To share how historic levels of federal and private investment are positively impacting communities across the country, this monthly newsletter showcases grid projects that have successfully completed award negotiations and are beginning work.
November 1, 2024
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Updates on Finalized GDO Project Awards
In 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law made a historic investment to expand and modernize this country’s critical electric infrastructure, and in 2022 the Inflation Reduction Act added to that investment. Since then, the Grid Deployment Office (GDO) has been rolling out innovative programs and funding mechanisms rooted in meaningful stakeholder and community engagement to drive widespread infrastructure improvements, accelerating access to clean, affordable energy, good-paying jobs, and economic benefits to communities across the country.
To share how historic levels of federal and private investment are positively impacting communities across the country, this monthly newsletter showcases grid projects that have successfully completed award negotiations and are beginning work.
This month’s roundup of finalized awards includes projects from:
Fiscal Year 2024 Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grant Awards
The Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants program is designed to strengthen and modernize America’s power grid against wildfires, extreme weather, and other natural disasters that are exacerbated by the climate crisis.
The program distributes funding to states, territories, and federally recognized Indian Tribes, including Alaska Native Regional Corporations and Alaska Native Village Corporations, over five years based on a formula that includes factors such as population size, land area, probability and severity of disruptive events, and a locality’s historical expenditures on mitigation efforts. The states, territories, and Tribes then award these funds to a diverse set of projects, with priority given to efforts that generate the greatest community benefit providing clean, affordable, and reliable energy.
As of October 25, 2024, GDO has awarded the following fiscal year 2024 awards.
*Tribal count does not reflect individual member Tribes that are part of a consortium.
Highlighted Projects
GRID RESILIENCE MODELING
Program: Grid Resilience Analysis and Climate Change Impacts (GRACI) Program
Recipient: Texas A&M University
Federal funding: $600,000
Texas A&M University and Prairie View A&M University will provide grid vulnerability assessments and risk planning guidance to state energy offices receiving Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants. Grid modeling and resilience researchers from the two universities will meet individually with state officials to understand their grid resilience objectives and direct their modeling and simulation capabilities on priority regions for each state. Analysis will focus on risk assessment, state-of-the-grid assessments, resilience strategy tradeoffs, and valuing resilience investments.
Southwest Intertie Project–North (SWIP-North) is 285-mile transmission line from Twin Falls, Idaho to Ely, Nevada. The project will bolster resource adequacy in the West by bringing wind energy from Idaho to Southern Nevada and to customers in California and providing a pathway for solar resources to meet evolving reliability needs in the Pacific Northwest. With construction anticipated to start in 2025, the proposed line will bring more than 2,000 MW of needed transmission capacity to the region and create over 300 new, high-quality and union construction jobs. The SWIP-North line will also help increase grid resilience during wildfires or other system disruptions by providing an alternate route to deliver power supplies. This project will also upgrade a key substation in Nevada, unlocking an additional 1,000 MW of capacity along the existing One Nevada Line, a major transmission corridor in Southern Nevada.
IMPROVING COMMUNITY RESILIENCE
Program: GRIP: Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants
Recipient: Entergy New Orleans, LLC (ENO)
Federal funding: $54,828,178
Total project cost: $54,828,178
Entergy New Orleans’s (ENO) resiliency project will bolster the local grid against severe weather events through grid hardening and will better position disadvantaged communities (DACs) to withstand weather events by increasing economic stability and mitigating climate change impacts in New Orleans East (NOE). The goal of this accelerated infrastructure hardening and microgrid project is to provide an innovative, cost-effective, and resilient local grid supporting more than 49,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers, 89% of which live in DACs in NOE. This project will modernize and improve the grid by completing three key tasks: hardening the transmission system, hardening distribution lines, and installing a battery system. This includes hardening of approximately 97 transmission system structures to avoid more than 564 million customer minutes interruptions, as well as hardening of approximately 381 distribution system structures to avoid more than 45 million customer minutes interruptions. ENO has also made a commitment to train at least 200 students each year through a workforce development agreement established with the New Orleans Career Center, resulting in at least 1,000 students trained in clean energy-related jobs throughout the life of the project. ENO also is collaborating with The First72+ and Delgado Community College to support formerly incarcerated individuals in completing ENO’s line worker training program.
