Gainesville Regional Utilities awarded $47 million grant to help upgrade electric grid
- by USA Today
- Oct 14, 2024
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Local news:Ethics complaint alleges GRU's Bielarski using ratepayer money to push back on referendum
According to a release from the Grid Deployment Office, the funds will be used to help increase GRU's grid reliability by reducing outages through storm hardening, along with technological improvements that will allow for faster restoration.
"It’s important to point out that one of the main reasons we received this grant is because GRU is an industry leader in grid reliability,” said GRU CEO Ed Bielarski in a news release. “Because we already are innovative and reliable, DOE wants to use us as a model to further innovate and enhance our resilience and storm response, including in disadvantaged communities.”
Planned improvements include new transformers, the replacement of aging oil circuit breakers, self-healing network reclosers with accompanying controllers and communication systems, an advanced distribution management system (ADMS), the replacement of 129 aged wood poles with ductile iron transmission poles, new transmission for solarinterconnection, reconductoring, hardening and undergrounding overhead distribution lines serving Disadvantaged Communities (DACs), and a new substation in southwest Gainesville.
In addition to its technical components, the grant provides additional funding for community programs such as GRU’s Low-Income Energy Efficiency Program, which provides free home upgrades to low-income customers. The grant more than doubles the program’s budget to $575,000 annually over the next five years.
The grant also establishes an electric lineworker apprenticeship with Santa Fe College and funds additional apprenticeships and internships at Santa Fe and UF.
GRU has established a tentative timeline to satisfy the grant, which must be executed in five years. The next step is to negotiate a contract with the Department of Energy.
“I want to thank everybody involved in this utility-wide effort,” Bielarski said in the news release. “This is a testament to our excellent staff and commitment to being a utility that puts its customers first.”
GRU began aggressively pursuing grants following the COVID-19 pandemic when it utilized law firm Holland and Knight’s consulting arm in 2020. The utility was awarded the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership grant on Oct. 7, during the second round of GRIP funding.
— Local news editor Alan Festo contributed to this report.
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