Grand Marais wins national ETIP technical assistance for two-year electric distribution study

The Grand Marais City Council heard a detailed presentation about a two-year technical assistance project under the federal ETIP program that will bring national-lab expertise to local electric distribution planning. Shane, the staff presenter, said the project pairs Berkeley Lab scientists and regional partner Slipstream with city staff to develop a load-forecasting tool, conduct a needs assessment and identify infrastructure solutions.

The project’s core deliverable is a planning tool that will forecast load growth and test scenarios such as additional housing or increased at-home electric vehicle charging. “They’re going to give us a load forecasting tool that we can use into the future,” Shane said, describing options that range from a tailored Excel model to off‑the‑shelf software depending on cost and fit.

Why it matters: Grand Marais has a single transmission line feeding the local substation and two primary circuits that serve the city. Staff emphasized that the project will help officials weigh trade-offs — for example, whether to add a third distribution circuit to improve resilience or to allocate limited capital to targeted upgrades. The study will also tie to the city’s capital improvement planning and climate-action goals.

Project scope and funding: The city was awarded $50,000 to cover staff time; Shane said the external technical work is expected to be substantial (presenters estimated program-level resources in the range of roughly $350,000). The effort will run about two years and begin with data requests and a period of regular meetings with the lab teams.

Deliverables and timeline: The teams will (1) assemble and scrub utility meter data, (2) produce a load forecast and peak-demand analysis, (3) conduct a needs assessment driven by resilience and growth scenarios, and (4) propose prioritized solutions and scenario-based options for future investments. Staff said the tool will be geocoded so planners can map load and asset needs rather than rely solely on spreadsheets.

Questions and operational limits: Councilors asked whether the exercise would affect transmission-level users outside the city’s distribution footprint; staff said the work focuses on the city’s distribution system and that lessons learned could be shared with neighboring utilities but would not change upstream transmission capacity. In response to an emergency-preparedness question, staff said the city’s diesel plant can run about two days on current fuel and that suppliers are contacted to dispatch fuel trucks during prolonged outages.

Next steps: Staff will continue to collect utility data, work with Berkeley Lab and Slipstream, and return to the council with updates and milestones as the project advances.