DOE Announces Additional $2 Billion To Protect The Grid Against Growing Threats of Extreme Weather, Expand Transmission

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced nearly $2 billion for 38 projects to protect the U.S. power grid against growing threats of extreme weather, lower costs for communities, and increase grid capacity to meet load growth arising from an increase in manufacturing, data centers, and electrification.

The selected projects announced through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program and supporting the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative will deploy new, innovative transmission and distribution infrastructure and technology upgrades to enable over 7.5 GW of grid capacity, fasten interconnection for new clean energy projects, support nearly 6,000 jobs, and catalyze over $4.2 billion in total public and private investment to bring reliable, affordable, clean energy to Americans.

The projects, covering 42 states and the District of Columbia, include the six projects across the Southeast. These six selected projects included utilities affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

The selected projects will upgrade more than 950 miles of transmission by constructing more than 300 miles of new transmission lines and reconductoring or adding grid-enhancing technologies to more than 650 miles of transmission lines to increase the capacity of existing lines.

The GRIP program, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is investing $10.5 billion in communities across the country to enhance grid flexibility and improve the resilience of the power system against extreme weather and climate change.

While the first round of GRIP funding, included $3.5 billion for 58 projects in 44 states, DOE also announced an additional $2.2 billion for eight additional selections. These GRIP projects will upgrade an additional 1,650 miles of transmission.

GDO has announced a cumulative $7.6 billion in federal funding for 104 projects through the GRIP program. In total, GRIP projects are expected to enable 55 GW of grid capacity, equivalent to powering more than 40 million homes each year.

DOE has received applications requesting more than seven times the amount of funding available, an oversubscription rate of nearly 800%, demonstrating an increased need for such investments across the country.

Selected projects to improve reliability and resilience include:

Arizona – With the risk of wildfires increasing in the Southwest, Arizona Public Service Company (APS) will upgrade system devices, monitoring systems, upgrade wood utility poles, and implement microgrids in vulnerable areas to enhance energy reliability and resilience for 289,000 meters customers. Approximately 69% of the project will be carried out in rural, Tribal, or disadvantaged communities and APS estimates it will prevent nearly one million customer interruptions and save $113 million in emergency repair costs.
Indiana and Illinois – Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative and Southern Illinois Power Cooperative will build new transmission feeds to loop transmission to 10 substations in seven counties. The substations face increasing outages from extreme weather events and tornados and dding looped transmission will increase grid resilience and reduce outages by providing backup connections to additional substations.
North Carolina – Randolph Electric Membership Corporation will deploy a suite of grid system upgrades to improve service reliability and resilience within REMC’s system, support targeted grid modernization improvements, and reduce outage duration while providing direct benefits to rural and underserved communities in North Carolina. The hardened grid will reduce outages from severe weather events for 32,000 customers in an area vulnerable to hurricanes.
Texas – Entergy Texas will enhance grid resilience in disadvantaged communities in Port Arthur, Texas by fortifying critical infrastructure to withstand extreme weather events. The project will improve grid reliability, with expected savings of $74 million over 50 years by reducing power interruptions and reducing restoration costs.

Over $150 million will be invested in communities through workforce development, scholarships and apprentice programs, and community organization grants through the projects and more than 80% of the projects will work with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

Highlights include:

Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia – The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and its project partners will conduct 84 resilience subprojects across eight states to add over 2,400 MW of transmission grid capacity, reduce TVA’s solar interconnection queue, and reduce outage time. This project will create the first interconnection tie between TVA and the Southwest Power Pool, providing TVA and local power companies with 800 MW of new energy supply. The project will provide an anticipated 94% reduction in localized outage durations and provide 360 disadvantaged communities with an estimated $250 million in economic benefit.
Massachusetts - Boston-based GridUnity will deploy software to improve the efficiency of the interconnection process with multiple Regional Transmission Organizations covering approximately 70% of the U.S. population, around 210 million people, to enhance energy reliability, security, and lower costs. DOE’s Transmission Interconnection Roadmap found that interconnection queue delays significantly delay clean energy deployment and lead to higher costs for project developers and electricity consumers. By modernizing the interconnection process, the project will reduce the time required to review, approve, and commission new generation interconnections across the country and accelerate the approval of generation projects and grid developments to employ 51,300 skilled workers.

DOE’s Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Innovative Grid Deployment report identified multiple advanced grid solutions commercially available to quickly and cost effectively enhance grid capacity, including advanced transmission and grid-enhancing technologies used in many of these projects.

GRIP projects aligning with report findings include:

Connecticut – Elevate Renewables will reconfigure an existing fossil-fueled peaking generating station in Milford, Connecticut, integrating a 20 MW BESS to create a carbon-neutral synchronous condensing solution, or green sync. With over 1,000 combustion turbine sites across the U.S., the project has potential to be scaled nationwide.
Georgia - Led by Georgia Transmission Corporation, a consortium of 12 not-for-profit rural utilities in 11 states will build, rebuild, or reconductor transmission infrastructure to improve resilience and increase electric transfer capacity by deploying advanced overhead conductors.