Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has been awarded a $6.5 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
The grant is part of an ongoing, $2.3 billion Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grant Program that started in May 2023. The goal is to provide grant funding for dozens of state and tribal programs over the next five years. These programs are intended to update and reinforce local electric grids to withstand an increasing frequency of weather events.
In Connecticut, that $6.5 million grant is earmarked to “improve system reliability and resilience in a range of weather and storm conditions and attract, train, and retain a skilled and local workforce, especially from disadvantaged communities.”
DEEP has been making a push toward more electrification in the state, as well as making efforts to switch the state’s grid to greener energy sources, like solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. Meanwhile, grid modernization and green energy updates have been high priorities for the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
In its most recent Quarterly Newsletter, PURA listed eight dockets on the agenda for 2023, six of which directly addressed state and residential clean energy and electric vehicle programs. A seventh was dedicated to electric reliability and resilience.
Resilience is a hot topic in the state right now as major weather events become more frequent. A recent prediction model released by the First Street Foundation predicted that 100-year floods – flood events that previously would have occurred once in 100 years – will begin to happen once every 8-10 years in the Northeast.
Connecticut has recently been subjected to flooding along the coastline and the Connecticut River. Cities and towns across the state have entered the planning and development stages of dozens of local resilience projects to help mitigate the effects of extreme weather. This grant program is intended to help the state’s energy sector do the same.
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