HEAR HERE: City of Spartanburg lone SC winner of federal energy resilience grant from 114-applicant pool

The City of Spartanburg said it was the sole South Carolina recipient — selected from a pool of 114 applicants nationally — to receive a Municipal Investment Fund Phase 1 Market Building grant, money that the city will use to develop a pipeline of energy resilience projects on city-owned property.

City staff said the grant will pay for the planning work that comes before construction: identifying which city facilities are best suited for solar-plus-storage or microgrid retrofits, structuring a public-private partnership to attract private capital, and running community engagement sessions so neighborhoods know what is being proposed before any equipment is installed.

The award puts Spartanburg in the same federal program cohort as municipalities from across the country — and means the planning work the city was already doing on backup power for fire stations, water-system pumps, and the public works yard will now be done with federal dollars rather than out of the city’s general fund.

For Spartanburg residents, the practical question is what becomes more reliable when storms hit. Energy resilience projects funded out of this pipeline are most likely to land first at facilities that need to stay online during a Duke Energy outage — meaning fire stations, the police headquarters on West Main, and water and sewer pumping infrastructure are the kinds of city-owned sites the planning study will evaluate.

What’s Happening

What did Spartanburg win?

The City of Spartanburg was selected as the sole South Carolina recipient — out of 114 national applicants — for a Municipal Investment Fund Phase 1 Market Building grant covering planning work for energy resilience projects.

What is the money actually for?

It funds the pre-construction phase: identifying candidate city facilities, structuring a public-private partnership, and running community engagement before any equipment is procured.

What kinds of projects are likely to result?

Solar-plus-storage and microgrid retrofits at city-owned facilities that need to stay online during Duke Energy outages — fire stations, the police headquarters, and water and sewer pumping infrastructure are typical candidates.