Competitive Energy Efficiency and Conservation Grants for Municipalities (EECBG Program) is sponsored by U.S. Department of Energy (administered by Vermont Department of Public Service). This funding opportunity, made possible by the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, aims to assist local governments in enhancing energy efficiency and reducing fossil fuel emissions, particularly in the transportation and buildi…

Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG) - Beneficial Electrification League Skip to Content Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG) On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law. This “bipartisan infrastructure bill” funded the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program at $550M.

The EECBG was created in 2007 under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA)1 and was intended to enable states, local governments and tribes to 1) reduce their consumption of fossil fuels, 2) reduce their energy use overall and 3) improve efficiency.

Fourteen years later, the electric sector has made significant strides in reducing the use of fossil fuels in power generation and driving down the carbon emissions associated with electric power generation.

It is consistent with the aims of the program, therefore, for eligible entities to use EECBG funds for electrification programs — programs enabling the energy efficient switch to electricity from fossil fuel combustion for certain end-uses — and policies that can improve energy efficiency. EISA authorizes grant recipients to use their funds under any one of 14 categories.

BEL has analyzed the categories and provides a proposed set of model activities under several categories to advance beneficial electrification efforts. These proposals are included in the table in the link here and BEL encourages grant recipients to consider these. For more information or to provide additional input to BEL on this topic, please email info@be-league.

org DOE/BEL December 15 EEBCG Webinar On December 15, 2022, the Beneficial Electrification League held a joint webinar with the Department of Energy and BEL staff on how the recently announced $550 million Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program funding opportunity can be accessed to support beneficial electrification and other community-level clean energy programs.

1,878 local governments will be eligible to receive at least $75,000 in funding by formula under this program. With more than $299 million in formula funding going to local governments, $123. 2 million to states and $8.

8 million to eligible tribes, participants will get an overview of the recently released notice of intent, understand more about how this funding can be utilized, a sense of timeline for the program, and learn what kinds of electrification projects are likely to qualify so they can prepare and make efficient use of the funding opportunity.

Download the webinar slides here Download the list of 1,878 local governments here Advertisement Advertisement Modernizing a substation and feeder circuit to support economic development in rural Pennsylvania Who (just the name of the grantee(s): New Enterprise Rural Electric Cooperative, which serves about 3,600 member-consumers in Bedford, Fulton and Huntingdon counties.

A 60-year-old substation and feeder circuit becomes overloaded during cold weather, causing outages and degrading power quality. Residents, farms and businesses suffer, and the regional economy misses out on opportunities to attract companies that need reliable power.

With BEL’s assistance, grantee was able to apply for a grant totaling $X from the Appalachian Regional Commission, a partnership of 13 states and the federal government innovating and investing for economic growth in Appalachia.

Upgrading the substation and feeder circuit will reduce power outages, increase power capacity, and ensure reliable service for residents, farms, and businesses Local trucking, manufacturing, construction and truck repair firms expect to create seven new jobs and retain 34 jobs because of the project Overview: Modernizing a substation and feeder circuit to support economic development in rural Pennsylvania Who: New Enterprise Rural Electric Cooperative, which serves about 3,600 member-consumers in Bedford, Fulton and Huntingdon counties.

The Need: A 60-year-old substation and feeder circuit becomes overloaded during extreme summer and winter weather events cold weather, causing outages and degrading power quality. Residents, farms and businesses suffer, and the regional economy misses out on opportunities to attract companies that need reliable power.

Upgrading the substation and feeder circuit will reduce power outages, increase power capacity, and ensure reliable service for residents, farms, and businesses Local trucking, manufacturing, construction and truck repair firms expect to create seven new jobs and retain 34 jobs because of the project Quote: “Electric infrastructure is the backbone of economic development in our local community.

The investments we are working with BEL to secure will be an upgrade to our electric system that will have impact for decades. ” -Mark Morrison, General Manager and CEO, New Enterprise REC. The Need: OMEC’s distribution network has become increasingly vulnerable to storms, heavy snow, and high winds, which often cause prolonged outages.

