GREENBRIER COUNTY W.Va. (WVDN) – The Greenbrier County Commission met on Tuesday, March 26, to discuss various agenda items, including budget revisions, settlement approvals and support for federal grid grant applications. Commission President Tammy Tincher emphasized the importance of public support and partnership for securing grants and approved the poll workers list for the upcoming primary election. Alternates are still needed.
For questions or to apply, please, call or see the county clerk’s office. The final item for consideration was the approval of the 2024/2025 Greenbrier County fiscal year budget which is still in the process of being finalized.
A moment of silence was requested for the loss of Commissioner Blaine Phillips.
In other news, a grant/GRIP application was presented for approval by First Energy Corporation. “First Energy’s application for federal grants under the U.S. Department of Energy’s GRIP (Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership) program will align with the customer-focused ‘Energize 365’ investments to forge a smarter, more secure electric grid that will deliver the power the customers depend on today while also meeting the challenges of tomorrow.” GRIP is a $10.5 billion U.S. Department of Energy grant program to improve the resilience of the nation’s electric grid through transformative projects that will help ensure the reliability of the power sector’s infrastructure. Program goals include enhancing grid flexibility, improving resilience against climate change and extreme weather, preventing outages and addressing challenges posed by aging infrastructure and the modernization of the grid.”
John Norman, the regional affairs director for First Energy, spoke to the Commission about the details of this project. The project was described as, “The Creating Reliable and Equitable Access to Energy for Customers Through the Energy Transition (CREATE) project applications, includes a robust community benefits plan, outlining the expected impact of these projects on jobs, advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility and Justice40 Initiatives. Key features include targeting projects that provide substantial benefits to disadvantaged communities in [their] service area and enabling equitable and diverse participation during the supplier bidding processes to promote innovation, open doors and create partnerships that fuel the economy.”
Additional information stated, “CREATE through Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) is a $200 million proposed smart grid project that supports the energy transition through the adoption of electric vehicles, new clean energy sources, distributed energy resources and the electrification of homes and businesses. Through the development of enterprise-wide DERMS and enhancement to current Advanced Metering Infrastructures (AMI) capabilities, this project is expected to allow for more efficient management of the distribution grid across First Energy’s footprint by supporting the aggregation of distributed energy resources, managed EV charging and peak load management. [Also], more than 40% of project benefits will flow to disadvantaged communities in First Energy’s West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey service territories.
“CREATE through West Virginia/Maryland Smart Grid proposes a $100 million investment in a suite of smart grid projects to improve the flexibility and capacity of the electric grid in West Virginia and Maryland and the advancement of new technology.
“Projects include SCADA and electronic devices or to install SCADA software in highly disadvantaged areas to support a stronger grid, reduce outages and facilitate future implementation of electric vehicles and small-scale energy resources, such as rooftop solar and battery storage. [Also] circuit ties, distribution automation and resiliency will include installing circuit ties to enhance resilience by enabling the grid to reroute power around outages using reclosers and distribution automation. Electrification includes replacements and upgrades within the substations to support electrification for transportation, buildings/HVAC and Distributed Energy Resources or (DER).”
One hundred percent of project benefits will flow to disadvantaged communities in Barbour, Berkeley, Calhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Harrison, Jefferson, Lewis, Nicholas Pocahontas, Randolph, Roane, Tucker, Webster, and Wood counties in West Virginia. The cities locally included in the project benefits are Alta, Ronceverte, Lewisburg, White Sulphur Springs and Fairlea. There are 45 SMART projects in the entire program, and 12 of those will benefit Greenbrier alone, which means 25% of the grant funds.
More information regarding the projects can be found at https://www.firstenergycorp.com/newsroom/news_articles/firstenergy-announces-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2023-financial-results.html.
