LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas's power grid has been in need of a little help— and they're not the only ones.
"I think any grid across the country could always use more upkeep and improvement and enhancement," Scott Hardin, spokesperson for the Department of Finance and Administration, said.
To counteract regular issues, Hardin explained how the DFA is set to receive $10 million to upgrade, update and repair the system.
"If you can tie it to hey, this is going to either make it a little stronger or protect it from attack, natural or personal, then let's do it," he added.
That money is part of "The Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid Grants” from the U.S. Department of Energy.
That money could be used for all sorts of things— from utility poles to clearing brush around sites where crews are working.
"It could be taking your electric equipment underground, which makes it a little safer," Hardin said. "It could be making it fire resistant, it could be so many different things."
Possibly the two biggest upgrades, though, are ones we've seen in the headlines over the past two years.
"When you think about natural disasters, you think of Texas and what happened during those ice storms was just awful," Hardin said.
Texas' system saw major problems thanks to severe winter weather in 2021.
We've seen our own issues thanks to the tornado that hit in March, and it's something Hardin said could be bolstered thanks to these funds.
"You never know exactly what's coming, but you can take a little money and dedicate it to it and strengthen it," Hardin added.
There are also security upgrades— last year we saw many power stations across the country that had shots fired at them. Hardin said this money can't be used for cybersecurity but could be used for physical security upgrades.
"However we spend the money, we obviously want to have the largest impact on the largest number of Arkansans as possible," he explained.
Applications for companies who'd like to be involved will likely start this summer. Public comment can be emailed to infrastructure@dfa.arkansas.gov and is open until this Friday, May 19.
No matter what those millions are used for, Hardin wanted to be clear— they want this money to benefit all of Arkansas.
"Statewide, certainly not specific to just the population or populated regions of the state," he said. "These are federal public dollars, and it's here to help Arkansans."