The co-op’s manual systems limit its ability to monitor grid conditions and respond quickly to restore power—challenges that will increase as its load continues to grow in the area, in part due to electrification. The Who: Oneida-Madison Electric Cooperative has been providing reliable, affordable electricity to rural areas across Madison and Oneida counties since 1942.

OMEC is a member-owned, non-profit organization whose goal is to benefit the area and the people for which we serve Action: By implementing a modern Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, this small rural electric utility will detect faults more quickly, reduce outage durations and better manage load growth associated with electrification.

Impacts: A SCADA system will enable OMEC to detect and respond to faults more quickly and reduce the average outage duration significantly. The upgrade also positions the co-op to better manage energy use, align more effectively with its hydropower allocations, and increase power delivery capacity. Along with providing households with more reliable electricity this upgrade will improve conditions for economic development.

Quote: “Our regional efforts to enhance our electric distribution system resilience exemplifies the power of collaboration among rural cooperatives to address shared challenges,” said Brian Bell, CEO of Oneida-Madison Electric Cooperative. “Our members depend on reliable service, and this project will provide the tools and technologies necessary to enhance grid resilience, reduce outage durations, and support our local economy.

” The Need: Approximately 1,450 families, businesses and first-responder agencies supplied with electricity by Claverack Rural Electric Cooperative's Steinbach substation suffer frequent and prolonged outages during storms. Outages have disrupted a regional 911 call center, forced businesses to close temporarily, disincentivized companies from moving to the region, and endangered vulnerable residents.

The Who: Claverack Rural Electric Cooperative, which serves about 19,000 member-consumers across eight counties in Northeast Pennsylvania. Action: BEL is supporting various investments to upgrade the electric system across the eight-county cooperative, including: Integrated with a microgrid, the 2.

5MW/10MWh battery electric storage system will provide more flexibility than traditional solutions such as undergrounding or adding fossil generators. It will reduce power supply-related outages by 44% and improve reliability on circuits that are typically disrupted during extreme weather. The installation of advanced satellite imagery and machine learning technology to provide comprehensive visibility of 2,800 miles of power lines.

Additionally, over 50 smart grid devices will be implemented to increase control and visibility. Impacts: The project will remedy the longstanding burden of unreliable service for local businesses, residents, and public service agencies and provide the basis for new business development.

Quote: “The hard work that BEL’s staff put into this application is how Claverack Rural Electric Cooperative was able to secure millions of dollars in funding for us,” said Nick Berger, Senior Director / VP of Engineering and Operations at Claverack REC.

Natchez Trace Electric Association The Need: Natchez Trace EPA faces multiple challenges, including frequent tornados, regular hazards from severe weather and flooding, often tied to systems moving inland from the Gulf Coast. Like many rural cooperatives, the cooperative operates in a financially challenging environment.

Portions of Natchez EPA's electric grid are old and inadequate to meet the needs of businesses and the more than 3,200 residential member-consumers that depend on circuits prone to voltage drops and performance degradation, particularly during peak demand periods and extreme weather events. Who: Natchez Trace Electric Power Association, which serves over 12,000 member-consumers in North Central Mississippi.

Action: BEL supports multiple infrastructure projects, including work to secure local and Federal funding for upgrades. By replacing transformers, upgrading substation feeders from 7. 2 kV to 14.

4 kV, and installing new reclosers, Natchez Trace EPA will meet the growing energy needs of grain bin operators and animal processing firms that provide support the region's economy. Residential member-consumers will benefit from enhanced reliability. The project will also mitigate cost drivers that could lead to rate increases.

Impact: Improving reliability though various projects will catalyze private investments, including local businesses investing in new grain bins, a new plasma cutter, and a dryer and loop system, and a new wooden crate manufacturing facility.

