In support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, today the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced nearly $2 billion for 38 projects that will protect the U.S. power grid against growing threats of extreme weather, lower costs for communities, and increase grid capacity to meet load growth stemming from an increase in manufacturing, data centers, and electrification. The selected projects announced today through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program will deploy new, innovative transmission and distribution infrastructure and technology upgrades to enable over 7.5 gigawatts (GW) of grid capacity, speed up interconnection for new clean energy projects, support nearly 6,000 good-paying jobs, and catalyze over $4.2 billion in total public and private investment to bring reliable, affordable, clean energy to Americans.
These projects, which span 42 states and the District of Columbia, include the six projects across the Southeast that President Biden announced during his trip to Florida last week. Those six selected projects included utilities that were impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The selected projects announced today 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 devastating and deadly Hurricanes, Helene and Milton, have put on stark display how extreme weather events continue to stress the nation’s aging electric systems – but across the country, the Biden-Harris Administration is using every tool in the toolbox to make sure America’s power grid is hardened in the face of this challenge,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The Administration’s Investing in America agenda has provided the largest grid investment in U.S. history helping us add more energy to the grid faster, improve reliability and resilience, and invest in innovative technologies so customers across the county can have access to more renewable energy and pay less for their electricity.”
“In order to reach President Biden and Vice President Harris’ climate and clean energy goals, we need to more than double our current transmission capacity in just over a decade,” said John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy. “Today’s awards are moving us toward that future by expanding transmission capacity across the nation, getting more out of the grid we already have, and making our power system more reliable and resilient to extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis.”
“We need our grid better adapted to storms like Hurricanes Helene and Milton – and other extreme climate disasters like the wildfires out west. We need our grid better wired to accelerate America’s manufacturing renaissance and leadership in artificial intelligence. We need our grid better able to bring online cheaper, cleaner power,” said White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. “Today’s investment will do that. And today’s investment will lower energy costs and bolster grid resilience. President Biden and Vice President Harris are seizing a critical opportunity – modernizing America’s energy infrastructure and making it stronger.”
Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the GRIP program is investing $10.5 billion in communities across the country to enhance grid flexibility and improve the resilience of the power system against growing threats of extreme weather and climate change. The first round of GRIP funding, announced in October 2023, included $3.5 billion for 58 projects in 44 states. In August 2024, DOE announced an additional $2.2 billion for eight additional selections. With today’s selections, GDO has now 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. The GRIP projects announced in October 2023 and August 2024 will upgrade an additional 1,650 miles of transmission.
This funding supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in climate, clean energy, and other areas flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution
Improving Reliability and Resilience in the Face of Extreme Weather
In this round of funding, DOE received applications requesting more than seven times the amount of funding available, an oversubscription rate of nearly 800%, demonstrating the tremendous need for these types of investments across the country. Improving grid resilience in the face of extreme weather events was a key need nationwide. Selected projects that will 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. These substations face increasing outages from extreme weather events and tornados. Adding 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. The area was affected by Winter Storm Finn in 2024 and Hurricane Ian in 2022.
- Texas – Entergy Texas, Inc. (ETI) will enhance grid resilience in disadvantaged communities in Port Arthur, Texas by fortifying critical infrastructure to withstand extreme weather events, which have historically caused significant power disruptions. The project will improve grid reliability, with expected savings of $74 million over 50 years by reducing power interruptions and reducing restoration costs.
Adding More Energy to the Grid Faster While Generating Economic Development and Union Jobs
The projects announced today will increase grid capacity, allow more renewable energy to reach customers across the country, and increase the speed of the interconnection process. Over $150 million will be invested in communities through workforce development, scholarships and apprentice programs, and community organization grants through these projects and more than 80% of the projects will work with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Highlights include:
- Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, 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 significantly 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 that could employ 51,300 skilled workers.
Investing in Innovative Technologies and Achieving Grid Liftoff
DOE’s Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Innovative Grid Deployment report identified multiple advanced grid solutions that are commercially available today to quickly and cost effectively enhance grid capacity, including advanced transmission and grid-enhancing technologies used in many of these projects. GRIP projects that align with report findings include:
- Connecticut – Elevate Renewables will reconfigure an existing fossil-fueled peaking generating station in Milford, Connecticut, integrating a 20 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) to create a carbon-neutral synchronous condensing solution, or “green sync.” With over 1,000 combustion turbine sites across the United States, 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 (AOHC).
A full list of GRIP projects, including awards finalized to date, is available here. Award negotiations will begin immediately. DOE will hold an informational webinar on October 30, 2024 at 12:00 pm ET to highlight selection trends. Registration is required.
DOE expects to launch a third round of GRIP funding in 2025.