OKLAHOMA — The U.S. Department of Energy will help fund an Oklahoma grid-improvement project as part of an $5.25 billion initiative by the Office of Electricity.
On Thursday, the Office of Electricity announced its intention to help fund 31 grid improvement projects across 26 states as part of the department’s Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades (SPARK) initiative.
The projects will receive $5.25 billion in total, $1.9 billion in federal funding from DOE and $3.35 billion in recipient cost-sharing funding, to improve grid reliability and lower electricity costs for around 100 million Americans.
Project recipients are expected to reconductor or rebuild more than 1,500 miles of transmission lines and deploy Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs) across nearly 21,000 miles.
“Today’s announcement reinforces the Trump Administration’s commitment to commonsense energy addition policies that lower electricity prices and strengthen our grid,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “These investments will get more out of the infrastructure we already have, move more electricity across the grid and help deliver affordable, reliable, and secure power that will fuel American prosperity for decades to come.”
The department said together, these efforts will make over 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity available.
“These selected SPARK projects put advanced transmission technologies to work, modernizing critical infrastructure, maximizing the capacity of existing lines, and unlocking more than 20 gigawatts of additional grid capacity,” saidOEAssistant Secretary Catherine Jereza.“DOE is moving with urgency to strengthen our grid, lower costs, and ensure America has the energy infrastructure needed to power the next generation of economic growth.”
In accordance with the Unleashing American Energy Executive Order, the department said the projects selected demonstrate how reconductoring – replacing existing power lines with higher capacity conductors – paired with other Advanced Transmission Technologies (ATTs), can expand grid capacity, increase operational efficiency, lower prices for American families and businesses and improve overall system reliability and security of the nation’s electric grid.
The department said by maximizing existing rights-of-way, the selected projects will eliminate congestion bottlenecks and avoid expensive greenfield construction, lowering operating costs to help reduce consumer electricity bills.
Three Corner Connectors, the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services’ project in Oklahoma City, was selected to receive funding as part of the initiative.
The department said Three Corner Connectors will create a high-capacity transmission system link between the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) in Oklahoma and the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) in Colorado. The project addresses the need for increased transfer capability between the Eastern and Western Interconnections.
The Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services requested $250,000,000, with a total project value of $832,174,719.
You can learn more about the U.S. Department of Energy’s SPARK initiative by clicking here.