Office: Office of Electricity
NOFO number: DE-FOA-0003580
FOA Amount: Approximately $1.9 billion
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity (OE) announced its intention to help fund 31 grid-improvement projects across 26 states as part of the Department’s SPARK initiative. The projects will receive $5.25 billion in total, $1.9 billion in federal funding from DOE and $3.35 billion in recipient cost-share funding, to improve grid reliability and lower electricity costs for approximately 100 million Americans. Project recipients are expected to reconductor or rebuild more than 1,500 miles of transmission lines and deploy Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs) across nearly 21,000 miles. Together, these efforts will make over 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity available.
The selections were made from OE’s Notice of Funding Opportunity announcement for an approximate $1.9 billion to catalyze electricity infrastructure investments to meet electricity demand growth and resource adequacy requirements, while reducing costs for American households and businesses. Funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program was authorized to provide up to $10.5 billion in competitive funding over five years to states, tribes, electric utilities, and other eligible recipients to strengthen grid resilience and innovation. To provide clarity with the program’s updated emphasis, this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) was renamed to Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades (SPARK).
Successful applications highlighted how reconductoring and other Advanced Transmission Technologies (ATTs), as complementary technologies, expand transfer capability, strengthen reliability and resource adequacy, and reduce consumer cost impact while utilizing existing rights of way. DOE prioritized projects that could be implemented quickly to deliver durable physical upgrades and dynamic operation gains that together increase the value, performance, security, resilience, affordability, and reliability of the nation’s electric grid.
The kinds of projects OE prioritized included:
- Reconductoring with advanced conductors.
- Advanced Transmission Technologies that can increase the usable capacity of existing assets in real time.
- Large-scale, cross-regional transmission upgrades and coordinated planning.
Source: www.energy.gov
