The Biden administration will invest $2.2 billion in eight projects under its Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) program to bolster the nation’s power grid with nearly 13 GW of new transmission capacity across 18 states.
The funding, announced on Aug. 6, marks the second round under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) GRIP program, a $10.5 billion program launched by the 2021-enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The law designates funding for three mechanisms through 2026: $2.5 billion in competitive grants for Utility and Industry Grid Resilience, $3 billion for Smart Grid grants, and $5 billion for Grid Innovation. In October 2023, the DOE unveiled 58 projects that would receive up to $3.5 billion to improve grid flexibility and resiliency.
The newly unveiled selections will catalyze $10 billion in total public and private investments to support eight projects. Projects will focus on building 600 miles of new transmission lines and reconductoring more than 400 miles of existing lines across 18 states.
“That’s roughly six and a half Hoover Dams of power,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said during a press call on Monday. “When you combine these Group 2 investments with the ones from the first round, we’ll be adding 50 GW of capacity to the nation’s grid and over 1,000 miles of transmission lines.”
Advanced Conductor Technologies for California. GRIP allocated $600 million to the California Harnessing Advanced Reliable Grid Enhancing Technologies for Transmission (CHARGE 2T) project in California, far below the $2 billion sought by a coalition of energy regulators and California-based utilities in their April 2024 filed application. Applicants include the California Energy Commission, California Public Utilities Commission, California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison, and the University of California, Berkeley Energy Institute at Haas.
The project proposes to upgrade more than 400 miles of steel powerlines across the CAISO system using advanced conductors that contain carbon fiber and/or composite cores to allow lines to carry more capacity and possibly grid enhancing technologies (GETs) to reduce congestion. The DOE on Monday said GRIP funding will allow the project to reconductor “more than 100 miles of transmission lines with advanced conductor technologies and deploy dynamic line ratings (DLR) to quickly and significantly increase the state’s system capacity to integrate more renewable energy onto the grid.” CHARGE 2T also supports transmission interconnection reform through process improvements, an interconnection portal, workforce investment, and educational resource development.
North Plains Connector is an approximately 415 mile and up to 525 kilovolt high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line connecting the U.S. Eastern and Western electric grids in Montana and North Dakota. The alternating current portions of the project, which will connect the converter stations on either end of the line to the local grids, will be 345 kV. North Plains Connector will be open to all sources of electrical power generation. In response to demand, the project will be able to transport power in either direction along the line.
Texas’ ERCOT should be developing interconnections with Eastern and Western grids to keep the people of Texas cool during summer heat dome events, keeping people warm during winter polar vortex events, and keeping electricity on their grid after hurricanes, wind storms and tornados.
