The US government is investing $3.46bn for 58 projects across 44 states to strengthen electric grid resilience and reliability across America.

White House infrastructure implementation coordinator Mitch Landrieu and secretary of energy Jennifer Granholm announced the funding as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These projects will leverage more than $8bn in federal and private investments to deliver affordable, clean electricity to all Americans and ensure communities across the nation have a reliable grid that is prepared for extreme weather worsened by the climate crisis.

These projects will help bring more than 35GW of new renewable energy online, invest in 400 microgrids, and maintain and create jobs with three out of four projects partnering with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

“Extreme weather events fuelled by climate change will continue to strain the nation’s aging transmission systems,” said Granholm. “This announcement represents the largest-ever direct investment in critical grid infrastructure, supporting projects that will harden systems, improve energy reliability and affordability, all while generating union jobs for highly skilled workers.”   

The programme, managed by the DoE’s Grid Deployment Office (GDO), funds activities to modernise the electric grid to reduce impacts of natural disasters and extreme weather worsened by climate change; increase the flexibility, efficiency and reliability of the electric power system with a focus on unlocking more solar, wind and other clean energy and reducing faults that may lead to wildfires; and improve reliability by deploying innovative approaches to electricity transmission, storage and distribution.

The $3.46bn represent a first round of selections under a broader $10.5bn programme.

The selections include Georgia electric cooperatives that will collaborate on a project to benefit communities across the state through increased reliability and lower costs with an estimated investment of more than $507m. The project will make a smart grid infrastructure update, through investments in battery storage, local microgrids and grid reliability, as well as new transmission lines.

Two projects in Louisiana will focus on better positioning disadvantaged communities to withstand extreme weather. The state will launch an initiative with 15 government entities, energy companies, and community and academic institutions to enhance statewide emergency response operations by deploying a network of community resilience hubs powered by distributed energy resources microgrids. Under a separate project, Entergy New Orleans will enhance the local grid’s resilience to severe weather, including hardening existing transmission lines and distribution systems to reduce outage frequency and duration.

In Detroit and its surrounding service territory, DTE Energy will deploy adaptive networked microgrids that have the capability to adapt to changing energy demands and supply conditions in real time, especially after extreme weather events.

In south-eastern Pennsylvania, Peco Energy will increase grid reliability and resilience through substation flood mitigation, upgrading underground monitoring and control technologies, deploying battery systems for backup power, replacing aging infrastructure, and installing conductors to increase grid capacity.

In eastern Pennsylvania, PPL Electric Utilities will integrate distributed energy resources and enable real-time grid control to reduce outage duration and frequency, create more than 200 jobs, and boost electric service reliability for more than 800,000 people. In Pittsburgh, Duquesne Light will enhance system capacity to unlock clean energy generation and meet targets established in the state’s Climate Action Plan.

Multiple projects across Oregon will connect vast amounts of clean energy to customers and create jobs.

The announcement also includes several projects anchored by inter-regional collaboration that will expand transmission across multiple states. Examples include a project to coordinate the planning, design and construction of five transmission projects across seven mid-west states.

Holy Cross Energy and NRECA Research will also launch a wildfire mitigation project with a consortium of 39 small, rural, not-for-profit electric co-ops in high-threat areas.

Earlier this year, the DoE announced $95m in federal funds from the programme to harden the energy grids in Hawaii and enable them to withstand severe weather-related events fuelled by climate change.

For more information on the projects selected, go to www.energy.gov/gdo/grid-resilience-and-innovation-partnerships-grip-program-projects.