By replacing legacy lines and meters with modern technology, DTE Gas will deliver gas more safely. DTE Electric will install thousands of MWs of generation and storage, helping the utility to continue providing affordable, reliable service.
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.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) announced conditional commitments for loan guarantees to two utility subsidiaries of DTE Energy Company – up to $1.64 billion to DTE Gas Company and up to $7.17 billion to DTE Electric Company. DTE Gas submitted its loan application to LPO in November 2023 and DTE Electric in January 2024. If finalized, the guarantee to DTE Gas is expected to help accelerate the updating of natural gas main and service distribution lines and move metering infrastructure outdoors, while the guarantee to DTE Electric is expected to help finance significant generation and battery storage to power Michigan’s future. Together, if finalized, the guarantees support DTE Energy’s ongoing efforts to provide safe, affordable and cleaner energy to millions of Michiganders.
As regulated utilities, DTE Gas and DTE Electric will utilize LPO’s loan facility and disbursement approach. Utility borrowers for Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) projects must demonstrate that the financial benefits received from the DOE loan guarantee will be passed on to the customers of, or communities served by, that utility. LPO’s financing comes at a lower interest rate than traditional capital market financing, helping to keep energy affordable for millions of Michiganders.
At full deployment, DTE’s investments are expected to support a few thousand combined full time and construction jobs.
LPO reviewed and performed an eligibility assessment and environmental review on one anchor project for DTE Electric: the Trenton Channel Battery Energy Storage System Project. Through its due diligence approach to regulated utility lending, LPO confirmed that this individual project met all program eligibility requirements for inclusion in the guaranteed loan facility, illustrating DTE Electric’s ability to identify and execute eligible projects. DTE Gas’s pipeline replacements are considered a single project for the purpose of EIR and build on over a decade of experience DTE Gas has with its Gas Main Replacement Program, which underwent its own eligibility assessment and will undergo an environmental review.
LPO borrowers are required to develop and ultimately implement a comprehensive Community Benefits Plan (CBP). CBPs ensure borrowers meaningfully engage with community and labor stakeholders to create good-paying jobs and improve the well-being of the local community and workers. DTE Gas coordinates installation timing with cities it serves to minimize impacts on freshly paved streets and recently repaired roads and works with individual customers before and after the upgrades to ensure any impacts on or near their property are restored to original conditions. As outlined in both CBPs, DTE Gas and DTE Electric partner with local universities and community colleges to build a diverse workforce pipeline. DTE Energy co-chairs the Michigan Energy Workforce Development Consortium.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 created the EIR category under the Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program. EIR supports projects that retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations, or that enable operating energy infrastructure to avoid, reduce, utilize, or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions.
While these conditional commitments indicate DOE’s intent to provide loan guarantees to finance the project, DOE and the company must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before the Department enters into definitive financing documents and funds either loan.