The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a grant funding of $85 million to Avista, in partnership with Idaho Power, to reconstruct the Lolo-Oxbow 230-kV transmission line, which starts from the Oxbow Dam on the Oregon-Idaho border to Lewiston, Idaho, through its Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program.
Idaho Power’s new Pallette Junction station will increase interregional transfer capability between the Pacific Northwest and Mountain regions.
The project, selected through the second round of GRIP funding, uses new construction approaches and advanced power flow control devices to distribute power across the Lolo-Oxbow line and three other lines including an Idaho-to-Northwest transmission path whose capacity is currently strained.
This modernization will offer benefits by:
- Improving the power system’s resilience against wildfires, aiming to reduce line outages to less than one per year.
- Increasing interregional capacity by approximately 635 MW, benefiting customers across the region, including the Nez Perce Tribe looking for generation interconnection capacity for renewable resources on their reservation.
- Enabling workforce development and job creation, including collaboration with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) labor union.
Avista Utilities and Idaho Power Company will contribute approximately $86 million to complete the project over the next five years. Innovative technology, including drones, is expected to limit outages during construction.
