10.18.24

Three WA Grid Enhancement Projects Get $208M from Cantwell-Authored Program

Federal grants covering about half of project costs include $85M for Avista, $45M for Puget Sound Energy, $77M for coalition of PNW/Mountain utilities Funds will help make Washington state electric grid more efficient and resistant to wildfires and extreme weather

SEATTLE, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) announced three new federal grants totaling $208.4 million that will help utility providers in Washington state modernize their electricity grids and ensure homes and businesses can count on affordable and reliable electricity service, particularly during natural disasters.

The funds come from the Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program, a $10.5 billion dollar program authored in part by Cantwell in 2007, which was subsequently expanded and funded with Sen. Cantwell’s assistance in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

“A smarter grid is a more efficient and reliable grid, and key to meeting our region’s need for 30% more affordable electricity over the next decade,” said Sen. Cantwell. “Upgrading transmission lines with technologies like sensors and advanced controls will not only help prevent wildfires but also keep the lights on during extreme weather and natural disasters.”

The following Washington state organizations received funding:

  • Puget Sound Energy (PSE) received $45,781,599 for the Skagit River Valley Transformation for Climate Resiliency Project: This funding will allow PSE to underground approximately 32 miles of power lines, as well as deploy cameras and sensing technologies for real-time monitoring that can help prevent forest fires. It will also enable PSE to make grid updates that ensure power delivery from the Baker River Hydroelectric Project to communities in Skagit County and help quickly restore power after major outages. Sen. Cantwell wrote a letter in support of the project to DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm in April 2024. This federal grant will cover 50% of the total cost of the project.
  • Avista Utilities received $85,664,781 for the Lolo-Oxbow Transmission Upgrade and Optimization Project: This funding will allow Avista Utilities and Idaho Power Company to reconstruct a vital power line connecting the Pacific Northwest and Mountain regions, using designs and materials that make the line more resistant to wildfires and make outages exceedingly rare – projected to be fewer than one per year. Avista Utilities plans to use drones to string the new lines, which will limit outages during construction. Additionally, the project will deploy advanced technology that controls and optimizes the flow of power and increases capacity for the whole region, enabling the Nez Perce Tribe to increase their capacity for renewable energy generation on their reservation. This federal grant will cover 49.5% of the total cost of the project.
  • E Source received $77,021,741 for the Increasing Energy Resilience Via Technology Investment Acceleration (INERTIA) Project: The INERTIA project brings together a diverse coalition of grid operators, technology providers, and community partners in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain regions to enhance grid resilience and safeguard high-risk communities from natural disasters like wildfires, windstorms, ice storms, and extreme heat. This funding will help the coalition deploy microgrids across the region to provide backup power technology for high-risk areas, reducing the frequency and duration of power shutoffs by approximately 85%.  The funding will also integrate advanced sensing technologies and AI-driven analytics to detect faults in the grid in less than half the previous time and identify dangerous vegetation before it causes an outage. This federal grant will cover 46.5% of the total cost of the project.

A full list of project recipients is HERE.

Sen. Cantwell has long championed investments in smart grid technologies that can improve the efficiency and resiliency of our nation’s electricity grid. She authored the Smart Grid Title of the 2007 Energy Bill, pioneering smart grid legislation that created the smart grid R&D program at the Department of Energy (which was expanded in the BIL); required the development of an interoperability framework; established a federal matching grant program; created a Smart Grid Advisory Committee to advise the federal government on the deployment of smart grid technologies; initiated a Smart Grid Task Force to coordinate the federal government’s smart grid policies; and encouraged state utility regulatory commissions to allow for rate recovery for smart grid investments.

This July, Sen. Cantwell joined U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and regional energy stakeholders to discuss technological and policy solutions that will ensure NW ratepayers and our regional economy continue to benefit from abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy. More than 200 business, government, and non-profit energy professionals attended the event, including BPA Administrator John Hairston. On the day of the event, Sen. Cantwell released a snapshot report highlighting the key energy technology areas that the Pacific Northwest is poised to lead.

In 2009, Sen. Cantwell pushed to include $4.5 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for smart grid investments, funding which was authorized by Sen. Cantwell’s Smart Grid Title in the 2007 Energy Bill. In February 2009, Sen. Cantwell organized a Smart Grid Conference in Spokane attended by around 300 regional stakeholders to help coordinate a regional bid for a Smart Grid Demonstration Project. In November 2009, the Energy Department awarded $88 million, the largest award in the country, to launch the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project which was used to install a smart grid framework including a digital telecommunications network, substation automation, and a robust distribution system infrastructure.

In July 2021, Sen. Cantwell authored and fought for passage of a bipartisan amendment that eventually resulted in a $10 billion increase in the Bonneville Power Administration’s borrowing authority being included in the BIL. The measure allowed BPA to continue to borrow at low-interest rates at no ultimate cost to the taxpayer. Sen. Cantwell’s amendment also linked expanded borrowing authority to new financial oversight requirements and opportunities for increased stakeholder engagement. Since then, BPA has announced investments totaling more than $5 billion in the nation’s electricity grid (a more than $2 billion investment in July 2023 and a $3 billion investment in October 2024), made possible by their expanded borrowing authority.

The GRIP Program, managed by the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office, funds activities to modernize 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 particular 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.