EMCs Win Grants to Expand Rural Broadband

TUCKER, Ga. – Six electric membership corporations learned Wednesday they are receiving more than $41 million in state grants to leverage investments the utilities are making to expand broadband service in six rural Georgia counties.

Gov. Brian Kemp announced the competitive grants as part of a $234 million package from the Capital Projects Fund aimed at improving connectivity to all Georgians.

"High-speed internet access is critical for both academic and economic opportunities, as well as overall quality of life,” he said. “These projects announced today will go a long way to helping Georgians in some of the most unserved and underserved parts of the state become better connected.”

The fund is financed by monies from the American Rescue Plan Act passed by Congress in 2021. The Governor’s Office of Planning & Budget and the Georgia Technology Authority advised Kemp on the competitive grants that would help the most people in areas without internet service.

The initial round of grants in February last year totaled $408 million. The state estimates that 200,000 locations will receive internet service from all of the grants awarded in the two rounds, leaving 455,000 still to be served.

“Electric cooperatives are playing a critical role in bringing internet service to their rural service areas that currently lack adequate broadband connectivity. EMCs have an over 80-year history of delivering reliable and affordable electric energy to the communities they serve, and as not-for-profit locally owned and operated utilities are now meeting this new challenge to deliver broadband where it is needed most,” said Dennis Chastain, president and CEO of Georgia EMC, the trade association for the state’s 41 electric membership corporations. “These grants, in partnership with investments the EMCs are making, will enhance the economic vitality and quality of life of rural communities by helping to bridge the digital divide and providing rural Georgians with the same benefits that high quality internet service brings to Georgia’s cities and suburbs.” 

The EMCs receiving the latest grants include:

County       Awardee                                                                        Locations       Amount

Coffee        Satilla Rural Electric Membership Corporation             2,533             $5.6 million

Grady         Grady Electric Membership Corporation                        3,620             $9.3 million

Mitchell       Mitchell Electric Membership Corporation                   4,280             $11.9 million

Wilcox        Irwin Electric Membership Corporation                        100                $433,000

Wilcox        Middle Georgia Electric Membership Corporation       674                $2.5 million

Wilkinson   Oconee Electric Membership Corporation                   1,134             $2.6 million

Worth         Mitchell Electric Membership Corporation                   3,093             $9 million

Additionally, grants totaling $16.4 million for Windstream Georgia Communications projects in Randolph and Schley counties are supported by their collaboration with Sumter EMC.

Georgia EMC is the statewide trade association representing the state’s 41 EMCs, Oglethorpe Power Corp., Georgia Transmission Corp. and Georgia System Operations Corp.  Collectively, Georgia’s customer-owned EMCs provide electricity and related services to 4.4 million people, nearly half of Georgia’s population, across 73 percent of the state’s land area.