Entergy Texas applies for more than $107M in federal resiliency funding

On Thursday, Entergy Texas announced it had applied for $107.5 million in federal grants to improve the resiliency of Port Arthur, Texas’ power grid.

The company said it had updated its application for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program to secure funding for an infrastructure and electrical grid hardening project. If approved, the funds would help the company improve the resiliency of the power grid in Port Arthur, which have historically been affected by extreme weather events.

“The City of Port Arthur has endured numerous extreme weather events, including two of the most historic weather events in our country―Hurricane Harvey and Winter Storm Uri,” Thurman Bartie, mayor of Port Arthur, said. “Since 2020, at least four major hurricanes have impacted our communities and caused widespread power outages. We’re thankful Entergy Texas continues to seek out cost-effective solutions to help strengthen the power grid and improve resiliency in our communities.”

The proposed project would strengthen 57 transmission structures, harden or more undergrounds at least 950 distribution structures and pilot a self-healing microgrid solution to short-term outages. The pilot would connect a utility-scale battery to an existing substations to reduce the number of and length of power outages, the company said. Company officials estimate the pilot program will reduce the duration of power outages by 257 million minutes and decrease future storm restoration costs by nearly $74 million over the next 50 years.

“We’re committed to balancing customer affordability with critical investments to strengthen our power grid, which is why we are fighting for every dollar of federal and state funding available to mitigate the impact on customer bills,” Eliecer Viamontes, president and CEO of Entergy Texas, said. “Given that the Gulf Coast is home to world-class infrastructure, seven of the top 20 U.S. ports, and a growing industrial customer base, government investments in the resilience of Entergy Texas’ power grid would benefit the entire country.”

The DOE is scheduled to announce award winners this fall. Grant awardees will receive funding for half of the project’s cost, officials said, which will help power companies maintain affordable rates for customers.

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