DOE Announces $13 Billion for Grid Modernization, Expansion

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By Christian Roselund

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $13 billion in new funding for projects that modernize the U.S. electric grid to improve reliability and resilience and facilitate the expansion of the transmission network. This includes grants for grid operators, electric utilities, states, tribes, local governments, and a host of other entities. DOE describes this as the largest single direct federal investment in transmission and distribution infrastructure to date.

$10.5 billion of grants are available through the Grid Resilience Innovative Partnership (GRIP) program, including $3.8 billion for fiscal years 2022 and 2023. The full $10.5 billion includes:

  • $2.5 billion: Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants to fund transmission and distribution solutions to mitigate the risk of outages caused by natural disasters such as wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and other forms of extreme weather.
  • $3 billion: Smart Grid Grants to increase the flexibility, efficiency, reliability, and resilience of the power system. This includes projects that increase the capacity of the transmission system, prevent faults including those that lead to wildfires, integrating more renewable energy and electric vehicles, and other projects.
  • $5 billion: Grid Innovation Program for projects that use “innovative approaches” to transmission, storage, and distribution infrastructure to enhance grid resilience and reliability.

Additionally, DOE is making $2.5 billion available through the Transmission Facilitation Program to help new transmission projects and transmission upgrades overcome financial challenges and get online. In some states, microgrids will be funded. Under the first phase of this program, DOE is offering to sign capacity contracts such that the federal government purchases 50% of the capacity of new transmission projects to help get them built. Source: Biden-Harris Administration Announces $13 Billion To Modernize And Expand America’s Power Grid (DOE)