Together, these investments represent roughly $2,560,000 in aggregated Leveraged Private Investment (LPI) across even local business partners who collectively anticipate creating 114 jobs as a direct result of project implementation Quote: “We are appreciative of BEL’s detailed and focused efforts to help improve quality of life in our community though investment in our local electric infrastructure.

” -Miller Dendy, CFO, Natchez Trace Electric Power Association. Northwestern Rural Electric Cooperative Who: Northwestern REC is a rural electric distribution cooperative in northwestern Pennsylvania. Northwestern REC is one of the 14 rural electric distribution cooperatives of the Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association (PREA), and Allegheny Electric Cooperative (AEC).

Energized on May 18, 1937, Northwestern REC serves 19,629 meters across seven counties in the tri-state area with most members residing in Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango, and Warren counties. The Need: On distribution circuits serving more than 60 businesses and more than 1,000 households, power outages lasting from one-and-a-half hours to over 50 hours have occurred more than twice a year over the last five years.

This causes hardships for residents and imposes financial burdens on businesses, including farms that rely on electricity to refrigerate milk and power grain bins and other essential equipment. Northwestern REC has routinely experienced transmission reliability challenges at two of its 17 substations. Currently, there is one radial transmission line that serves as the singular delivery point for both substations.

Several challenges exist because of this current configuration. As a result, there is no mechanism by which to backfeed these two substations from other power sources within its system. Consequently, Northwestern REC must rely entirely on its power provider to repair the provider’s own transmission lines and restore the power sent to the two substations.

BEL supported the project’s efforts to secure funding for the upgrades. Action: With a new transmission line and upgrades to its distribution infrastructure, this co-op will improve reliability and resilience in an area where member-consumers currently experience frequent and lengthy outages.

Impacts: The new transmission line and distribution system upgrades will dramatically improve electric power reliability for the member-consumers that now suffer unacceptably frequent and often lengthy outages. Businesses will experience fewer extra costs and delays due to outages.

Sullivan County Rural Electric Cooperative Who: Sullivan County REC, which serves over 6,000 member-consumers in Pennsylvania’s Sullivan, Bradford, and Lycoming counties. The Need: Fifty-five years after it was built, Sullivan County REC’s Estella Substation has limited capacity to handle current or future energy demands, is unacceptably vulnerable to extreme weather and other stresses.

As a result, member-consumers served by the substation experience an average of five three-hour outages every year. Action: BEL helped Sullivan secure a major substation upgrade, which will help the rural electric co-op to significantly enhance the reliability of its electric service and achieve other key benefits.

Impact: With a combined program of weatherization, monitoring and control technologies, adaptive protection systems, undergrounding of conductors, and other measures, Somerset REC expects to enhance grid performance and resilience while readying the substation and associated infrastructure for future needs. Improved capacity will improve conditions for businesses that consider relocating or expanding in the region.

Quote: “Sullivan County REC appreciates BEL assistance with this grant process, which helped secure $3. 3M in grid resiliency grants. ” United Electric Cooperative, Inc. Who: United Electric Cooperative serves 19,108 customers across 7,000 square miles and 10 counties in Central Pennsylvania.

The Need: Repairing outages and performing maintenance on a feeder circuit serving 16% of United Electric Cooperative's members must now be done manually, often causing excessive delays, higher costs and risks to staff during severe weather. The co-op is also challenged to meet the power quality needs of large industrial employers.

Action: With BEL’s assistance, the co-op has applied for and won over $5M funding from the PA Department of Environmental Protection Energy Programs Office to upgrade their poor-performing feeder circuits with modern automated systems.

By replacing existing reclosers and other equipment with SCADA-controllable devices, the project will enable improved back-feeding and synchronization among three substations that serve metal fabricators, wood products manufacturers and other industries. The affected businesses, employ several hundred people, will receive the reliable power they need to grow and compete globally.

The cooperative will revitalize an outdated substation using state-of-the-art materials and equipment, replace/relocate power lines increasing efficiency and capacity, implement smart grid technology, and conduct extensive tree trimming in targeted areas. Quote: "BEL has been so helpful with both of United’s recent grant efforts"- Lauren Gustafson, Chief Operative Office of United Electric Cooperative.

