Borrego Springs is served by a transmission line that traverses sixty miles, making it susceptible to wild weather and wildfires. According to SDG&E’s chief development officer, Jim Avery, it was after wildfires knocked out power in 2007 for two days that they began looking for better ways to supply residents and businesses. The result is the Borrego Springs microgrid that can integrate conventional sources of generation, renewable sources, such as rooftop Solar, as well as substation and utility-scale Solar. SDG&E has said that this microgrid is the first of its kind- that it was capable of powering an entire community with renewable energy after a storm caused damage to the conventional system last spring. The next goal for the microgrid project is to be able to switch over to local generation without customers noticing any drop in power.