Duck River Electric Membership Corporation Receives Large Grant

Duck River Electric Membership Corporation (DREMC) has announced their receipt of a grant award totaling over $2.14 million dollars from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) for DREMC’s east fiber loop and smart grid fiber communication project. The project will deploy smart grid improvements that in turn can be used to form the backbone of a gigabit-speed fiber broadband network.
“This project will help enable their Internet service provider (ISP) partners to provide affordable broadband access to 1,202 businesses and 2,876 households in Franklin, Coffee and Marion Counites, three DREMC- served counties that are also in the ARC footprint,” reported DREMC Key Accounts Coordinator Teresa Sampson. “While DREMC does not have plans currently to become an ISP, we do want to be part of the solution in helping get high-speed broadband access to our service area.”
DREMC received the largest POWER grant for the current funding cycle of 33 awards in 9 states supporting projects ranging from recovery-to-work programs, broadband development and workforce training.