Nov. 18 (UPI) — Households and businesses could see their electricity costs inch lower with support from a federal grant program targeting the nation’s transmission lines, the White House said Friday.
The White House announced that the U.S. Department of Energy opened an initial round of applications for competitive grants under the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership as well as the Transmission Facilitation program, which combine for $12.5 billion in funding.
This, the government said, represents the largest single federal investment ever made in domestic electricity transmission infrastructure. The White House estimates that about 70% of the nation’s transmission lines are at least 25 years old, crumbling infrastructure that threatens the economic interests of taxpayers.
In early November, the Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to offer $4.5 billion to help low-income families pay their bills and make any necessary energy-related repairs. Another tranche of funding supported a rebate program for heat pumps, something the administration said holds “tremendous promise to lower energy costs for all American families — saving up to $500 in energy bills every year.”
The grant program from the Department of Energy, meanwhile, could support the development of “thousands of miles of new and upgraded transmission lines,” which could cut electricity costs further and improve the grid’s resiliency.
“New and upgraded transmission lines deliver electricity to where it’s needed, whether that means delivering wind and solar power to towns and cities across the country or moving power from one region to another that needs it in the face of storms, heat waves and other extreme weather,” the White House said.
The grid faced a severe test last year, particularly during a deep freeze in the U.S. south. Nearly 5 million people across the region lost power during a rare winter storm last February, prompting Texas Gov. Greg Abbot to sign off on legislation that would require service providers to weatherize generators in preparation for extreme weather.
Part of the new federal grant initiative is geared toward accommodating more renewable energy on the grid, similar to the so-called Greenlink West Transmission Project in Nevada, which could support 5 gigawatts of clean energy.
The White House added that the grant program helps it meet its goal of relying on clean energy for all of the nation’s electricity by 2035.
