FPUA board approves design contracts, budget timing changes for $8.8 million GRIP grid resilience project

The Fort Pierce Utilities Authority board voted unanimously May 20 to approve two design authorizations and advance grant-funded design budgets for a Department of Energy GRIP project to strengthen the utility’s electric grid.

The project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program authorized under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, awards FPUA roughly $5.8 million with a local match of just under $3 million, for a total project cost of about $8.8 million. The board approved a design contract not to exceed $465,803 (specific authorization 56LE2501) for the replacement of four distribution transformers and a design contract not to exceed $489,494 (specific authorization 56PS2501) for a 69 kV ring-bus configuration at Totten Substation. In separate votes the board also approved moving previously budgeted grant funds from future fiscal years into the current year to pay for the designs: $85,000 for the transformer design line and $500,000 for the ring-bus design line. Each motion passed on a 5-0 roll-call vote.

Why it matters: FPUA officials said the upgrades will increase localized capacity, reduce outage times in the utility’s poorest-performing areas and add automated protection that isolates damaged circuits without field crews. FPUA staff told the board the upgrades are intended to improve reliability during extreme weather and to provide additional capacity for growth.

Project scope and timeline: Staff described four primary tasks in the GRIP award. They are: upgrading two main auto transformers at Hartman Substation from 100 MVA to 120 MVA per unit; replacing four distribution transformers at Longwood, King and Savannah substations (about +20 MVA localized capacity); converting the Totten 69 kV bus to a ring-bus protection configuration (to allow circuit breakers and automatic isolation); and deploying approximately 263 trip-saver reclosers across the distribution system. Rachel Tennant, FPUA director of public affairs and sustainability, said the grant award deadline for total completion is September 30, 2027, though she noted staff may seek an extension because the project onboarding took longer than anticipated.

Funding details: Tennant said the GRIP award to FPUA is “just over $5,800,000” with a match just under $3,000,000. Eric Meyer, FPUA electric supervisor and the project’s principal investigator, gave line-item estimates cited by staff: roughly $800,000 in grant funds for the Hartman auto-transformer upgrades (match about $11,000); about $3,200,000 in grant funds for the distribution transformer replacements (match approximately $2,600,000 plus ~$120,000 in staff time/fringe); roughly $490,000 in grant funds for the Totten ring-bus design work (match about $38,000 for staff time/fringe); and about $1,400,000 in grant funds for trip-saver hardware (match about $90,000 for staff time/fringe). Meyer said the utility has ordered relays and begun installing trip-saver devices, reporting 25 installed locations at the time of the meeting.

Procurement and compliance issues: Staff told the board that two major pieces of equipment are produced by non-U.S. manufacturers and require a Build America, Buy America (BABA) waiver from the DOE before purchasing. Tennant explained the waiver process has required coordination across multiple DOE offices and public posting for comment; she said the utility has received several approvals in the waiver routing but is still awaiting final Buy America sign-off. Board members asked whether previously signed grants would be affected by new Buy America rules; staff said rules apply to grants executed after the rule’s effective date, not retroactively to older agreements.

Board questions and staff responses: Board members pressed staff on warranty/life expectancy for transformers (Meyer said the upgraded transformers are certified to 120 MVA and carry emergency ratings; replacement would likely be required to go substantially above that rating), on the risk of proceeding before final DOE waivers (staff said they are avoiding major expenditures while waivers route), and on whether the reallocation of grant budget lines would harm the utility’s operations (staff said funds are budgeted within the five-year capital plan and the moves only adjust timing).

Formal actions: The board approved the two specific design authorizations and the corresponding budget timing adjustments in separate roll-call votes. Each motion passed 5-0 (Mrs. Bennett: yes; Mrs. Davis: yes; Mrs. Gibbons: yes; Mayor Hudson: yes; Mr. Fee: yes).

Next steps and implementation: Staff said design work will proceed after written notice to proceed and that contract-specific authorizations end upon final completion and acceptance by FPUA, but no later than December 31, 2025, per the authorization language for both design contracts. Staff noted the overall grant timeline remains September 30, 2027, for project completion, and that the utility will continue weekly coordination with DOE grant managers during the waiver and project-implementation process.