DOE announces $34 M for US power grid enhancement
The Department of Energy has announced $34 million for 12 projects across 11 states to strengthen and modernize America’s aging power grid.
Image for illustration purposes.
USA, Washington D.C.: The Department of Energy has announced $34 million for 12 projects across 11 states to strengthen and modernize America’s aging power grid.
This will be done through the development of cost-effective, high-speed, and safe undergrounding technologies. Through the Grid Overhaul with Proactive, High-speed Undergrounding for Reliability, Resilience, and Security (GOPHURRS) program, the selected projects will advance innovative solutions to help upgrade and expand the nation’s grid infrastructure: lowering costs, reducing inefficiencies, mitigating disruptions from extreme weather events, and accelerating the adoption of renewable energy resources.
“Modernizing our nation’s power grid is essential to building a clean energy future that lowers energy costs for working Americans and strengthens our national security,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “With today’s announcement, DOE is supporting teams across the country as they develop innovative approaches to burying power infrastructure underground, increasing our resilience and bringing our aging grid into the 21st Century.”
The power distribution system in the US has over 5.5 million line-miles with over 180 million power poles, susceptible to damage by weather, and accounting for most power outages in the country each year. Undergrounding power lines is a proven way of improving the system reliability for transmission and distribution grids.
Among the selected projects are those by Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ), GE Vernova Advanced Research (Niskayuna, NY), Melni Technologies (Twin Falls, ID), Oceanit (Honolulu, HI), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, WA) and Prysmian Cables and Systems USA (Highland Heights, KY) will develop a hands-free power cable splicing machine operating in underground vaults to reduce the share of splicing-caused medium-voltage network failures from 60-80% to less than 5% and dramatically improve the workforce safety by reducing the time the underground cable splicing crews spend in underground vaults.
Source: US Department of Energy