BULLHEAD CITY – Mohave Electric Cooperative (MEC) has been awarded $4,726,916 in grant funds through the Arizona Grid Resilience Grant Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy to administer a grant on behalf of three cooperative electric utilities: MEC, Graham County Electric Cooperative (GCEC), and Duncan Valley Electric Cooperative (DVEC).
The grant supports grid resilience through infrastructure upgrades and system hardening in areas of co-op service territories prone to wildfires and extreme storms.
The two-year $7,226,916 project includes replacing 462 wooden poles with higher-resilient poles, upgrading 147,840 linear feet of overhead line with advanced conductors, rebuilding 28 miles of distribution line, and 8.6 miles of subtransmission line hardening to improve efficiency and reliability in MEC’s eastern service area. Once complete, the project will strengthen electric service for MEC members in the communities of Valle Vista, Peach Springs, Hackberry, Valentine, Crozier, and Truxton.
“Our commitment to our members begins with ensuring a reliable energy system,” says MEC Chief Executive Officer Tyler Carlson. “This grant accelerates the timeline to implement these important projects for our three rural co-ops including infrastructure upgrades, underground cabling, and system hardening that will reduce the frequency and duration of outages caused by severe weather events including high winds and lightning.”
The grant also supports DVEC replacing 3 miles of aged underground cables with conduit-encased cables to improve reliability in the Duncan, Clifton, and York areas, and 160 new ductile iron poles to minimize storm-related outages in GCEC’s service territory.
“This grant funding is huge for our small cooperative in Duncan, Arizona. We are excited to replace our aged underground infrastructure increasing the resiliency and reliability of our entire system. Our thanks to our partner cooperatives and, of course, the Governor’s office for facilitating this grant and making much-needed upgrades to Duncan Valley Electric a timely possibility,” says Duncan Valley Electric Cooperative Chief Executive Officer Kassi Mortensen.