The Need: With a poorly performing 4 kV circuit and overhead conductors running dangerously close to residents' homes, the electric infrastructure in Grove City's downtown area is unreliable and unsafe. Who: Grove City Borough, which has a population of 7,715 and operates a municipal electric utility serving 2,992 meters, and American Municipal Power, the nonprofit wholesale power provider serving 130 members in nine states.

This small town has designed an ambitious electric system upgrade to improve reliability and safety in its downtown. Action: To support transition and growth, the Borough has worked with BEL to seek funding to modernize its 50+ year-old electric grid.

Planned improvements include undergrounding powerlines in critical areas, replacing outdated transformers with dual-voltage units, and preparing to upgrade from a 4,000-volt to a 12,000-volt system. These investments will enhance safety and reliability while enabling new distributed energy resources to meet future demand.

Impact: By converting the 4 kV system to a 12 kV system and undergrounding electrical conductors, the project will improve reliability and safety in a downtown residential and business district that includes a senior living facility, a high school, and a college. The Need: The Borough of Schuylkill Haven's electric infrastructure is missing real-time data and monitoring, where they can’t detect outages until they are reported.

Manual meter reading is costly and sometimes hazardous. Energy loss from the current infrastructure exists that can’t be identified. While the borough crew is responsive, electric reliability falls solely on the response time of the crew.

Not only does this impact the borough's businesses and residents but also limits its capacity to accommodate new employers, including a proposed data center with power needs beyond the borough's current capabilities. Who: The Borough of Schuylkill Haven, whose electric department serves about 3,000 customers, and American Municipal Power, the nonprofit wholesale power provider serving 130 members in nine states.

This small municipal utility seeks to obtain near real-time usage data for system management to enhance reliability and attract employers to its community with distribution system upgrades.

Action: To address these challenges, the Borough has worked with BEL to seek funding for its primary reconductoring project as well as installing automated metering infrastructure (AMI) integrated with SCADA at priority locations and strengthening weak points in its grid. The work includes the purchase of a specialized backyard machine that can maneuver through tight spaces to set poles.

This equipment is essential for modernizing electric infrastructure and directly supports power upgrades at a local casket company, a key Borough employer. Strengthening the grid will improve safety, reliability, and efficiency, allowing industry and businesses to grow and create jobs.

Impacts: By completing these projects, Schuylkill Haven will be able to detect outages instantly and restore power quicker, improve reliability, and accommodate the power needs of prospective employers. Strengthening the grid will improve safety, often before customers call in resulting in reliability, and efficiency, allowing industry and businesses to grow and create jobs.

Delaware County Electric Cooperative The Need: Outdated electric grid infrastructure and capacity constraints limit economic growth in Delaware County, while power outages cause delays and damage for a specialized manufacturer of hydrolyzed proteins.

Who: Delaware County Electric Cooperative, which serves more than 4,800 member-owners through 5,500 meters in four rural New York counties; the Appalachian Regional Commission, a partnership of 13 states and the federal government innovating and investing for economic growth in Appalachia; and FrieslandCampina Ingredients North America, a division of the global dairy products company FrieslandCampina.

Action: The rural New York electric cooperative aims to improve reliability and power quality for residents and businesses, including a major employer, by deploying monitoring and metering systems and the software required to develop a battery energy storage system (BESS) microgrid.

Impacts: The BESS microgrid—to be specified and funded separately after the technical evaluations and engineering in this project are complete—will improve reliability for more than 1,700 households and 25 businesses, including major employer FrieslandCampina. DCEC estimates that more than 200 jobs could be retained or created by this BESS microgrid project.

Quote: “We are excited to participate in multiple projects that BEL is assisting us with. The projects will not only improve the reliability of our grid but also generate economic opportunities for our region,” said John Gasstrom, CEO of DCEC. “By integrating cutting-edge technologies, we are confident this project will significantly boost resilience, decrease outages, and enhance the overall service for our members.

