Energy Grid
So far this decade, natural disasters are estimated to have affected around 181 million people per year worldwide. This figure doesn’t include conflict, industrial accidents, or public health emergencies, so the true scale of disruption is likely far higher.
In most crises, governments, non governmental organisations, and occasionally private industry mobilise quickly. According to the United Nations, the most immediate survival needs are food, water, shelter, and healthcare, while additional requirements such as sanitation, education, protection, and infrastructure follow in later phases. But across every phase of response and recovery, one requirement underpins them all. Power.
Without electricity, clean water cannot be pumped, hospitals cannot operate at scale, communications fail, and reconstruction stalls. Energy isn’t just a secondary input to humanitarian response. It’s the system that allows all others to function. This is where battery energy storage systems (BESS) move from being a technical upgrade to becoming core humanitarian infrastructure.
When the power goes out
The link between power loss and societal standstill was made clear after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. In the aftermath, the Japanese government surveyed 571 businesses to understand what prevented them from continuing operations.
More than half cited blackouts as the primary barrier. A further 21% pointed to power shortages, while 30% identified the loss of telecommunications and internet connectivity. These responses show a clear pattern. In many disasters, it is energy failure, rather than physical destruction alone, that stops recovery in its tracks.
The problem with fuel
When grids fail, diesel generators are usually the default backup. History shows why this approach carries serious risks in times of crisis. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, fuel became a problem in its own right. Supplying isolated bases meant running constant convoys through hostile territory. Those convoys were routinely targeted. In 2009, attacks on fuel convoys accounted for more than 50% of casualties in Afghanistan and around 30% in Iraq. The more fuel a base needed, the more often people were put in harm’s way just to keep the lights on.
The financial burden followed the same pattern. United States Department of Defense analysis found that once transport, protection, losses, and logistics were included, the real delivered cost of fuel in Iraq averaged around $14 per gallon in 2008. At isolated or high risk bases, costs rose into the tens or even hundreds of dollars per gallon. For comparison, fuel today typically costs around $3 to $4 per gallon at the pump. These same dynamics appear again and again in disaster zones, where damaged roads, insecurity, or extreme weather make fuel delivery slow, dangerous, or impossible.
BESS as the future of emergency power
Battery energy storage offers a different way to supply power when fuel is hard to move. Energy can be stored ahead of time, deployed quickly, and kept running locally without relying on constant fuel deliveries. Systems can be recharged from a single support vehicle, portable renewables, or temporary local grids, reducing both delay and risk.
When installed ahead of time, storage can stop outages from escalating into humanitarian crises. In Mono City, California, a fire hall equipped with a battery system supplied by Tesla became a lifeline after avalanches cut the town off completely. While the system was intended to support emergency services, it also provided warmth, lighting, and communications to isolated residents once access was lost.
Where permanent systems are not in place, mobile storage increasingly fills the gap. When a powerful tornado hit New Orleans in March 2022, widespread blackouts threatened public safety and medical care. Mobile solar battery trailers deployed by local organisations allowed residents and emergency workers to charge communications equipment, power medical refrigeration, run lighting, and maintain coordination in the critical early days after impact.
As response shifts into recovery, smaller portable battery generators, such as those manufactured by EcoFlow, support household level energy needs. These systems can be used safely indoors, operate silently, and recharge via renewable sources. They allow families to meet basic power needs without placing further strain on damaged grid infrastructure.
By putting storage directly into communities, governments and aid organisations can reduce the burden of meeting individual household energy needs and focus instead on restoring essential services. These systems also retain value long after the emergency phase ends. In disaster prone regions, allowing communities to keep portable storage becomes a practical investment in future resilience.
Energy as a foundation for resilience
In disaster environments, power determines whether communications stay live, medical care continues, water is delivered, and recovery can begin at all. Evidence from military logistics, recent disasters, and field deployments shows that fuel based power systems are fragile, expensive, and often dangerously difficult to sustain once access is restricted. Battery energy storage changes that equation. By allowing energy to be stored, deployed quickly, and generated locally, it turns power from a vulnerability into something communities can rely on before, during, and after a crisis.
