Allete, Duke Energy, Eversource, Grid United, National Grid, Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison were among the companies involved in projects receiving funds.
Dive Brief:
- The Department of Energy on Tuesday awarded $2.2 billion to eight transmission projects in 18 states that could expand grid capacity by about 13 GW.
- The projects include about 600 miles of new transmission and 400 miles of reconductored wiring as well as grid-enhancing technologies, long-duration energy storage, solar energy and microgrids. The awards are from DOE’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program; project sponsors will provide about $7.8 billion in matching funding.
- The awards are part of a Biden administration effort to “to aggressively advance a more modern grid, a more energy-secure future, a grid that is more reliable and resilient and one that delivers more clean and affordable energy,” Ali Zaidi, the White House national climate advisor, said Monday during a media briefing.
Dive Insight:
The grants from DOE’s $10.5 billion GRIP program — funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law — mark the second funding round under the program. In October, DOE awarded nearly $3.5 billion in grants to support 58 projects in 44 states.
The funding announced Tuesday is from GRIP’s $5 billion grid innovation program, which focuses on projects that use new approaches to transmission, storage and distribution infrastructure to improve grid resilience and reliability.
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