List of Projects
The following projects completed award negotiations before October 16, 2024. To learn more about past projects, read the previous newsletters.
The Grid Resilience Analysis and Climate Change Impacts (GRACI) program will assemble a consortium of universities, non-profit, and for-profit organizations to provide technical assistance to grant recipients of the Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants Program. This funding opportunity will identify regional experts to accelerate an analysis of climate change threats and impacts on electric grid infrastructure, including potential best practices for grid operations, investments, and engineering approaches.
| Awardee | Finalized Federal Award | Region | Technical Assistance Areas |
| Texas A&M University | $600,000 | Central | Grid Resilience Modeling |
| University of Connecticut | $525,000 | Northeast | Power Outage Prediction Modeling |
| University at Albany, State University of New York | $475,000 | Northeast | Climate Scenario Modeling |
The Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program is a $10.5 billion investment into critical grid infrastructure to deliver affordable, clean energy to American communities, prepare for extreme weather impacts from climate change, and meet energy goals. The GRIP Program includes three funding mechanisms: Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants, Smart Grid Grants, and the Grid Innovation Program.
| Applicant/Selectee | Finalized Federal Award | Total Project Cost | Program |
| Allete Inc. | $50,000,000 | $104,116,574 | Smart Grid Grants |
| American Electric Power Service Corporation | $27,849,763 | $55,699,526 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Central Maine Power | $30,306,795 | $60,613,590 | Smart Grid Grants |
| City of Kaukauna | $3,012,462 | $6,024,924 | Grid Innovation Program |
| City of Lake Worth | $23,462,167 | $49,924,334 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Commonwealth Edison Company | $50,000,000 | $116,000,000 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Consumers Energy | $100,000,000 | $200,310,996 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| Duquesne Light Company | $19,724,715 | $39,939,715 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Electric Power Board of Chattanooga | $32,375,691 | $64,751,382 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| Electric Power Research Institute Inc. | $18,017,358 | $36,034,716 | Smart Grid Grants |
| The Empire District Electric Company (d/b/a Liberty) | $47,491,810 | $94,983,620 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Entergy New Orleans, LLC (ENO) | $54,828,178 | $109,656,356 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| Florida Power & Light (FPL) | $30,363,088 | $67,101,176 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Fort Pierce Utilities Authority | $5,828,993 | $8,736,875 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| Georgia Environmental Finance Authority | $249,129,382 | $507,139,744 | Grid Innovation Program |
| Generac Grid Services | $49,835,370 | $102,774,967 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Hawai'i State Energy Office (HESO) and Hawai'i Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism | $1,675,000 | $3,350,000 | Grid Innovation Program |
| Hawai'i State Energy Office (HESO) and Hawai'i Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism | $16,250,000 | $32,500,000 | Grid Innovation Program |
| Kit Carson Electric Cooperative | $15,430,118 | $23,145,698 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| Liberty Utilities (CalPeco Electric), LLC | $13,071,300 | $26,142,600 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Louisiana Department of Natural Resources | $249,329,483 | $498,658,966 | Grid Innovation Program |
| Midwest Energy, Inc. | $96,942,707 | $147,660,119 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| Minnesota Department of Commerce | $464,000,000 | $1,764,000,000 | Grid Innovation Program |
| Missoula Electric Cooperative, Inc. | $2,749,071 | $5,498,141 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E) | $50,000,000 | $102,362,351 | Smart Grid Grants |
| PacifiCorp | $99,633,723 | $205,738,882 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| PacifiCorp | $49,951,103 | $103,137,820 | Smart Grid Grants |
