Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) on Tuesday introduced a program to help Northern California communities develop permanent, multi-customer microgrids to ensure off-the-grid electricity to critical facilities and vulnerable customer groups.

The first installation is set for the Yurok Tribe of Native Americans. The Community Microgrid Enablement Program (CMEP) would provide technical support and capital for an electric system that can operate independently from the central energy grid for Yurok’s Tulley Creek community on the upper half of its reservation near the California-Oregon border.

Yurok Tribe planning director Michael Gerace called the microgrid “a key piece of infrastructure that will dramatically increase the energy resilience and disaster preparedness of the...