Day: May 2, 2024

Gunnison County Electric Assoc. (GCEA) has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to begin award negotiations for up to $5-million inBipartisan Infrastructure Law funding as part of the Energy Improvements in Rural or RemoteAreas (ERA) program.    With this funding, GCEA plans to replace 30 miles of aging, overhead electric distribution lines between Gunnison County Electric Association’s “Skito” substation on County Road 17 near Antelope Hills on the outskirts of Gunnison and extending to Powderhorn. Replacement of the aging electric line poles — a majority of which date to initial electric line installation in 1957 — will mitigate the rising costs of maintaining outdated and unreliable infrastructure. The project also increases grid reliability for rural Gunnison County residents who experience frequent power outages and constitutes the first phase of a larger project to improve resiliency for Hinsdale County residents.    Funds will be designated for a new overhead line rebuild which might ideally commence as early as later this year extending into 2025.   The estimated system lifetime for these upgrades will last 50 years or more.    CEO Mike McBride notes, “We work hard to maintain reliability at an average of 99.97%. To do so, we maintain approximately 1,100 miles of distribution lines. Over time it becomes necessary to rebuild sections of line and I am happy to report that GCEA was just selected by the Department of Energy to receive a $5 million grant to rebuild and upgrade a 30-mile section of 3-phase backbone between Gunnison and Powderhorn. This is the first phase of a project to improve reliability and community resiliency for members south of Gunnison and in Lake City. We are extremely excited about this grant for which there were 359 applicants and only 19 applications selected!”   During the last two years, the service area between Gunnison and Powderhorn experienced 76 outages due to extreme weather conditions and the threat of wildfires, including a 28-hour outage during sub-zero overnight temperatures.    According to GCEA’s funding application, upgrading electric distribution infrastructure will enhance local grid resilience, reduce operational and maintenance costs, prevent fires due to overloading, and facilitate the integration of more renewable energy. These benefits will also promote greater prosperity for the local community by supporting the growth of businesses, farms, ranching, and housing while mitigating climate threats that prevent residents from living and working full-time in the region.    Government funding will help support the proposed 30-mile upgrade project by paying for approximately 72 percent of the total project costs. This will allow GCEA to minimize the impact on member rates for this project while significantly improving grid reliability.       The project will host in-person informational events and leverage its existing newsletter, website, newspaper articles, and social media channels to share project updates and create pathways for two-way engagement.   GCEA was selected as one of 19 community-led clean energy projects across 12 states and 13 tribal nations and communities to receive more than $78 million in DOE funds earmarked to develop and deploy sustainable clean energy solutions and expand access to reliable and affordable energy in rural and remote communities across the country.