TUSCUMBIA, Ala. (WHNT) -— Governor Kay Ivey has awarded grants totaling $2 million to help multiple local governments, schools, nonprofits and others save money by cutting energy usage.

One of the largest recipients in the Tennessee Valley is the Hawk Pride Mountain Water System in Tuscumbia. They were awarded $246,000 to install energy-efficient motor drive additions at two water wells.

The State Energy Program helps qualified organizations and groups lower costs by making energy-efficient improvements in buildings and operations. The grants help pay to replace outdated heating, cooling and lighting with more modern and cost-efficient equipment.

Greg Dalrymple with the Hawk Pride Water System explained their plans to News 19 on Tuesday.

“We are going to use it [the grant money] to put a system on our water tanks where we can check it from the office instead of going up and down the road in our vehicles,” Dalrymple said. “We got a bid on the radio, but they say it won’t be reliable because you got hills and hollers and trees, so we’re going with satellites,” he continued.

With a growing rural customer base of 1,4000 and staff of only seven, the board says they have been scraping by until it could get an update.

“Considering how old our system is, it was installed back in the 70s or late 60s, so this is really the first upgrade. We’re trying to receive more grant money to upgrade our system… It’s just basically falling apart,” Randy Gargis, a board member of the Hawk Pride Water System told News 19.

In the long term, the company says it will cut overtime and speed up the process of fixing leaks, drastically reducing the process of completing certain tasks by up to 10 days.

A number of groups in the Tennessee Valley were awarded funds including Niche Polymer in Killen, Swearengin Water Systems in Grant, and the Health Care Authority of the City of Huntsville.