| PECO Energy Company (PECO) | $100,000,000 | $256,761,176 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| Portland General Electric Company | $50,000,000 | $108,402,842 | Smart Grid Grants |
| PPL Electric Utilities Corporation | $49,500,000 | $99,000,000 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Rappahannock Electric Cooperative | $38,162,015 | $76,324,030 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Rhode Island Energy | $50,000,000 | $285,047,477 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Sacramento Municipal Utility District | $50,000,000 | $156,164,172 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative | $33,567,016 | $49,209,016 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| Sumter Electric Cooperative, Inc. d/b/a SECO Energy | $52,857,560 | $70,476,750 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation (SYEMC) | $7,486,808 | $15,187,546 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association | $26,798,344 | $53,596,688 | Smart Grid Grants |
| Xcel Energy Services, Inc. | $100,000,000 | $242,020,463 | Grid Resilience Utility and Industry Grants |
| Awardee | Subrecipient | Federal Funding | Total Project Cost | Category |
| Alaska Energy Authority | Golden Valley Electric Association | $10,319,167 | $13,758,890 | Weatherization Technologies and Equipment |
| Colorado Energy Office | CORE Electric Cooperative | $495,166 | $1,025,028 | Monitoring and Control Technologies |
| Gila River Indian Community | Gila River Indian Community Utility Authority | $559,291 | $829,597 | Hardening of Power Lines, Facilities, Substations, or Other Systems |
| Iowa Economic Development Authority | Access Energy Cooperative | $265,258 | $393,482 | Undergrounding of Electrical Equipment |
| Iowa Economic Development Authority | Bancroft Municipal Utilities | $1,736,079 | $2,575,300 | Undergrounding of Electrical Equipment |
| Iowa Economic Development Authority | City of Estherville | $1,213,429 | $1,800,002 | Monitoring and Control Technologies |
| Iowa Economic Development Authority | City of Pella | $1,348,254 | $2,000,001 | Monitoring and Control Technologies |
| Iowa Economic Development Authority | Maquoketa Municipal Electric Utility | $609,890 | $904,712 | Undergrounding of Electrical Equipment |
| Iowa Economic Development Authority | Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative | $959,523 | $1,423,357 | Monitoring and Control Technologies |
| Iowa Economic Development Authority | Mount Pleasant Municipal Utilities | $372,084 | $551,950 | Undergrounding of Electrical Equipment |
| Iowa Economic Development Authority | Muscatine Power and Water | $1,324,742 | $1,965,123 | Undergrounding of Electrical Equipment |
| Kansas Corporation Commission | City of Attica | $296,629 | $440,000 | Hardening of Power Lines, Facilities, Substations, or Other Systems |
| Kansas Corporation Commission | City of Horton | $1,095,506 | $1,625,000 | Hardening of Power Lines, Facilities, Substations, or Other Systems |
| North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality | City of Wilson | $3,630,983 | $4,841,311 | Utility Pole Management |
| North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality | Fayetteville Public Works Commission | $3,642,346 | $9,276,176 | Utility Pole Management |
| North Dakota Industrial Commission | Capital Electric Cooperative | $321,930 | $594,789 | Undergrounding of Electrical Equipment |
| North Dakota Industrial Commission | Otter Tail Power Company | $4,432,088 | $11,177,647 | Utility Pole Management |
| Nulato Village | MTNT | $60,308 | $99,210 | Hardening of Power Lines, Facilities, Substations, or Other Systems |
| Oregon Department of Energy | Idaho Power Company | $208,123 | $416,584 | Fire-resistant Technologies and Fire Prevention Systems |
| State of Wisconsin | Polk-Burnett Electric Cooperative | $163,836 | $246,000 | Monitoring and Control Technologies |
The Transmission Facilitation Program is a $2.5 billion innovative revolving fund program that will help overcome the financial hurdles facing development of new large-scale transmission lines, upgrades of existing transmission lines, and the connection of microgrids in Hawaii, Alaska, and U.S. territories.
| Applicant/Selectee | Finalized Federal Award | Category |
| Southwest Intertie Project-North (SWIP-N) | $331,000,000 | Capacity Contract |