ABBEVILLE — The City of Abbeville is upgrading electrical infrastructure using a $4.5 million federal grant.
According to Mayor Roslyn White, the grant will fund the relocation and consolidation of two substations to modernize the city’s power grid.
“There is a very old part of our grid that is still in need of upgrades, and so, we’ve been working to secure funding to begin changing those older components to put our entire system on the same voltage— and that will allow for more affordable, more reliable power,” White said.
She said areas that have trees and electrical lines tend to have more frequent outages than other parts of the city.
“Trees and electrical lines don’t mix, right? So what we see repeatedly is outages mostly caused by either tree limbs or wildlife that live in the trees and end up on the power lines,” she said.
White said the project’s exact start date has not been set.
“I’ve been told that maybe around August we would really get the parameters and the money might start to become available," she said.
City officials said the improvements will help to support future development along the Vermilion River.
