The U.S. Department of Energy, through the Illinois Finance Authority, has awarded the Illinois Municipal Utilities Association (IMUA) a Grid Resilience Grant totaling $475,376.
The grant program was designed to strengthen and modernize America’s power grid and IMUA, a state-wide association for municipally owned electric utilities, will use the grant to establish an Emergency Equipment Share Program that will benefit the association’s almost fifty member municipalities.
IMUA President and CEO Kevin Gaden stated, “Receiving the Grid Resiliency Grant award will help protect member municipalities from extended power outages in the wake of a natural disaster or other major system disruption. With a variety of equipment available at the IMUA warehouse, municipal utility crews can access what they need, repair damaged equipment, and quickly return power to their communities.”
When operational, the Emergency Equipment Share Program will provide participating municipal utilities with immediate access to a shared inventory of critical electric distribution equipment to support rapid power restoration during emergencies.
The project will create a central hub of essential, easy-to-access equipment that normally has long delivery lead times, which can threaten grid resilience. All participating utilities will have access to this shared inventory of emergency equipment located in Springfield.
To fully fund the project, IMUA committed $229,665 in cost-matching funds alongside the U.S. Department of Energy award.
The IMUA project team is being established to oversee the association through the implementation process, with a goal of launching the program for member municipalities by September 2026.
