Nominations are now being accepted for the 2024 IAMU Broadband Vanguard Award. The Broadband Vanguard Award recognizes individuals or organizations that have played a vital role in the promotion and advancement of municipal broadband in Iowa.
 
Past Broadband Vanguard Award winners are:
 
2018
Bob Borchers, formerly of Hawarden Municipal Utilities
Ivan Webber, formerly of Ahlers Law
Cedar Falls Utilities
 
2019
Julie Smith, former IAMU legislative liaison
Larry Butler, Oak Hill Consulting
Sal Lobianco, former General Manager of MPW
 
2020
Bob Haug, former IAMU Executive Director
Osage Municipal Utilities
 
2021 and 2022
No awards
 
Nominations will be accepted until 5pm on December 29, 2023. If you would like to nominate yourself or another individual/organization, send an email to Curtis Dean, broadband services coordinator, at curtis@smartsourceconsulting.com with the name of the individual/organization and a brief description of why you think that person/organization should be honored. 
 
Nominations will be reviewed by the IAMU Broadband Committee and selections made by the IAMU Awards Committee.

IAMU offices will be closed on Christmas Day,  Monday December 25, 2023  and New Year’s Day, Monday January 1, 2024.

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.