The city of Tallahassee is determined to weather the storms, and now, it has more funds to do so.
The city just received a $28.6 million federal grant to strengthen the city’s electric grid, which typically gets damaged during any major thunderstorm or heavy rain.
According to a Wednesday, Jan. 8 news release, the money will go to an “even more resilient and equitable energy system to protect against extreme weather events.”
City Manager Reese Goad speaks during a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the inaugural JetBlue flight on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024.
This money comes three and a half months after the Big Bend got smacked by Hurricane Helene, which cost the capital city more than $10 million in utility repairs, according to Florida Department of Emergency Management estimates. The system also was hit in May by that month’s tornado outbreak.
“We have made increasing grant revenue and bringing more money home to Tallahassee a top priority,” Tallahassee City Manager Reese Goad said.
In the last five years, Goad said, city staff has brought in $342 million in grant dollars — 117% of the property tax revenue generated during the same time.
The most recent grant was an award from the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program within the U.S. Department of Energy. The city plans to use it to “fund storm hardening and smart grid efforts in the Griffin Heights neighborhood,” according to the release.
This includes the city’s first utility-scale battery energy storage system, which will be installed at the Birmingham Street substation. It is expected to save the city $160,000 in annual fuel costs.
Money will be spent to harden poles and other aerial equipment, as well as implement smart equipment to address faults and brief outages without the need of dispatch crews.
As a bonus, the city has funds now to engage the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response (RIDER) Center at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, issuing 30 Clean Energy Trades certificates to trainees and providing other engagement and workforce opportunities.
Mayor John Dailey attends a groundbreaking ceremony held by the The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDAC) for the new Conner Facility coming soon.
“The City is proud to be among the best public utilities in the nation, which can be attributed to our talented team, industry-leading approach and commitment to high-quality service,” Mayor John Dailey said.
“This project complements and furthers our efforts to enhance electric resilience and reliability while getting us closer to our clean energy goals,” he added.
Breaking & trending news reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee to bolster electric grid with new federal grant money