Dairyland Power Cooperative

Dairyland Power Cooperative, a non-profit rural electric cooperative headquartered in La Crosse, Wisconsin, is a federal grant recipient that finances rural electric infrastructure modernization, rural broadband deployment, and energy storage and grid resilience programs through cooperative agreements and project grants from the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Commerce. The cooperative does not hold federal prime contracts; its federal footprint consists entirely of grant awards where Dairyland acts as a prime recipient (92% of recent awards) and holds one sub-recipient award under a related energy sector grant.

Dairyland's customer base centers on rural development and energy infrastructure agencies. The top funding sources by award count — the Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service, the Department of Agriculture Rural Housing Service Washington Office Rural Business Cooperative Services, and the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy — account for 75% of recent awards. These agencies fund Dairyland's core mission of transforming rural electric systems across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois through grid modernization, renewable energy deployment, and broadband connectivity initiatives.

Recent grant work includes a $4.684 million cooperative agreement awarded by the Department of Energy Office of Cyber Security on July 29, 2026, under the Cybersecurity, Energy Security & Emergency Response (CESER) program to support Dairyland's Secure Midwest Program, strengthening the community of IT and cybersecurity service providers supporting eligible electric cooperatives and municipal utilities (performance through July 28, 2030). A $37.1 million project grant from the Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service under the New Empowering Rural America (New ERA) Program (CFDA 10.758), awarded January 17, 2025, funds greenhouse gas emissions reductions, renewable energy deployment, and rural electric infrastructure modernization (completion January 17, 2027). A $30.4 million project grant from the Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration under the Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Grant Program (CFDA 11.033), awarded July 1, 2023, supports Dairyland's Tri-State Fiber Deployment Project to install 240 miles of fiber optic cable on existing transmission lines across nine counties in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota (completion June 30, 2026). Dairyland also received cooperative agreement funding from the Department of Energy for the Rural Energy Viability for Integrated Vital Energy (REVIVE) project, demonstrating vanadium redox flow battery technology for long-duration energy storage (award November 4, 2024; completion April 30, 2033), and project grant funding from the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for an electric vehicle charger with integrated solar and battery storage (award August 1, 2025; completion July 31, 2027).

Activity has been steady but episodic — one to three awards annually over the past five years — with two awards reaching completion inside the next twenty-four months and therefore subject to recompete. In its sub-recipient capacity, Dairyland participates under NRECA Research on a cyber visibility and response solutions award. Dairyland's federal grant portfolio focuses on rural electrification, energy infrastructure resilience, distributed energy resources, broadband infrastructure serving rural communities, and cybersecurity hardening of cooperative utility systems serving multi-state rural service territories.