The U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler (both D-Calif.) and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-11) have announced the Department of Energy’s (DOE) grant of $600 million in federal funding to upgrade 100 miles of transmission lines in California and improve the state’s grid reliability and deliver clean, affordable electricity.
The funding is part of the $10.5 billion Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) program established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The GRIP grant was awarded to the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Independent System Operator, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and Southern California Edison. The agencies and utilities will partner on the California Harnessing Advanced Reliable Grid Enhancing Technologies or Transmission (CHARGE 2T) program, which will expand transmission capacity and provide interconnection improvements to increase and accelerate equitable access to clean energy across the state.
The CHARGE 2T project will:
· Support more than 300 direct jobs.
· Enhance more than 100 miles of transmission lines with advanced conductor technologies that will help connect more clean energy resources than the existing grid accommodates currently.
· Deliver an estimated $200 million in energy savings from improved grid efficiency.
· Invest in workforce training programs for the next generation of energy and utility workers.
· Create economic and community benefits for disadvantaged communities.
· Develop a portal to improve transparency and efficiency in the interconnection process.
A Northern California electrical grid project, led by the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe, Hoopa Valley Tribe, Karuk Tribe, and Yurok Tribe, has also received $88 million in GRIP funding, which will be worth about $200 million with additional funds from various sources. The project will develop an innovative network of community microgrids to create a highly reliable, resilient, and decarbonized system.
Currently, the communities affected are dependent on the Hoopa 1101 circuit, a least reliable circuit in the PG&E service territory, experiencing average outages twice the duration of most other circuits.
The project’s innovative approach, developed in collaboration with a grid services laboratory at Cal Poly Humboldt, will not only address the difficulties faced through rugged, rural, and wildfire-prone environments but also allow communities to move away from relying on fossil fuels.
