Tri-County Electric, as part of a larger group of cooperations under the wholesale power supplier Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, has been notified that its application for a Smart Grid grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) has been selected for negotiations.

The grant will total nearly $20 million if awarded and requires matching dollars from the recipients. Tri-County Electric would contribute roughly 60 percent of the dollars required for its part of the grant.

According to Tri-County, ten other member distribution cooperatives applied for the grant together under Golden Spread Electric. Combining the projects from multiple cooperatives was the only way to meet minimum dollar requirements for the grant.

Tri-County Electric’s portion of the grant is slightly more than $4 million and would go toward deployment of its advanced metering infrastructure and automation of transmission and distribution breakers. Both of these projects are necessary for the cooperative and will be completed regardless of the grant award.