The Los Angeles Post

California receives more than half a billion dollars in federal funds to improve power grid

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What you need to know: The U.S. Department of Energy awarded a $600 million grant to a public-private partnership to improve California’s electric grid that will lead to energy savings and enhanced reliability for consumers.

SACRAMENTO — California has secured a $600 million federal grant to upgrade 100 miles of electric transmission lines with grid enhancing technologies to improve reliability and deliver clean, affordable electricity faster.

The Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) grant was awarded to a consortium that includes the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Independent System Operator, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and Southern California Edison.

The agencies, grid operator and utilities will partner on the California Harnessing Advanced Reliable Grid Enhancing Technologies for Transmission (CHARGE 2T) program, which will expand transmission capacity and provide interconnection improvements to increase and accelerate equitable access to clean energy resources across the state.

“Once again, the Biden-Harris Administration is not just talking the talk, they’re walking the walk. This funding is critical to our efforts to build a power grid that ensures all Californians have access to cleaner, cheaper, more reliable electricity.”

Governor Gavin Newsom

The project will:

  • Support more than 300 direct jobs.

  • Enhance more than 100 miles of transmission lines with advanced conductor technologies that will help connect more clean energy resources than the existing grid can accommodate at this time.

  • Deliver an estimated $200 million in energy savings from improved grid efficiency.

  • Create economic and community benefits for disadvantaged communities.

  • Invest in workforce training programs for the next generation of energy and utility workers.

  • Develop a portal to improve transparency and efficiency in the interconnection process.

“As California grapples with increasingly extreme weather as a result of the climate crisis, bolstering our transmission network is essential for protecting public safety and ensuring a successful clean energy transition,” said U.S. Senator Alex Padilla. “To meet the challenges we face, we must modernize our grid, and there is no better way to achieve that than through reconductoring. Thanks to this historic investment in our state’s CHARGE 2T program through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re updating our transmission lines to efficiently, reliably, and affordably deliver clean electricity while creating new green jobs.”

Tribal collaborations

A Northern California electrical grid project, led by the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe, Hoopa Valley Tribe, Karuk Tribe, and Yurok Tribe, also received $88 million in GRIP funding, which – with matching funds from various sources – will ultimately total about $200 million. The result of years of collaboration between California tribes, the state, and other public-private partnerships, this project will develop an innovative network of community microgrids to ultimately create a highly reliable, resilient, and decarbonized system.

The communities affected currently rely on the Hoopa 1101 circuit – one of the least reliable circuits in the PG&E service territory, seeing average outages twice the duration of most other circuits. The project’s innovative approach – developed in collaboration with a new grid services laboratory at Cal Poly Humboldt – addresses the difficulties posed by rugged, rural, and wildfire-prone environments, and will allow communities to move away from relying on fossil fuels.

California’s clean energy leadership

The world’s fifth largest economy is being powered by more clean energy than ever before, breaking records and accelerating our progress towards 100% clean electricity by 2045.

  • At 10,379 megawatts (MW), the state has increased battery capacity by 1,250% since the beginning of the Newsom Administration – up from 770 MW in 2019.

  • California’s power grid has set a series of clean energy records this year. For at least 100 days this year, clean energy has exceeded grid demand consumed at some point during the day.

    • Thanks to new clean energy resources and the surge in battery storage, California’s power grid withstood this July’s record two-week heat wave – and even exported power to other states.

  • Governor Newsom has taken unprecedented action to streamline clean energy infrastructure and invest billions of dollars to build more faster. Find clean energy projects in your community at build.ca.gov.