The Jamestown BPU’s Microgrid project is losing its biggest backer – the federal government.

As of October 1, in conjunction with the government shutdown, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced that the Department of Energy would terminate $8 billion of energy projects, and the Department of Energy announced the termination of 321 awards, primarily affecting Democratic states. Included amongst the list of project funding being cut are two Jamestown Board of Public Utilities projects.

According to the Democrats Appropriations Committee, the termination of the funding for these projects comes despite the fact that DOE currently remains open and fully operational using unexpired financial resources, and the terminated projects were previously appropriated and competitively selected. These awards are relevant to 136 Members of Congress, including 108 Democrats and 28 Republicans.

The two BPU projects on the list are the ongoing microgrid project and one other that is listed as Jamestown Board of Public Utilities. The funding being cut for the microgrid project is $10,000,000 and the second project listed is for $17,000,000.

As of Monday, when talking with the Post-Journal, BPU Communications Coordinator Becky Robbins said the BPU has not received official notice from the DOE yet, but added that it seems to be mostly concerning the microgrid project.

In a statement to The Post-Journal, Congressman Nick Langworthy said the cuts come following an initiative under President Biden.

“We have been in contact with the Department of Energy, local officials, and the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities to gather more information, however this project originated under the Biden-Harris’ Green New Deal Justice40 initiative that was terminated by the Government Accountability Office earlier this year,” Langworthy said. “As conversations continue, we must ensure that it is effective, efficient, and in the best interest of taxpayers.”

According to the Department of Energy’s website, affected award recipients have 30 days to appeal a termination decision. Some of the projects included in this announcement have already begun that process.

In May, BPU issued a request for proposals for professional engineering services for the Jamestown Community Microgrid Project. Responses to the RFP were due back to the Jamestown BPU by June 7. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office executed a contract with the BPU, effective October 1, 2024, for a $17.37 million grant to build a Microgrid at the BPU power plant location. The BPU also contributed a total of $5.79 million to the project funding.

The BPU Microgrid system involves utilizing existing power generation equipment to power a strong network of underground electrical distribution circuitry to ensure a high level of utility service reliability and resiliency in the core of downtown Jamestown, independent of the regional system. The microgrid will ensure that energy is delivered to public services, the hospital, designated emergency shelters, schools, and other businesses and that electric vehicles can be charged during an emergency.

When the Microgrid is in place, the core area of downtown Jamestown will either remain in electrical and thermal service or experience only a brief outage in a disruptive event. The Microgrid will enable most of the community’s first responders and critical services to operate more efficiently in case of a significant service interruption during a disastrous event. The proposed Microgrid system will take advantage of the BPU’s existing gas turbine, its network of underground circuits, the district heating system and the addition of a black start battery storage system.

The cancellation is also affecting Bitzer Scroll’s compressor plant in Dewitt, N.Y. The plant is in the midst of a $25 million expansion project to add a new assembly line for the company’s high-efficiency compressors. It would initially create 20 jobs, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard. The federal funding cancellation accounts for $5 million of the project.

“It impacts us significantly,” said John Allcott, vice president of North American operations for Bitzer Scroll, to The Post-Standard.”It would just be far harder to finance the expansion. We’d probably end up dropping some components of the project, and that hurts all around.”