The USA Department of Energy said Thursday $34 million has been awarded to two states and three tribal nations to help secure their electricity supply systems from climate-exacerbated disruptions.
Chosen for the latest cohort of the Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants are the Aroostook Band of Micmacs; the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians; the Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California; Missouri; and North Carolina.
The $2.3 billion five-year funding aims to improve the reliability of power grids against extreme weather, wildfires and other natural disasters.
“Since May 2023, DOE has distributed more than $407 million in Grid Resilience Formula Grants thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda”, the DOE said in a press release Thursday.
North Carolina has received the highest amount among the latest recipients at $18.5 million, meant to “support equitable workforce development through projects that attract, train, and retain an appropriately skilled workforce”, the DOE said.
Missouri has been allotted $13.8 million, for projects that “support employment and workforce development and mitigate impacts to ratepayers”.
An award of $1.3 million for the Washoe Tribe would “support modernizing grid infrastructure and investments in clean energy while also addressing the energy burden experienced by low-income and disadvantaged Tribal communities”.
The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians has been allocated $229,000 for grid infrastructure, manpower development and “communications to enhance local grid control”.
For the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, the DOE has earmarked $194,000 to “support modernizing grid infrastructure while improving outdated or failing infrastructure and advancing Tribal workforce development”, the DOE said.
“Every community deserves a strong and reliable energy grid that can deploy cleaner, cheaper power to homes and businesses, while keeping their lights on during extreme weather,” Energy Secretary Jennifer M Granholm said in a statement.
The DOE earlier on Monday said it has awarded $7.4 million to Puerto Rico under the grants. “The government of Puerto Rico plans to use this funding to help disadvantaged communities to determine their energy needs; provide resilient, cost-effective electricity to rural and/or remote communities; and create jobs and training opportunities for residents within disadvantaged communities in Puerto Rico”, the department said in a media statement.
The Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants are, according to the DOE, funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed 2021. The grants are administered through the Building a Better Grid Initiative.
The DOE has raised this year’s target awards “to better account for the probability of disruptive events on Tribal lands”, as announced by the agency May 5. It has also extended the application deadline to August 31 for Indian tribes.
The latest data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows consumers experienced over seven hours of power interruptions 2021, an improvement of nearly an hour against 2020.
“When major events—including snowstorms, hurricanes, and wildfires—are excluded, the average duration of interruptions annually remained consistently at around two hours per year from 2013 to 2021”, the EIA said in an article November 14, 2022.
“Customers in Louisiana, Oregon, Texas, Mississippi, and West Virginia experienced the most time with interrupted power in 2021, ranging from almost 19 hours in West Virginia to over 80 hours in Louisiana”, it said.
2021 saw “the third-most active Atlantic weather season on record”, the EIA noted.
In February 2021 winter storm Uri resulted in a blackout for about 4.5 million people in Louisiana and Oklahoma. Louisiana faced another tropical cyclone, Hurricane Ida, August 2021 with 1.2 million people left without power. The state again saw half a million people without electricity as a result of Hurricane Nicholas arriving around two weeks later, according to EIA figures.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
