Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Tri-County Electric Cooperative (TCEC) is one of four electric cooperatives in Florida that is set to receive a portion of more than $1.04 billion that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved for the state in loans to upgrade electric infrastructure in rural areas.
The USDA made the announcement on Thursday, Oct. 22, saying that the Electric Program funding was part of a greater investment that it was making to help build or improve 53 projects across 25 states and benefit 1.4 million rural residents and businesses.
TCEC, according to the USDA, is slated to receive $10,000,000, which money is to be used to connect 901 consumers, as well as to build and improve 100 miles of line.
“This loan includes $400,000 in smart grid technologies,” related Jennifer Dillard, acting public information officer for the USDA.
Smart grids, according to the USDA, have the potential to serve as catalysts for broadband and other telecommunication services in un-served and underserved rural areas such as Jefferson and Madison Counties.
Kaitlynn Culpepper is the community relations director for TCEC, which is headquartered in Madison County.
Culpepper said her company works regularly with the USDA on different programs and grants and had been working on the current loan for several years. She said that the work cited in the USDA loan fit into TCEC’s three-year construction plan.
Although the USDA loan describes TCEC as being present in seven counties, Culpepper said that wasn’t accurate. She said TCEC was mostly focused in Madison, Taylor and Jefferson Counties, with a small presence in Dixie County.
She said the USDA money would be mostly used to upgrade services in the company’s existing territory and add new customers.
TCEC has an agreement with Duke Energy that is approved by the Public Service Commission and that allows the two utilities to share territory. But basically, Culpepper said, Duke Energy largely operates in the cities and TCEC serves the rural areas, although there exists overlap in some areas.
Per the USDA, the electric program provides both leadership and capital by way of loans and grants to rural utility providers in order to help them maintain, expand, upgrade and modernize their infrastructures, under authority that is derived from the Rural Electrification Act of 1936.
Rural electric cooperatives and utilities are reportedly increasing their internal communications capabilities to improve the reliability and efficiency of the electric grid. Which added communications capacity will help these cooperatives and their partners expand their broadband coverage, according to the USDA.
TCEC dates from 1940, when the entity was incorporated to provide a program of rural electrification to Madison, Taylor and Jefferson Counties.
According to the cooperative’s 2020 annual report, TCEC currently has about 19,000 meters and 3,100 miles of lines in the four counties.
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