The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) opened a new funding program to improve the resilience of the electric grid. The Iowa Grid Resilience Fund will provide funding to eligible entities to address current and future resilience. The first round of applications will be accepted through IowaGrants.gov until the deadline of February 15, 2024. A webinar will be held on December 18, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. to provide an overview of the program and application.
 
Eligible applicants include investor-owned utilities, municipal utilities, rural electric cooperatives and transmission owners/operators. The purpose of the program is to implement resilience measures that will reduce the frequency and duration of outages. Eligible projects include:

• Weatherization technologies and equipment
• Fire-resistant technologies and fire prevention systems
• Monitoring and control technologies
• Undergrounding of electrical equipment
• Utility pole management
• Relocation of power lines or reconductoring of power lines with low-sag, advanced conductors
• Vegetation and fuel-load management
• The use or construction of distributed energy resources for enhancing system adaptive capacity during disruptive events, including microgrids and battery-storage subcomponents
• Adaptive protection technologies
• Advanced modeling technologies
• Hardening of power lines, facilities, substations of other systems
• Replacing old overhead conductors and underground cables
• Training, recruitment, retention, and reskilling of workers in order to perform the work required for the resilience measures listed above.
  
  

The Iowa Energy Office will administer the program with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, which was authorized through the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (IIJA), otherwise known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
 
The Iowa Grid Resilience Policies & Procedures Handbook provides details on program requirements, eligibility, application process, evaluation criteria and reporting requirements. Find more information at iowaeda.com/iowa-grid-resilience-fund/.
 
The webinar will be held via Microsoft Teams. Pre-registration is required and available here.
 
Please contact Stephanie Weisenbach, program manager, with any questions at stephanie.weisenbach@iowaeda.com or 515.348.6221.