Dept. Of Energy Grant For BPU’s Microgrid Project Terminated

A federal grant for the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities’ Microgrid Project has been terminated as part of 321 awards being canceled by the Department of Energy.

According to a list of all 321 terminated awards obtained by Latitude Media, every single canceled award was for a project led by a company based in a Democrat-led state.  The canceled amount of the awards totaled nearly $8 billion.

The BPU is one of the companies listed as having a grant canceled. WRFA reached out to BPU officials who said the grant was in the amount of $17.37 million that was supposed to be for the $23.2 million Jamestown Community Microgrid project. The BPU contribution to the project funding is a total of $5.79 million.

BPU Officials said that as of Friday they had not received notice about the grant being terminated from the Department of Energy and would not be commenting.

Senator Chuck Schumer said in a statement that the award terminations “goes beyond targeting blue states, “While Trump and his cronies claim this is ‘saving’ billions of dollars, the value of these projects to communities, to local economies, and to workers stretches far beyond the initial federal investment. These canceled projects represent tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars’ worth of private investment, as well as future tax revenue, that our communities will now go without.”

The BPU had been awarded the funding in October 2024 and had already sent out requests-for-proposals (RFPs) that were due at the beginning of June for the project. The microgrid would utilize the city utility’s existing gas-fired turbine, a district heating system, and would add a battery storage system for “black start” capability. Black start is a process of restoring power to a part of the electric grid without connecting to the external electric transmission or distribution system.

The microgrid would ensure that energy is delivered to public services, the hospital, designated emergency shelters, schools, and other businesses and that electric vehicles can be charged during an emergency.