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Awards/PROJECT GRANT (B)

$96,746,446

Department of Energy·Department of Energy

to HOLY CROSS ELECTRIC ASSOCIATION, INC

energyactive
ACTION DATE2026-03-24·SOURCEUSASPENDING·SOURCE IDASST_NON_DEGD0000885_089
Award description

BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE LAW (BIL) - WILDFIRE ASSESSMENT AND RESILIENCE FOR NETWORKS (WARN) THE WARN CONSORTIUM PROJECT WILL IMPROVE THE RESILIENCE OF THE PARTNER COOPERATIVES’ ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION GRIDS BY REDUCING THE RISK OF UTILITY-IGNITED WILDFIRES AND HARDENING THESE GRIDS AGAINST WILDFIRES OF ALL CAUSES. GRID RESILIENCE WILL BE IMPROVED THROUGH THE STRATEGIC DEPLOYMENT OF BOTH WELL-KNOWN METHODS AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES FOR GRID HARDENING, GRID OPERATIONS, AND CONDITION-BASED MAINTENANCE. THESE GRID DEPLOYMENTS WILL BE GUIDED BY THE DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF THE WARN ASSESSMENT TOOL. THE WARN TOOL WILL ASSESS THE VALUE OF RESILIENCE UPGRADES BY ESTIMATING THE EXPECTED VALUE OF AVOIDED LOSS OF PROPERTY, NATURAL RESOURCES, GRID ASSETS, AND STAKEHOLDER-IDENTIFIED CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY RESOURCES FROM UTILITY-IGNITED WILDFIRES. WARN WILL USE STATE-OF-THE-ART WILDFIRE IGNITION AND PROPAGATION MODELING USING GRID DATA, TERRAIN DATA, AND HISTORICAL WEATHER DATA. THE ASSESSMENT CAPABILITY PROVIDED BY WARN AND TESTED ON THE WARN CONSORTIUM ELECTRIC GRIDS WILL ENABLE COOPERATIVES TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF RESILIENT GRID UPGRADES AND JUSTIFY INVESTMENT IN THEM. THE KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE GAINED BY THE WARN CONSORTIUM WILL BE DISSEMINATED BY MAKING THE WARN ASSESSMENT TOOL AVAILABLE THROUGHOUT THE NATIONAL RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION (NRECA) COOPERATIVE COMMUNITY AND TRAINING COOPERATIVE PERSONNEL IN IT USE.

Verbatim from USAspending.gov. Capitalization, abbreviations, and codes are unchanged.

The Buildout's read

What the model surfaced from this award

Confidence: high
In plain English

Develop assessment tools and harden electric distribution grids against wildfire risk through resilience upgrades and advanced grid technologies.

Sub-sectors
grid-resiliencewildfire-mitigationrural-electric-cooperative
Why this matters

Reduces utility-caused wildfires and grid failures in rural areas, protecting critical infrastructure and communities from catastrophic fire losses.

Supply-chain signal

Drives demand for grid hardening equipment, advanced sensors, modeling software, and maintenance technologies across rural electric cooperatives nationwide.

U.S.–China competition angle

Strengthens U.S. grid resilience and domestic energy infrastructure independence against climate-driven threats and supply chain vulnerabilities.

Generated by award_classification v2.0.0 via claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on 2026-05-15. Cost: $0.002647.

Period of performance
Start
2024-08-21
End
2029-08-20
Status
activein 1191 days
Sources

The Buildout does not edit federal records. Any inaccuracy reflects the upstream source; it will update here when corrected there.

$96.7M Department of Energy — The Buildout — The Buildout