US DoE announces $2bn to protect power grid

  • October 21, 2024
  • Steve Rogerson

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has announced nearly $2bn for 38 projects to protect the power grid against growing threats of extreme weather, lower costs for communities, and increase grid capacity to meet load growth.

The load growth stems from an increase in manufacturing, data centres and electrification.

The selected projects announced through the Grid Resilience & Innovation Partnerships (Grip) programme aims to deploy innovative transmission and distribution infrastructure and technology upgrades to enable over 7.5GW of grid capacity, speed up interconnection for new clean energy projects, support nearly 6000 jobs, and catalyse over $4.2bn in 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 Joe Biden announced during his trip to Florida this month. Those six selected projects included utilities that were impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton.

The selected projects will upgrade more than 1500km of transmission by constructing around 500km of new transmission lines and reconductoring or adding grid-enhancing technologies to more than 1000km 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 US secretary of energy Jennifer Granholm. “The administration’s Investing in America agenda has provided the largest grid investment in US 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.”

Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Grip programme is investing $10.5bn 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 (www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-35-billion-largest-ever-investment-americas-electric) in October 2023, included $3.5bn for 58 projects in 44 states. In August 2024, the DoE announced (www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-invests-22-billion-nations-grid-protect-against-extreme) an another $2.2bn for eight additional selections.

With these latest selections, the Grid Deployment Office (GDO, www.energy.gov/gdo/grid-deployment-office) has announced a cumulative $7.6bn in federal funding for 104 projects through the Grip programme. In total, Grip projects are expected to enable 55GW 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 2600km of transmission.

This funding supports the US government’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 marginalised by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

In this round of funding, the DoE received applications requesting more than seven times the amount of funding available. Selected projects that will improve reliability and resilience include Arizona Public Service (APS) that will upgrade devices and monitoring systems, upgrade wood utility poles, and implement microgrids in vulnerable areas to enhance energy reliability and resilience for 289,000 metered users.

Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative and Southern Illinois Power Cooperative will build transmission feeds to loop transmission to ten substations in seven counties.

Randolph Electric Membership Corporation will deploy a suite of grid system upgrades to improve service reliability and resilience, support targeted grid modernisation improvements, and reduce outage duration while providing direct benefits to rural and underserved communities in North Carolina.

Entergy Texas will enhance grid resilience in disadvantaged communities in Port Arthur 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 $74m over 50 years by reducing power interruptions and reducing restoration costs.

The projects will increase grid capacity, allow more renewable energy to reach users across the country, and increase the speed of the interconnection process. Over $150m will be invested in communities through workforce development, scholarships and apprentice programmes, and community organisation grants through these projects and more than 80% of the projects will work with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

Highlights include the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and its project partners that will conduct 84 resilience subprojects across eight states to add over 2400MW of transmission grid capacity, reduce TVA’s solar interconnection queue, and reduce outage time.

Massachusetts -based GridUnity will deploy software to improve the efficiency of the interconnection process with multiple regional transmission organisations covering approximately 70% of the US population – around 210 million people – to enhance energy reliability and security, and lower costs.

The DoE’s,Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Innovative Grid Deployment report (www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-new-report-accelerating-deployment-grid-solutions-lower-costs-and-improve) identified multiple advanced grid options that are commercially available to enhance grid capacity, including transmission and grid-enhancing technologies used in many of these projects.

Grip projects that align with report findings include Elevate Renewables, which will reconfigure an existing fossil-fuelled peaking generating station in Milford, Connecticut, integrating a 20MW battery energy storage system to create a carbon-neutral synchronous condensing option, or green sync. With more than 1000 combustion turbine sites across the USA, the project has potential to be scaled nationwide.

Led by Georgia Transmission, 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 overhead conductors.

A full list of Grip projects, including awards finalised to date, is available at www.energy.gov/gdo/grid-resilience-and-innovation-partnerships-grip-program-projects.