DOE Relaunches Financial Support

The US Department of Energy is taking steps to relaunch federal financial support for new transmission lines and baseload power plants.

Interested parties have until November 21 to respond to a series of questions about how four main existing DOE programs can be improved as part of the relaunch.

DOE is interested in projects that will enable or accommodate between another 3,000 MW and 20,000 MW of incremental load.

It is particularly interested in transmission projects that would provide new interregional transmission to support at least 1,000 MVA in incremental capacity or modify existing lines to support at least 500 MVA in incremental capacity.

As to generation, DOE is focused on projects that would bring retired fossil-fuel power plants back into service or otherwise use existing interconnection capacity to connect new baseload power plants to the grid.

The questions are part of a “Speed to Power Initiative” request for information (RFI) issued on September 18. The RFI is partly that and partly a declaration that, after several months of deer-in-headlights hesitation to deploy existing project support programs, those programs are back in business and open to improvements.

Projected US energy demand has skyrocketed as a consequence of operating and planned artificial intelligence data centers, new factories and other large energy users. The initiative aims at boosting the capacity of the domestic grid and of generation, especially in locations where projected energy demand growth is expected to exceed supply.

Four Main Programs  

DOE is focused on four main programs.

The Transmission Facilitation Program (TFP) supports the build out of new or expanded interregional transmission lines across the country by having DOE step up to serve as an “anchor customer” by entering into capacity contracts to make it easier to raise debt and equity investments. “Through the TFP, DOE takes long-term financial positions in transmission capacity to de-risk large transmission projects and help overcome the financial hurdles in the development of large-scale new transmission lines and upgrading existing transmission," the agency said.

The Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships Program (GRIP) provides grants to support transmission projects, improve system optimization and deploy advanced grid technologies, such as substation upgrades, grid hardening, advanced control systems and innovative approaches to enhance reliability and improve transmission, storage and other regional energy infrastructure.

Loan guarantee programs have been used by DOE to finance a portfolio of innovative energy projects and advanced technology facilities across the country, including high-voltage transmission, generation, grid upgrades and integrated systems that support load growth.

DOE also offers technical assistance, including access to advanced modeling and analytical capabilities of the DOE national energy laboratories to address grid modernization and infrastructure investment challenges.

Questions

The RFI poses five sets of questions. Responses will be protected as confidential information if marked as confidential or proprietary.

1. Large-scale generation and transmission projects to enable load growth. Respondents are asked to identify any large-scale generation, transmission or grid infrastructure projects that are under development, in planning or construction-ready that DOE should consider for prioritizing for siting and permitting support, technical assistance or federal funding. It wants detailed project information for each project.
2. High-priority geographic areas for targeted DOE investment. DOE wants to hear about specific geographic areas or high-priority zones (such as data center corridors, semiconductor clusters, industrial parks and port complexes) where major electric loads are projected but grid constraints are limiting or delaying economic development and where DOE assistance could unlock high-value investment. For each such zone, DOE asks, among other things, about projected load, energy supply and how DOE support might address any mismatch.
3. Use of DOE funding, financing and technical assistance. DOE asks how it might best support deployment of large-scale generation and transmission projects. It wants concrete examples and suggestions. For example, it is interested in how it might best assist with de-risking early-stage infrastructure investment to attract private or public capital and bridge gaps in capital availability.
4. Load growth trends. DOE wants data on the types of new electric load that are driving demand increases in particular service areas or regions. Respondents are asked to provide any available projections or forecasts of the scale, timing and location of this expected growth.
5. Grid infrastructure constraints. DOE wants to know what generation, transmission and distribution constraints limit the ability to serve growing demand.

Detailed guidance as to the requested form of responses is provided in the RFI, which can be found here. Responses should be sent to DOE by email to “SpeedtoPowerRFI@hq.doe.gov” with the subject line: “RFI Response – Accelerating Speed to Power.”