MADISON – The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) announced the award of $8.5 million in the inaugural grant round of the Grid Resilience Program. This Program was established under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to improve the resiliency of the electric grid and to reduce the frequency and severity of power outages caused by extreme weather and natural disasters.
“The Grid Resilience Program invests in critical projects, modern technology, and beneficial training that will protect Wisconsin residents and help utilities keep the lights on,” said PSC Chairperson Summer Strand. “I am proud of the PSC’s thoughtful program design and diligent review to award funding to recipients that presented clear and practical plans to bolster the reliability of the electric grid in our state.”
The PSC awarded grants to twelve electric cooperatives and four municipal electric utilities in support of nineteen projects that will:
- invest in the modernization and hardening of Wisconsin’s electric grid to protect it from current and future threats to infrastructure;
- reduce the frequency and duration of service interruptions in rural and disadvantaged communities and;
- increase the skilled workforce to support resilience-related activities.
In this inaugural grant round, the PSC intentionally prioritized small utilities, federally defined as those that sell no more than 4,000,000 MWh of electricity each year, because they may have less resources available to undertake infrastructure projects that support grid resilience.
Before this funding is distributed, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) must review and approve each grant recipient’s proposal. The Grid Resilience Program is a five-year formula grant program. On June 16, 2023, DOE awarded Wisconsin $10 million, the allocation for years one and two, to administer the Program. The State of Wisconsin will likely receive approximately $25 million total in grant and administrative funding over the five-year period. The PSC will award remaining funds in subsequent grant rounds.
A list of award recipients is available here. Additional information about the Grid Resilience Program is available here.