” Who: The Borough of Duncannon is a rural municipality in Central Pennsylvania with approximately 1,900 residents. The Need: Served by a single 8-mile feeder line and outdated distribution infrastructure, Duncannon residents and businesses are exposed to system-wide outages caused by a lack of redundancy.

Action: A Pennsylvania town of less than 2,000 residents aims to modernize its outdated electric distribution system by replacing an existing recloser, installing a new one, and adding a second power line connecting to its electricity supplier.

Impacts: In addition to adding a second power line for redundancy, the project will create a duplicate feed system model to reduce outage durations, support faster restoration, and better position Duncannon's electric grid to withstand extreme weather events. These upgrades will foster economic growth and development, improve residents' quality of life, and enable future integration of distributed energy resources.

Who: Nestled in the scenic hills of Brown County, Georgetown is a vibrant village with deep historical roots and a strong sense of community. Founded in 1819, Georgetown blends historic charm with modern hospitality. The village serves power to 4,200 residents and 360 businesses.

The Need: A small town in southern Ohio is poised for robust job growth, with a proposed industrial park, growing manufacturers, and a veterans' home seeking to expand—all of which depend on an upgrade to the village's strained electric infrastructure. The one-directional power supply for the Village of Georgetown renders the town's 4,200 residents and 360 businesses vulnerable to outages.

Even maintenance such as replacing an end-of-life transformer requires shutting off power to the entire village. Like much of Appalachian Ohio, Brown County has been deeply affected by the decline of coal-related industries, losing jobs, tax revenues, and economic stability. To rebuild its industrial base, the community must ensure modern, reliable, and affordable power infrastructure that can attract and sustain new business clusters.

Action: The Village of Georgetown is pursuing critical upgrades to its electric grid to support long-term industrial and commercial development. BEL is supporting Georgetown in securing funding to establish system redundancy by creating tie lines between substations, reconductoring lines to expand power capacity, and constructing a new feeder line within Georgetown’s service area.

These improvements are essential to serving the county’s industrial park, an electronics manufacturer, healthcare and rehabilitation facilities, and other growing enterprises that require dependable power. Without redundancy, the entire village is vulnerable to extended outages whenever the primary transmission feeder or aging substation transformer requires maintenance—limiting economic growth opportunities.

Impact: The project will provide reliable power to an industrial park, a veteran's facility, an electronics manufacturer and other organizations whose expansion goals are now constrained by poor electric reliability. The project is projected to support the creation of 360+ new jobs, retention of 50+ existing jobs, and over $1. 1 million in annual cost savings.

By expanding regional power capacity and strengthening reliability, Georgetown will be positioned to attract private investment and foster industrial clusters critical to Brown County’s post-coal economy. Otsego Electric Cooperative Who: Otsego Electric Cooperative has 4,975 member-consumers across four counties in New York’s central region.

The Need: With annual average snowfall of 83” in much of its territory, OEC’s electric infrastructure is at higher risk of weather-related outages than most electric utilities. A 2020 winter storm exposed critical vulnerabilities in the region’s energy infrastructure, which this project seeks to remedy.

Action: By adopting a SCADA system and automated metering infrastructure, OEC will more quickly restore power after outages, better manage peak loads, and enable more rapid integration of distributed energy resources.

Impacts: By implementing a SCADA system and installing automated meters at 4,350 of its member-consumers’ premises, OEC expects to accomplish a 20% improvement in system average duration index (SAIDI) and system average interruption frequency index (SAIFI) metrics and reduce SAIDI by 700 minutes annually. The upgrades will also support growth of EV charging and electrification of HVAC and cooking.

Quote: “At Otsego, we believe in forward-thinking solutions that safeguard our grid and enhance reliability for rural communities,” said Tim Johnson, CEO of Otsego Electric Cooperative.

