US DOE to Issue $8.25 Bn in Loans to Enhance Transmission Nationwide

The US DOE has announced the availability of up to USD 8.25 billion in loans for efforts to expand and improve the US transmission grid.

In support of the Biden Administration’s commitment to modernise the nation’s power grid and infrastructure and deliver 100 percent clean energy to businesses and homeowners by 2035, the US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the availability of up to USD 8.25 billion in loans from its Loan Programs Office (LPO) and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) for efforts to expand and improve the nation’s transmission grid. 

This is one of several Biden Administration announcements made recently underscoring its commitment to accelerating efforts to expand and modernise the nation’s electrical grid, creating good-paying unions jobs while increasing access to reliable, affordable, clean power.

“DOE is making financing available for projects that improve resilience and expand transmission capacity across the electrical grid, so we can reliably move clean energy from places where it’s produced to places where it’s needed most,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “This is a down payment on our efforts to modernise our transmission nationwide—but we need the American Jobs Plan to complete them. These investments will make our power system more resilient against threats and more reliable as we increase our clean energy capacity, creating thousands of jobs in the process.”

President Biden’s American Jobs Plan calls for historic investments to modernise and upgrade the country’s power grid, improving resilience against cyber threats, natural disasters, and physical attacks. This includes expansion and upgrades to transmission lines—which are also essential to the administration’s goal of reaching 100 percent clean electricity by 2035. Renewable energy capacity is often generated far away from population centres where demand is highest. Without added transmission capacity, the electricity grid cannot reliably and consistently deliver renewably sourced power from these points of generation to high demand areas.

As DOE joins federal efforts to increase the grid’s renewable energy capacity—such as the plan announced last month to add 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030—Secretary Granholm has made addressing transmission challenges a key priority.

DOE has two separate financing streams available to assist with transmission projects:

• Up to USD 5 billion in loan guarantees from LPO.
• Up to USD 3.25 billion from WAPA’s Transmission Infrastructure Program (TIP) revolving loan program.