Department of Energy grant aims to help NC keep the lights on during disasters
The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday awarded North Carolina an $18.5 million grant to upgrade and harden the state’s electric grid against disasters like hurricanes.
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality said it will use the funds, which were initially part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to help install technology that modernizes the grid with a focus on increasing reliability and resilience in communities where families spend a higher average percentage of their income on energy bills.
North Carolina officials also pledged that when deciding upon projects they would consider how many workers are recruited, trained in clean energy or energy efficiency roles and retained with a focus on opportunities for workers from underserved or underrepresented communities.
In the narrative description, DEQ said at least 31% of its grant via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law would fund projects at electric cooperatives and municipally owned utilities.
Over the past decade, the U.S. Energy Information Agency has reported that power outages have increased nationwide from about 1.2 per customer annually to about 1.4 and the number of minutes a customer spends without power doubling from about 200 to about 400 minutes.
In 2021, the last year data is available, North Carolina reported about 1.24 outages per customer with each person spending about 3 hours, 25 minutes without power. That year didn’t have a widespread disaster like a Hurricane Florence or Matthew.
Disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires play a major role in long-lasting outages throughout the country. Minimizing their impact is a focus of the Department of Energy.
“The end goal here is that as extreme weather hits various communities, how can we make sure that when that comes through, ideally the power doesn’t go out? But if it does, how can we reduce the amount of time that the grid may be down? Five minutes losing power is a lot different than five hours or five days,” Dylan Reed, the senior adviser for the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office told The News & Observer.
DEQ will select sub-grantees for specific projects. Groups that are eligible for funding include electric grid operators, electricity storage operators, electricity generators, transmission owners or operators, distribution providers and fuel suppliers.
“There’s a lot of different ways that the grid has stresses put on it,” Reed said, “but this money is intended to be flexible to recognize all of those things and help address grid resilience in the light of this weather.”
This story was produced with financial support from the Hartfield Foundation and 1Earth Fund, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
This story was originally published August 5, 2023 at 11:43 AM with the headline "Department of Energy grant aims to help NC keep the lights on during disasters."