The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electrical Grid Grants program, established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), will be funding $1.7 million to the Guam Power Authority (GPA) to improve the electric grid, prevent customer outages and reduce the impact of extreme weather events on electrical infrastructure.
GPA’s Clean Energy Master Plan comprises of enhancing energy infrastructure to make it more resilient against the effects of climate change and support the integration of renewable energy.
Guam is scheduled to receive about $864,000 in funding every year for five years through the program, while the announced grant is for the first two years of funding.
The grant program aims to strengthen and modernize the U.S. power grid against wildfires, extreme weather and other natural disasters. The projects eligible under the grant include under-grounding of electrical equipment, hardening of power lines and other utility infrastructure and adaptive protection technologies.
Currently, nearly 25% of Guam’s power customers receive their power through underground lines, allowing GPA to operate a portion of the grid during typhoons.
GPA will utilize the funds to under-ground key transmission lines supplying Guam Waterworks Authority (GWA) water and wastewater facilities as part of its resiliency plan.
