Last November, residents of Ann Arbor, Michigan, voted and passed a measure for the city to run a Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU). Meaning, residents have the ability to opt into city owned micro-grids to supplement their current electrical connection.

The plan involves installing rooftop solar and batteries across buildings, institutions and homes that are shared with surrounding neighbors. Missy Stults, the director of Sustainability and Innovation for the City of Ann Arbor and main architect of this program, says it is not meant to replace the existing infrastructure, but supplement power when outages occur.

“We’ve got a culmination of issues we are trying to solve for,” said Stults. “Well, reliability, resilience, from a climate perspective, affordability and clean can all be solved, if you generate energy where you use it.”

“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal spoke with Stults about whether SEU projects could be a scalable option for other cities.

To hear their full conversation, click the audio player above.