Electrification and the Grid
To reach net zero, senior living communities must go beyond improving efficiency and making small adjustments. An essential step is to replace every use of fossil fuels with electricity and then ensure that electricity comes from renewable sources. This shift, often called “electrify everything,” is central to the net-zero pathway. Electrification is not just a technical upgrade; it requires advance planning, coordination with administrators, and resident understanding of how electricity is produced, delivered, and paid for. Communities that plan carefully can not only cut emissions but also lower costs, strengthen resilience, and position themselves as leaders in sustainability.
Why Electrification Matters
Eliminating fossil fuels is necessary because natural gas, propane, heating oil, and gasoline are direct sources of greenhouse gases. Replacing them with electricity opens the door to cleaner, renewable power. At the same time, electrification often brings practical benefits: heat pumps, for example, can provide heating and cooling with far less energy than conventional systems, and electric appliances improve indoor air quality by removing combustion emissions. Taken together, these changes reduce emissions, improve health, and build resilience against outages.
Understanding the Grid
The electric grid is the vast system that connects electricity generators with end users. For the grid to function, supply and demand must remain balanced every minute of every day. When demand peaks (often in the evenings or on hot summer days) grid operators call on extra power plants. These “peaker plants” are usually inefficient and highly polluting, so avoiding their use is an important climate strategy.
Independent System Operators (ISOs) manage the grid in different regions of the United States. Their role is to constantly adjust generation so that the voltage stays steady. As more communities electrify, the balance of demand is shifting. Summer peaks are already high due to air conditioning, but as fossil-fuel heating systems are replaced with electric heat pumps, winter peaks are expected to grow as well. Understanding these patterns helps explain why the timing of electricity use matters—for both cost and emissions.
Batteries and Storage
Although not yet common in senior living communities, battery storage will become increasingly important. Today’s lithium-ion batteries typically provide about four hours of backup, but they are already being paired with solar installations to cover evening peaks. Costs remain high, but prices are falling, and long-duration technologies such as flow batteries are on the horizon. In the future, even the community vehicle fleet could serve as a backup resource, with electric vans or buses providing stored energy when parked.
Microgrids and Resilience
As storms, wildfires, and other extreme events become more common, power reliability is a growing concern. A microgrid allows a community to disconnect—or “island”—from the larger grid and run on its own resources. Solar panels, batteries, and backup generators can be coordinated through a microgrid controller to keep critical systems operating. While still a complex and expensive option today, microgrids offer unmatched resilience, especially for communities with healthcare facilities where uninterrupted power is essential.
