Eight energy grid projects in 18 states will get a financial boost totaling $2.2 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy, officials announced Aug. 6, the second round of funding awards from the Grid Resilience Program and Innovation Partnerships of the agency.
Focused on transmission, the selected projects collectively include more than 600 miles of new lines and upgrades to 400 miles of existing lines to enable them to transmit more power, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told the reporters on August 5. The projects would add up to nearly 13 GW. of network capacity.
“That’s about six and a half Hoover Dams of power,” Granholm said, noting the U.S.’s growing need for power, particularly driven by “all these growing data centers that are putting demands on the grid.”
The largest award is $700 million to the Montana Department of Commerce for the North Plains Connector Interregional Innovation Project. The plan calls for a 3,000 MW transmission line that would connect three regional control entities and increase transfer capacity between Montana and North Dakota by 1,400 percent, and add up to 3,000 MW of capacity to help prevent outages. climate-related energy.
Some of the projects combine a mixture of transmission and other components. The Power Up New England project, led by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources with nearby states and project developers Form Energy, Eversource Energy and National Grid, includes both energy transmission and storage. With a $389.3 million grant, it will upgrade interconnection points in Massachusetts and Connecticut to prepare the regional transmission system for up to 4,800 MW of added offshore wind power, the deployment of a storage system of battery power in Maine.
“These game-changing federal funds will mean more jobs, lower energy costs for families and businesses, and cleaner air for everyone,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) said in a statement.
Another $87.6 million grant to the Redwood Coast Energy Authority would help the Hoopa Valley, Yurok, Karuk and Blue Lake Rancheria tribes in Northern California build microgrids.
The other grants include $600.6 million to the California Energy Commission; $30 million to the New York Power Authority; $249.6 million to the Utah Office of Energy Development; $85.4 million to the Virginia Department of Energy; and $57.1 million to the State Energy Office of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
The Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program is funded by the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act. Last fall, the DOE announced the first 58 projects selected to receive a total of $3.5 billion from the program.
Granholm said the DOE would announce the next round of awards in the fall or early winter.
