BGE has been awarded a $15.4 million grant made available through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for a middle-mile fiber infrastructure project that will enhance electric grid reliability and resiliency while leading and advancing shared local, state, and national goals to increase broadband connectivity, redundancy, affordability, and equity.
The grant, from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Grant Program, along with a 50.1 percent funding match from BGE, will amount to a $30.8 million investment over the next four years in nearly 70 route-miles of underground middle-mile fiber infrastructure. Middle-mile infrastructure carries large amounts of data over long distances, increases capacity to local networks, boosts network resiliency, lowers the cost of bringing high-speed internet service to unconnected households, and helps connect unserved regions to the internet backbone. Since the equipment will all be underground, there is the added reliability benefit that the network will be protected against potential climate risks and severe weather.
“With our extensive expertise in delivering large-scale underground infrastructure projects on time and on budget, as well as experience in building, maintaining, and operating our existing fiber communications network, BGE is uniquely positioned to support the objectives of this grant program and be an ideal middle-mile partner,” said Derrick Dickens, BGE chief operating officer and senior vice president. “High-speed internet is critical to the well-being and livelihoods of our communities. It must be reliable, affordable, and accessible to everyone. This project is a win-win opportunity to both improve grid reliability and resiliency and bring broadband investments to areas that have suffered from the broadband digital divide.”
Expanded infrastructure will help residents by encouraging affordable, high-speed broadband deployment to currently unserved or underserved areas and improving affordability in already-served markets in Maryland. The project path touches Laurel, Elkridge, Columbia, Bowie, Glen Burnie, Linthicum, Brooklyn Park, and other communities in BGE’s service area that would directly benefit from more affordable broadband options.
The project will also bolster national security and other vital community anchor institutional interests—that can connect to the middle-mile network—by promoting broadband connection resiliency and redundancy, preventing single points of failure. Institutions that will benefit include:
- Bowie State University, an Historically Black College and University, headlines the 50 anchor institutions that will benefit from strengthened broadband service.
- 20 schools, two libraries, three healthcare providers, two higher education institutions, nine community centers, one police station, one fire station, and 12 other institutions will have access to improved broadband service when the project is completed in 2027.
- Nearby county government fiber networks along the project route.
- The project will enable additional communications redundancy and resiliency for Fort Meade and the agencies on site.
In addition, BGE plans to connect 20 electric substations to the underground fiber backbone. This high-speed, low latency, climate-resilient connectivity for the power grid will improve reliability, support advanced monitoring capabilities and automation, increase cybersecurity, and enable grid interconnection of renewable energy resources.
BGE’s workforce strategy for this project will reflect the company’s longstanding commitment to workforce development in central Maryland. The project will tap highly trained talent from BGE’s workforce development programs and non-profit partners’ programs, employ local and diverse suppliers and contractors, and procure American-made products and materials.
ComEd, BGE’s sister utility in northern Illinois, was also awarded a middle-mile grant. The portfolio of IIJA grant-funded projects—awarded and applied for—across BGE, its five sister utilities, and its parent company, Exelon, will help the companies continue their leadership in the energy transition by delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy to all customers, committing to economywide decarbonization, and engaging and investing in the communities they serve. Proposed projects include a community innovation hub, battery-backed community microgrids, deployment of smart meters, and improvements in grid resilience in under-resourced communities.
The Middle Mile Grant Program provides up to $1 billion in funding for the construction, improvement, or acquisition of middle-mile fiber infrastructure. As of today, $930 million has been awarded. The purpose of the grant program is to expand and extend middle-mile high-speed internet infrastructure as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda by deploying infrastructure to reduce the cost of bringing broadband to areas that are unserved or underserved across the United States. BGE’s middle-mile investments also support the State of Maryland’s goals to equitably expand broadband access to all households and businesses, with targets set by legislation in 2021 and complementing programs such as the Connect Maryland initiative, which Governor Wes Moore recently awarded $92 million.
More information about the Middle Mile Grant Program is available at ntia.gov.
About BGE
BGE is Maryland’s largest natural gas and electric utility, providing safe and reliable energy delivery to more than 1.3 million electric customers and 700,000 natural gas customers in central Maryland. The company was founded in 1816 as the nation’s first gas utility and remains headquartered in Baltimore City to this day. BGE is a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (Nasdaq: EXC), the nation’s leading energy utility company. Engage with the latest BGE stories on bgenow.com and connect with BGE on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
