(The Center Square) − Louisiana’s resilience program has been working to invest big in the state’s critical infrastructure and enhance its security in the face of extreme weather events such as hurricanes.
On Tuesday, the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources announced $249 million for the Louisiana Hubs for Energy Resilient Energy Operation program, drawn from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $10.5 billion Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships Program, which funds transformative projects to improve grid flexibility and resilience.
The Louisiana Resilience Task Force discussed efforts to rethink and better leverage federal dollars for grid resilience in a hearing on Tuesday.
Dustin Davidson, the Chief of Staff for the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources, mentioned the U.S. Department of Energy noticed that many applications for grants for various projects often overlapped in their purpose.
“In the prior administration that application was more focused on hubs for resilient energy,” Davidson said. “It seemed that we were replicating a lot of the applications we had out there, so we took the initiative to rethink how to move forward with the program, and get a better understanding of what kind of critical infrastructure projects that we could fund.”
Until now, a large part of the state energy department’s efforts have been to enhance critical infrastructures ability to provide uninterrupted power and “hubs” that function as a last resort for communities for power.
“A place to charge phones, have electricity, have air conditioning,” Davidson said.
Part of that rethinking aims at pilot programs, “as opposed to a one time, issuing-money-out to start building hubs,” Davidson continued. The program’s cost is shared by the partners working with the state energy department, with reimbursements given according to the costs of construction.
Davidson mentioned that the U.S. Department of Energy is excited about reworking the process, which will be implemented over eight years, and allow the state agency time to identify certain projects which work best moving forward.
Louisiana’s awarded projects range from large-scale generators providing 3,000 kilowatt hours of energy to smaller, 500 kWh systems, as well as more hubs and drainage pumps.
“We want to replicate what works,” Davidson said. “Not just build infrastructure and hope that it works.”
The state energy department is also partnering with the Center for Energy Studies to understand and track the benefits of the program’s expenditures.
New Orleans recently secured funding necessary for a new power complex which replaces century-old turbines with automated ones. Gov. Jeff Landry’s office said that the new funding will also allow for federal funding from the Department of Energy.
