The Department of Energy is taking a new approach to funding grid upgrades: tapping a pot freed up by the Defense Production Act to boost the capacity of the grid, including for transmission projects in Virginia, West Virginia, and Alaska.
DOE on Friday said it will spend up to $50 million on advanced reconductoring and dynamic line rating projects across Appalachian Power and Potomac Edison service territories. And earlier this month, the department awarded up to $150 million to the Alaska Energy Authority to support its plans to build a second transmission line in a region with growing electricity demand from military bases, and potentially new data centers and mining projects as well.
The announcements come six months after President Donald Trump declared that the country’s aging and constrained power grid is a threat to national defense, and that the U.S.’s capacity to “design, produce, and deploy” infrastructure including transformers, high-voltage transmission components, advanced conductors, and other equipment is “dangerously limited.”
Trump’s determination gave DOE and other agencies the authority to use DPA funding for a wide range of grid purposes, from transmission lines to gas pipelines. DOE this month also awarded up to $42 million for the pre-construction phase of the Constitution gas pipeline planned across Pennsylvania and New York.
The DPA has historically been used to bolster supplies of critical domestic goods, such as via government purchases or grants; expanding its use to directly invest in infrastructure projects is a departure from the norm.
The announcements underscore that the Trump administration is searching for ways to build out the grid and squeeze more capacity out of existing infrastructure as quickly as possible to meet skyrocketing power demand. DOE’s focus on advanced transmission technologies is notable, as well, given their historically slow pace of adoption. Deployment of ATTs was also a Biden administration priority. These technologies can be cheaper than building new lines and therefore save ratepayers money — a GOP political priority heading into the midterms, as Americans fume about rising energy costs.
The White House considered issuing an executive order specifically to incentivize the use of ATTs, but so far has not gone through with it.
“A stronger electric grid doesn’t always mean building more power lines. Sometimes it means making better use of the ones we already have,” Katie Jereza, assistant secretary of DOE’s Office of Electricity, said in a statement announcing the funding for Appalachian Power and Potomac Edison.
A DOE spokesperson added that the objective is to expand transmission capacity, improve reliability, and reduce congestion in Virginia and West Virginia by upgrading existing infrastructure rather than building entirely new transmission corridors.
The end of SPARK
Until now, DOE had largely relied on a program enacted under the Biden-era bipartisan infrastructure law to invest in advanced reconductoring, dynamic line ratings, and grid-enhancing technologies. DOE in late September awarded $1.9 billion to 31 projects under the program, rebranded as SPARK by the Trump administration.
The infrastructure law only authorized funding through fiscal 2026.
Last year, the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill appropriated $1 billion under the DPA. It’s unclear how much DOE has at its disposal compared to other agencies. But so far, transmission investments total $200 million.
The $50 million for Appalachian Power and Potomac Edison will cover half the project costs, according to an APCo spokesperson. DOE confirmed that the grant will be paired with other funding from the states or utilities, but didn’t share more details.
“This would be the first large-scale transmission project using advanced conductors within APCo’s service territory,” the spokesperson said. “APCo is already evaluating additional opportunities to use advanced conductors on other projects across its system.”
