USDA Awards Gascosage Electric Cooperative $10.2 Million
Recently the USDA, United States Department of Agriculture, announced that Missouri and nine other states would be receiving a loan from the USDA to help continue to provide safe, reliable, and affordable electricity to rural residents, businesses, and institutions. Gascosage Electric Cooperative
has been awarded $10.2 million to build or improve 50 miles of line and make
system upgrades; more than $244,000 of the loan is for grid modernization.
Using part of the loan, Gascosage Electric Cooperative will implement Smart
Grid with the installation of a Geographic Information System (GIS) that will
provide more efficient and effective ways to manage field inventory of all
electric components in the field. The GIS can be used to rapidly search for and
locate customers, poles, transformers, and other assets in the cooperative’s
outage management system to greatly increase responsiveness of line repair
crews during outages.
There are many benefits to
businesses and residents from grid modernization and installation of smart grid
technology. Kristy Manning, Director of Missouri’s Division of Energy stated,
“The loan provides improvements to create operating efficiencies for the
cooperative that places downward pressure on cost and results in maintaining
affordable services to its businesses and residents. Also, faster storm
restoration ensures quicker recovery and gets businesses open sooner.”
The USDA loan to Gascosage Electric Cooperative coincides with
the Missouri Comprehensive State Energy Plan (CSEP) which encourages all
utilities to continue to investigate and invest in new technologies that
improve the performance and capabilities of the distribution grid. The CSEP
also calls for diversifying and promoting security in supply, promoting
efficiency of use, and stimulating innovation, emerging technologies, and job
creation.
For
more information about the USDA loan click here.
If you
would like more information on the Missouri Comprehensive State Energy Plan
please visit energy.mo.gov.
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