On January 16, 2025, LPO announced eight conditional commitments through its Title 17 Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program, comprising $22.92 billion to utilities serving more than 14.78 million customers across 12 states.
January 16, 2025
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Jigar Shah
Former Director, Loan Programs Office
Jigar Shah served as Director of the Loan Programs Office (LPO) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from March 2021 to January 2025. He led and directed LPO’s loan authority to support deployment of innovative clean energy, advanced transportation, and Tribal energy projects in the United States. Prior, Shah was co-founder and President at Generate Capital, where he focused on helping entrepreneurs accelerate decarbonization solutions through the use of low-cost infrastructure-as-a service financing. Prior to Generate Capital, Shah founded SunEdison, a company that pioneered “pay as you save” solar financing. After SunEdison, Shah served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global non-profit founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help entrepreneurs address climate change.
Shah was also featured in TIME's list of the "100 Most Influential People" in 2024.
Originally from Illinois, Shah holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois-UC and an MBA from the University of Maryland College Park.
On January 16, 2025, LPO announced eight conditional commitments through its Title 17 Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program, comprising $22.92 billion to utilities serving more than 14.78 million customers across 12 states. Projects supported by today’s announcements include transmission, clean generation, energy storage, grid modernization, and gas pipeline investments. By accessing LPO’s lowest-cost debt, these utilities will incur lower financing costs for their qualifying infrastructure projects than if they had used commercial capital markets, and they will pass along the savings to customers. EIR serves part three of LPO’s three-part mandate––to make the clean energy transformation affordable and achievable for everyone. When working with regulated, investment-grade utility borrowers in EIR, LPO utilizes a flexible loan facility and disbursement approach to accommodates the unique ways utilities plan, finance, and build infrastructure.
| LPO’s January 16, 2025 Announcement: Conditional Commitments for Loan Guarantees to Utility Borrowers | |||
| PROJECT | DOLLARS | STATES | # OF CUSTOMERS BENEFITTING |
| PacificCorp Western Interconnected Renewable Energy | $3.52B | California, Idaho, Oregon, and Utah | 2.1 million |
| DTE Gas Clean Energy | $1.64B | Michigan | 1.3 million |
| DTE Electric Clean Energy | $7.17B | Michigan | 2.3 million |
| Interstate Power and Light Clean Energy Blueprint Projects | $1.43B | Iowa | 500,000 |
| Wisconsin Power and Light Clean Energy Blueprint Projects | $1.62B | Wisconsin | 500,000 |
| Consumers Energy Clean Energy | $5.23B | Michigan | 3.1 million |
| Jersey Central Power & Light Transmission Projects | $0.71B | New Jersey | 1.2 million |
| AEP Transmission Projects | $1.60B | Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia | 3.78 million |
| TOTAL: | $ 22.92 B | 12 states | 14.78 million |
EIR not only enables an affordable path to decarbonization but also creates a safer and more efficient energy system. Projects planned by the utilities announced today will add much-needed transmission capacity by building new transmission lines, reconductoring existing lines, and implementing grid-enhancing technologies that will get more out of existing grid. Additional grid modernization investments include substation upgrades, virtual power plants, and strategically placed energy storage to improve the utilization and performance of the system utilities have already built and paid for. New generation from wind, solar, and hydropower are planned at gigawatt scale. In addition to power system enhancements, today’s announcements include replacing over 3,000 miles of leaky natural gas distribution and main lines. These replacements keep methane, a potent near-term greenhouse gas, from escaping, which also reduces the potential for accidents and keeps communities safer.
Visit LPO’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Loans by Borrower Type page for an up-to-date list of all LPO projects with utility borrowers.