SEELEY LAKE — The Missoula Electric Cooperative (MEC) recently received a $6.6 million federal grant to improve the resilience of their power grid.
MEC plans to use the funding to bury nearly 50 miles of power lines north of Seeley Lake underground.
“Undergrounding gives us the ability to really harden our system, create a more reliable grid and this grant opportunity really helps us achieve those goals,” said MEC spokeswoman Kelsey Lodge.
By dropping the lines, MEC hopes to protect them from falling tree branches, car crashes and more, while reducing the risk of wildfires sparking from damaged lines.
Possibly the most pressing threat is storms, like the destructive ones that whipped across Western Montana this summer.
“As we all know, this summer was record setting in terms of the severity of storms and the frequency of storms,” Lodge said. “We not only saw that storm in July, also one month later, we saw another storm in August, and then we also saw another storm in October this year.”
The storms had a profound impact on Missoula, Seeley and many other communities as the harsh winds knocked power out for thousands, across multiple electrical providers.
“I'm sure it's very memorable for many that the storm that hit Missoula at the end of July of this summer was unprecedented,” Lodge said. “It's something that we had never seen before at the Cooperative. At one point, it had taken out over 90% of our system and our members were in the dark. Some for upwards of six, seven days.”
MEC is one of dozens of electric cooperatives to received the grant which was awarded by the Department of Energy with money from the Infrastructure Law.
Work on the project will begin in 2025 and in the meantime, MEC plans to keep working on storm repairs.
“It’s been a lot of teamwork, a lot of resilience on our crew part and, honestly, just a lot of support from our membership and our community. People are coming together,” Lodge said. “People were dropping off gift cards and donuts and coffee for our crews when they were working nonstop in July through those storms. We just felt an outpouring of love.”