“This project represents a vital step toward building a resilient electric network that can withstand future challenges while supporting sustainable growth The Need: Due to aging equipment and the increasing frequency of severe weather events, power outages are increasing in REA Energy Cooperative's Southwestern Pennsylvania service territory. Who: REA Energy Cooperative serves 24,561 metered accounts in seven counties.

Action: BEL is assisting REA in securing funding to strategically install 45 advanced reclosers on its worst-performing circuits to help identify and repair outages more quickly and reduce outage durations. Impact: REA Energy Cooperative aims to reduce outage time by 20% for about 8,300 homes, businesses, government agencies, and employers with advanced monitoring and automation equipment.

By improving power quality and reliability, the project will help enable local employers and work-from-home residents to operate more productively. Somerset Rural Electric Cooperative Who: Somerset REC, serves 13,899 member-consumers in four Pennsylvania counties and one Maryland county.

The Need: Existing infrastructure—including four of Somerset REC’s substations—serving one the most remote portions of the utility’s grid is outdated, subject to longer duration outages, and not sufficiently robust to utilize the entire capacity of the nearby Listonburg Solar plant.

Action: By upgrading technology at four substations and installing new controls and reclosers, this co-op will improve reliability and restore outages more rapidly for 2,100 member-consumers in one of its most remote service areas and take greater advantage of solar generation.

Impacts: Somerset REC engineers have developed a three-part plan to simultaneously improve reliability for the 2,100 members in one of its most remote service areas and eliminate the bottleneck—an undersized transformer—that constrains the utility’s ability to utilize solar-generated power from the Listonburg Solar plant.

Quote: “The work that BEL was able to provide to assist with this grant process was very helpful, and Somerset REC appreciates the support,” said Rus Ogburn, General Manager at Somerset REC in Pennsylvania, where BEL helped secure $1. 5M.

Modernizing Grid Operations to Strengthen Reliability and Support Economic Growth in Clay County, MS Overview: The West Point City Water & Light Department aims to modernize its electric grid to reduce the frequency and duration of power outages and build resilience to Mississippi’s increasingly intense storms.

Who: City-owned West Point Water & Light serves nearly 3,900 customers in Clay County, MS. The Need: Increasingly, thunderstorms, tornadoes, ice storms, and other severe weather events disrupt electric service for West Point’s residents — more than 20% of whom are low-income.

Improved reliable power delivery is thus critical for residents, local employers, schools, medical facilities, and emergency services as these outages affect both public safety and economic activity. Action: By deploying Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), an Outage Management System (OMS) and critical hardware upgrades, West Point will be able to detect and isolate outages, restoring service in less time.

The Beneficial Electrification League (BEL) is supporting the utility alongside the local development district to secure needed investment for the system upgrades. Impacts: Collectively, the SCADA, OMS and hardware upgrades will enable West Point to reduce outage duration and frequency by up to 75%. This will benefit all customers — including Ellis Steel, a major local employer — and help position West Point for future economic growth.

Tullahoma Utilities Authority Overview: By installing regulator banks at three substations serving all 12 of its distribution circuits, Tullahoma Utilities Authority (TUA) will ameliorate the growing problem of voltage drops and brownouts that often occur during hot, humid days. Who: Tullahoma Utilities Authority (TUA) provides water, wastewater, internet and electricity service to users in the town of Tullahoma, TN.

It serves approximately 12,200 electric meters. The Need: A significant percentage of TUA customers currently experience voltage drops and brownouts during hot days, which can damage appliances, disrupt households, schools, and businesses, and compromise grid infrastructure. In August 2025, TUA reported that voltage dropped close to or beyond the 5% operational threshold for more than half of its metered customers.

The capacitor banks TUA relies on for voltage control are increasingly insufficient due to increased demand for power, and they are inadequate during storm restoration and planned maintenance. Action: TUA will install regulator banks at three primary substations serving all 12 distribution circuits, integrating the new equipment with its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.

BEL has helped TUA craft a funding proposal for the upgrade to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Impacts: The upgrade will enable real-time monitoring and remote control of TUA’s grid, provide systemwide voltage support, allow for real-time adjustments, improve power quality, and enhance reliability and redundancy.

