Together Louisiana celebrates State winning $250 million federal grant for grid resilience
Together Louisiana, a coalition of more than 250 institutions representing more than 200,000 people, is celebrating a $250 million federal investment in Louisiana announced by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today. The funding will support a major expansion of Together Louisiana’s Community Lighthouses. These resilience hubs provide critical services to residents during extended power outages.
Power outages have emerged as the leading cause of death after disasters in Louisiana. This summer, hundreds of thousands of people in the northwest suffered in sweltering heat after a storm knocked out power for over a week. In the southeast, more than a million were without power when Hurricane Ida kicked off a month-long outage.
Among the services offered at Community Lighthouses are cooling and heating stations, charging stations, food distribution, ice, water, and other supplies and services.
The federal funds are part of the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program. DOE selected a collaborative, known as Hubs for Resilient Energy Operations (HERO), for award negotiations.
Beyond disaster recovery, the HERO project aims to create 875 new graduates of workforce training, pre-apprentice, and apprenticeship programs by 2030. In addition, it will include workforce development and apprenticeship programs within the contracting solicitations and awards.
Prior to the announcement, Together Louisiana’s regional organizations have been advancing Community Lighthouses throughout the state. Together New Orleans opened the first four as part of its pilot of 16 lighthouses. It plans to create a network of 86. North Louisiana Interfaith is piloting two lighthouses and plans to create a network of 20 in Caddo Parish. Together Baton Rouge has secured funding for its first three lighthouses and is raising funds for the next three. Other regions throughout the state are also working to launch pilot programs in the near term. The DEO investment will supercharge these efforts and enable a rapid, major expansion of resilience hubs throughout Louisiana.
About Hubs for Resilient Energy Operations (HERO)
HERO is a collaborative that includes the Louisiana State Energy Office, Louisiana Public Service Commission, Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Center for Planning Excellence, City of New Orleans, CLECO Power, Entergy Louisiana, Entergy New Orleans, NextGen Energy Partners, Southwestern Electric Power Company, Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government, The Accelerate Group, Together Louisiana, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Xavier University of Louisiana.