Over the past few months we’ve been working with our user communities to help them leverage federal funding through the FEMA Building Resiliency and Communities (BRIC) grant, which can support utilities in implementing mitigation projects to protect against natural disasters. While that cycle has closed, now is the time to prepare for the 2022 funding cycle, which will see additional funding as a result of passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). With a projected $1.5 billion in new funding, this well-capitalized program has tripled in size in its first three years.
The IIJA’s historic funding level reflects the goal to help communities become more resilient against extreme weather events and other natural disasters. FEMA will announce this year’s BRIC Notice of Funding Opportunity later this year, after which interested entities may apply to receive BRIC funds. This gives you time to work with county emergency managers to update your Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP), which is your roadmap identifying long-term strategies to mitigate natural disasters before they occur. LHMPs are a necessary component of BRIC applications and must include power grid resiliency plans to be eligible to receive BRIC funds in this next round.
Let us know if we can help you update your LHMP in order to reflect these priorities. This will ensure you are positioned to access the federal funds necessary to implement the reliability and resiliency enhancements to your smart grid and grid fortification solutions your customers expect.
For more information please reach out to Mike Julian (mjulian@tantalus.com).
Learn more about Funding Solutions here.
