Department of Energy awards $47.5 million grant to GRU
Press release from Gainesville Regional Utilities
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded GRU a $47.5 million grant to bolster electric grid resilience, increase funding to community-based programs, and support workforce development.
The grant is part of the DOE’s $10.5 billion Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program, which aims to increase access to affordable, reliable energy. President Biden announced the grant award while touring hurricane damage in St. Petersburg this Sunday.
“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. “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.”
At the moment those enhancements include:
- Replacing 10 transformers
- Replacing outdated circuit breakers with new technology
- Replacing 129 wooden poles with ductile iron poles
- Enhancing GRU’s digital meters to more easily detect and respond to outages
- Hardening and undergrounding distribution lines serving disadvantaged communities
- Building 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 (LEEPplus). LEEPplus 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 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, 2024, during the second round of GRIP funding. In addition to the $47.5 million federal award, GRU has allocated $23.7 million in its electric distribution system budget.
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. “This is a testament to our excellent staff and commitment to being a utility that puts its customers first.”
Grid reliability. LOL .What an absolute joke! GRU lost 2/3 of its customers in a 61 MPH wind gust. Bielarski tells more lies more than Trump.
“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.
Susan you are right the 47 million almost makes up the 1.7 BILLION we owe to burn CO2 absorbing trees to make power. Only a real dum azz like yourself would believe burning CO2 absorbing trees is green energy.
Trees are oxygen generators.
Susan is ignorantly about photosynthesis.
“Throw the oxygen generators into the biomass plant to make electricity…”
ED: with that money, lock in a 30 year contract for clean coal & get it here by rail…
Let’s keep the oxygen generating trees
In tree city…
Hey everybody. Susan thinks the 2 billion dollar wood burner was a great idea.
During Hurricane Helene, western portions of the County experienced wind gusts higher than 90 mph. Usually at those high wind gusts, people will experience a power outage. However, power was restored to most customers relatively quickly.
Likely due falling trees, why do you hate trees Susan?
Susan hates trees because she’s an ugly hater. She’s pathetic.
She wears a face diaper because she’s a sickly fear filled commi hypochondriac control freak.
This should be MY MONEY!!!!! You know I am right Big Daddy Eddy B, it is my money. Hidden Bidden wants me to have it. I need that money to paint more cross walks. I would also pay off our Stupervisor of Elections for when she hit the ghetto lottery, I mean “tripped and fell” in that church she begged to be a polling place.
Kinda weird that it takes a “federal grant” i.e., subsidization by all federal taxpayers, to do mostly basic maintenance (“replace 10 transformers”?) and improvements for one tiny but previously poorly managed (by a city government) public utility.
Congrats, you have to know that the City Commission is foaming at the mouth to get that money.
Does the Biden-Kamala grant stipulate DEI hiring in return? So we can expect more power outages, backed up sewer lines, natural gas explosions, and boil water notices in the future?
💩👹🤡👺👿DNC
Our utility rates will still go up, we need to get rid of gru
Typical stupid and irrelevant knee jerk comments by those who hate living here – go away!
In my real life experience living at the same location for 35 years, which started out as Clay Electirc and then became GRU something like 20 years ago – and before that in another rural area serviced by Clay – GRU has been much more dependable and much quicker to solve outages. Nothing against Clay, which is a coop, and who has worked well with me on power to houses I have built, and maybe others have had a different experience but in mine, GRU is clearly better for “grid reliability”.
By the way, this money is almost certainly from the infrastructure bill passed under Biden which Trump promised but couldn’t or didn’t deliver on. Kat voted against it. Fortunately it is being administered on a non-partisan basis to red and blue states and counties, or Kat’s district would have been cut out as punishment. That’s the difference between “pork” and real Investments in infrastructure.
Please don’t let the city commissioners know about this windfall. I’m sure they would LOVE to tap into that money to spend on saving their favorite unmotivated drug addicted homeless criminals.
Another huge win for GRU and the people of Gainesville, which means another devastating loss to the Gainesville City Commission. Ward and Eastman must be crying it out together in the gender ambiguous bathroom right now.
That $47.5 million would have paid for some nice vacations for commissioners, a few more hideous statues, and of course a nice kickback from whatever they funnel to GRACE marketplace.
Grant money is specifically targeted and GRU has to provide that info before actually receiving it – this is all clear in the article you obviously haven’t read – and the application was made long before the state GOP take over of the city’s utility.
Cope and seethe.