The resulting improvements in power quality and reliability will be especially important for fire and police facilities, schools, and residents who rely on medical devices and cooling during extreme heat events. Rockwood Electric Utility Modernizing this small town’s electric grid will reduce outages and improve conditions for economic growth.

Overview: By modernizing its aging grid, Rockwood Electric Utility (REU) will improve power quality and reliability, supporting residents, critical services and future economic growth in Roane County, Tennessee. Who: REU is a municipal electric utility serving over 15,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the cities of Rockwood and Kingston and portions of Roane, Morgan, and Cumberland counties in Tennessee.

The Need: Due to aging infrastructure, frequent storms also trigger feeder outages, while limited distribution capacity constrains new commercial development and negatively impacts schools and first responders. Action: REU will install modern sectionalizing devices to isolate faults more quickly.

The Beneficial Electrification League (BEL) is supporting the utility by helping secure funding through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to make the grid modernization efforts possible. Impacts: These upgrades are expected to improve outage frequency and duration by at least 25%, improve voltage stability, and enhance service reliability for vulnerable residents, schools, and emergency facilities.

By improving power quality, the project will also create better conditions for economic growth and community investment. Overview: By installing a 69 kV/13 kV transformer at its primary substation and building a new feeder circuit, this rural municipal utility will reduce the overly frequent and long-duration outages now suffered by many of its customers and meet growing load demand.

Who: Newport Utilities is a municipal utility providing electricity, water, wastewater, and broadband services to more than 36,000 residents, businesses, schools and other customers in Cocke, Sevier, and Jefferson counties, Tennessee. The Need: Increasing electric loads and system vulnerabilities—such as single radial feeds and aging substations—have led to extended outages for NU’s customers, including an average of 7.

7 hours without power per customer in 2023. These disruptions disproportionately affect low-income households and small businesses. The lack of electric grid reliability also has negative impacts on Newport’s manufacturing and tourism sectors, potentially disincentivizing investors from financing new industrial and commercial developments.

Action: To address its reliability challenges and improve its capacity to meet growing demand, NU has developed a project to add a 69kV/13kV transformer at its primary substation and construct a new feeder circuit. BEL supported their effort to seek funding for the project from the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC).

Impacts: The upgrades are expected to reduce outage durations by 30% to 50% and decrease outage frequency by 15% by eliminating single points of failure and enabling faster service restoration during outages. They will expand capacity, provide redundancy, and allow more efficient load distribution, thereby improving reliability and reducing risks of widespread outages.

Critical facilities such as hospitals, water treatment plants, and emergency response centers will be protected during severe conditions. The improvements will enhance electric reliability for Newport’s manufacturing and tourism sector employers, positioning the town for new industrial and commercial investment.

Lawrenceburg Utility System Overview: By replacing a decades-old substation, transformers, conductors, and other gear, this rural utility will double the voltage of a feeder circuit to reduce line losses, avoid prolonged and potentially catastrophic outages, and reduce O&M costs.

Who: Lawrenceburg Utility Services (LUS) is the municipal utility that provides gas, water, wastewater, and electricity in Lawrence County, TN, serving 23,338 electric meters. The Need: Due to financial obstacles, a 1990s-era upgrade of distribution capacity from 7. 2 kV to 14.

4 kV on an LUS feeder was only partially implemented, with step-down substations deployed to keep segments of the grid operating at 7. 2 kV. Thirty years later, this legacy prevents the utility from reaping the benefits of reduced line losses associated with higher voltages.

Additionally, aging hardware such as a nearly 50-year-old substation transformer, brittle copper conductors and old insulators need to be replaced to reduce ongoing and costly repairs. Action: By replacing a decades-old substation, transformers, conductors, and other gear, this rural utility will double the voltage of a feeder circuit to reduce line losses, avoid prolonged and potentially catastrophic outages, and reduce O&M costs.