ESSEX — A $2.6 million federal grant has been awarded to Flathead Electric Cooperative to help reduce wildfire danger near Glacier National Park.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant will be used to make what are described as "critical upgrades" to the FEC electric system in the Essex area.
FEC is a member of the Wildfire Assessment and Resilience for Networks (WARN) project which is a consortium made up of 38 electric co-ops and other rural utilities selected to receive federal funding through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program.
The co-op will use the funding for work in the Essex area to improve the reliability of its distribution system in a heavily forested area that "is frequently challenged by tree-caused power outages which have the potential to ignite a wildfire," a news release states.
The funds will support a complete system trim of trees immediately adjacent to that area’s power lines. The system trim will be aided by satellite imagery that can identify trees likely to contact power lines.
The GRIP grant will also allow FEC to install a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to provide backup power to Essex during outages.
“The WARN project gives us an opportunity to mitigate the chance of wildfire, enhance the resilience of our radial Essex feeder, and test out new technologies that could be used elsewhere on our system. For example, prior to receiving the grant, a BESS battery project had been identified by the Co-op as a technology to explore for our members," Ashley Keltner, Distributed Energy Supervisor for the Co-op and project lead, said. "Funding, of course, was the challenge. The grant-funded WARN project substantially reduces the cost to our members of exploring the benefits of these technologies. The Co-op receives added value in getting to work side-by-side with 37 other cooperatives and learn from each other’s experiences.”
Mark Johnson, CEO and General Manager of Flathead Electric Co-op, added, “Flathead’s Wildfire Mitigation Plan is at the heart of our robust safety efforts for members and for the electric distribution system. Earlier this year, we were awarded $10M in Community Wildfire Defense Grant funding to support our wildfire mitigation efforts from Columbia Falls to West Glacier," FEC CEO and General Manager Mark Johnson noted. "The additional $2.6M in GRIP funding for the WARN project allows us to continue that mitigation work from West Glacier to Essex. These funds tie together most of the Canyon landscape and help to better protect members in this remote and heavily treed area, as well as critical infrastructure that matters to all members, such as gas and power lines, railroad tracks, and U.S. Highway 2.”
Visit flatheadelectric.com/WARN to learn more about the project.
