Drinking Water Grant Opportunity: Generator Transfer Switchgear
Kentucky Rural Water Association is pleased to announce a partnership with the Energy and Environment Cabinet’s Office of Energy Policy to retrofit drinking water pump stations with generator transfer switchgear.
Recent natural disasters highlighted the need for energy resilience in Kentucky’s public water utilities. Loss of power is followed by drinking water outages which complicates emergency response efforts as critical customers, such as health care facilities, are affected. This can easily be offset by auxiliary power; however, many pump stations are not equipped with a transfer switch that allows for a quick and safe connection to a generator. The inability to quickly connect to auxiliary power further extends the water outage, creates more bottled water demand, and increases the likelihood of evacuating critical facilities.
Through the partnership with the Office of Energy Policy, KRWA has created a framework to award grant monies and is soliciting utilities to apply to the program. The switchgear program will pay for a service disconnect manual transfer switch with pin and sleeve connections for a generator, up to 25 feet of pin and sleeve connection cables, generator cable pigtail, and installation with no upfront cost to the utility. Utility selection will be based on natural disaster history, power outage frequency / duration, customers impacted and FEMA’s community resilience analysis score. The application process will proceed as follows:
- Applications accepted through February 20, 2022
- Grant recipients will be notified March 1, 2022, at which time KRWA will provide switchgear specifications for quote.
- Secure three quotes and select contractor by March 31, 2022
- Complete installation by May 31, 2022.
- KRWA will inspect the installed switch and confirm project completion by June 15, 2022.