalled about adozen systemsin theSierra Nevada high country, with the Pepperwood Preserve microgrid the first to be powered100% by solar and batteries. The utility plans tocomplete more than30remote gridsby the end of nextyear.
Until recently, utilities have rarely promoted solar-and-battery alternatives to power lines, particularly if they don’t own the solar and batteries in question. After all, utilities earn guaranteed profits on the money they spend on theirgrids.
ButPG&E’s remote-grid initiative, launched withregulator approval in2023, allows it to earn arate of return on these projects that’s similar to what it would earn on the grid upgrades required to provide those customers with reliable power. The catch is that the costs of installing and operating the solar panels and batteries and maintaining and fueling the generators must be lower than what the utility would have spent on powerlines.
“It all depends on what the alternative is,” said Abigail Tinker, senior manager of grid innovation delivery atPG&E. For the communities the utility has targeted, power lines can be quite expensive, largely due to the cost of ensuring that they won’t cause wildfires.
PG&E wasforced into bankruptcyin2019after its power lines sparkedCalifornia’s deadliest-ever wildfire, and the company is under state mandate to prevent more such disasters.PG&E and California’s other major utilities arespending tens of billions of dollarson burying key power lines, clearing trees and underbrush, and protecting overhead lines with hardened coverings, hair-trigger shutoff switches, and other equipment.
But these wildfire-prevention investments aredriving up utility expendituresand customer rates. Solar and batteries are an increasingly cost-effective alternative, Tinker said, with the benefits outweighing the price tag of having to harden as little as amile of powerlines.
PG&E saves money either by getting rid of grid connections altogether or by delaying the construction of new lines. Microgrids can also improve reliability for customers when utilities must intentionally de-energize the lines that serve them during windstorms and other times of high wildfire risk —an increasingly common contingency in fire-prone areas.
Angelo Campus,CEOof BoxPower, which built most ofPG&E’s remote microgrids, sees the strategy penciling out for more and more utilities for these same reasons.
“We’re working with about adozen utilities across the country on similar but distinct flavors of this,” he said.“Wildfire mitigation is ahuge issue across the West,” andclimate change is increasingthe frequency and severity of the threat.
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Utilities are responsible forabout10% of wildfires. But they’rebearing outsized financial risksfrom those they do cause. Portland, Oregon-based PacifiCorp is facing billions of dollars in costs and$30billion in claimsfor wildfires sparked by its grid in2020, and potentially more for another fire in2022. Hawaiian Electric paid a$2billion settlementto cover damages from the deadly2023Maui firescaused by its grid.
Microgrids can’t replace the majority of autility’s system, of course. But they are being considered for increasingly large communities, Campus said.
Nevada utilityNVEnergy has proposedasolar and battery microgridto replace adiesel generator system now providing backup power to customers in the mountain town of Mt. Charleston. Combining solar and batteries with“ruggedized” overhead lines should save about $21million compared to burying power lines underground, while limiting impacts of wildfire-prevention power outages, according to the utility.
Some larger projects have already been built. San Diego Gas&Electric has beenrunning amicrogridfor the rural California town of Borrego Springs since2013, offering about3,000residents backup solar, battery, and generator power to bolster the single line that connects them to the larger grid, which is susceptible to being shut off due to wildfire risk.Duke Energy built amicrogridin Hot Springs, North Carolina, atown of about535residents served by asingle10-mile power line prone to outages, on the grounds that it was cheaper than building asecond line to improve reliability.
In eachof these cases, utilities must weigh the costs of the alternatives, Tinker said.“It’s complicated and nuanced in terms of dollars per mile, because you have to be able to do the evaluation of individual circuits, and what can be done to mitigate the risk for each circuit,” shesaid.
Whether microgrids are connected to the larger grid or not, utilities need to maintain communications links with them to ensure the systems are operating reliably and safely.PG&E isworking with New Sun Road, acompany that provides remote monitoring and control technology, to keep its far-flung grids in working order.
It’s important to distinguish remote microgrids built and operated by utilities from other types of microgrids. Solar, batteries, backup generators, and on-site power controls are also beingused by electric-truck-charging depotsandindustrial facilitiesthat don’t want to wait for utilities to expand their grids to serve them. Microgrids are also providingcollege campuses, military bases,municipal buildings, andchurches and community centerswith backup power when the grid goes down and with self-supplied power to offset utility bills when the grid is up and running.
Utilities have been far less friendly to customer-owned microgrids in general, however, seeing them as athreat to their core business model. Since2018, California law has required the state Public Utilities Commission to develop rules toallow customers to build their own microgrids. Butprogress has been painfully slow, andonly ahandfulofgrant-funded projectshave been completed.
Microgrid developers and advocates complain that the commission hasput too many restrictionson how customers who own microgrids can earn money for the energy they generate when the grid remains up and running. Utilities contend that they need to maintain control over the portions of their grid that connect to microgrids to avoid creating more hazards.
“It is avery difficult balance thatPG&E is constantly trying to strike, with the oversight of [utility regulators] and other stakeholders, between safety and reliability and affordability,” Tinker said.“That’s something we’re trying to thread the needle on.”
But as the costs of expanding and maintaining utility grids continue to climb, and solar and batteries become more affordable, utilities and their customers are likely to see more opportunities to make microgrids work, Campus said.
“The cost of building poles and wires and maintaining distribution infrastructure has grown substantially over the past20years,” he said.“Look at the cost of distributed generation and battery —it’s an inverse costcurve.”
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[Jeff St. John](https://www.canarymedia.com/about/people/jeff-st-john)is chief reporter and policy specialist at Canary Media. He covers innovative grid technologies, rooftop solar and batteries, clean hydrogen, EV charging, and more.
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