The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced a historic investment in our nation’s electric grid, with $3.46 billion for projects across the US to “strengthen electric grid resilience and reliability.” The announcement included $464 million to fund a proposal jointly developed by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Great Plains Institute, Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), and Southwest Power Pool (SPP) for DOE’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program. The project will spur the development of zero-carbon electricity generation across several states by supporting essential transmission infrastructure.
GPI is excited to be part of this transformative, innovative effort that can unlock zero-carbon electricity potential for the region and show the value of interregional collaboration in solving complex infrastructure challenges.
The award will support transmission lines in states along the “seam” of two regional transmission operators (RTOs), MISO and SPP: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The projects can bring a range of benefits to communities in those states, from a more reliable electric grid to lower energy costs.
DOE funding will catalyze innovative, collaborative approach to alleviating constraints on our electric grid
Senior Program Manager Matt Prorok, who led GPI’s effort on the joint proposal, said that “this project is the result of years of collaboration to find innovative ways to plan new transmission capacity that will solve persistent issues that cause interconnection project delays and cancellations.”
Prorok shared that the joint effort could be a scalable model for other parts of the country facing similar grid constraints. He explained that because of limited transmission lines, proposed projects have not been able to interconnect to the electric grid along the MISO and SPP seam without requiring costly upgrades and investments that no one project could shoulder.
Additionally, since electrons don’t respect borders or who owns what power line, a project proposed in one RTO region might actually require transmission upgrades in another region. That situation leads to complex questions and time-consuming assessments of who pays for which upgrades. As the volume of proposed projects has increased, such issues have continued to grow and created a growing backlog of projects that can’t move forward—including substantial renewable energy capacity.
In a joint press release with the Minnesota Department of Commerce and SPP, MISO Vice President of System Planning and Competitive Transmission Aubrey Johnson stated that “MISO appreciates DOE’s financial support and recognition as a testament to the collaboration from all partners involved to develop transmission lines that will allow more generation to connect to the grid, improve reliability and deliver direct economic benefit to the seven-state region.”
The press release states that “this first-of-its-kind effort will invest in interregional transmission projects, creating an innovative shared pool of funding for transmission line projects within two regional transmission organizations, which serve as ‘air traffic controllers’ of the electric power grid.”
This grant builds on years of planning and collaborating by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, MISO, SPP, and many other stakeholders. Prorok emphasized that this DOE award recognizes the Midwest’s commitment to finding grid solutions that meet a wide array of stakeholder needs through collaboration, innovation, and determination.
DOE award for five planned transmission projects across seven states
The five planned transmission lines supported by this grant will improve grid reliability and will improve grid resilience by enabling more power to flow between neighboring regions. The planned infrastructure will also enable considerable economic development by unlocking new capacity on the transmission system for proposed generation projects to interconnect.
Prorok shared that MISO and SPP identified these transmission projects via a first-of-its-kind study as part of the Joint Targeted Interconnection Queue (JTIQ) transmission planning process, which takes a novel approach to developing efficient backbone transmission solutions to persistent, long-standing constraints.
GPI to engage stakeholders to achieve Justice40 objectives of the proposal
GPI helped support efforts to put together the funding application through the US DOE’s GRIP Program. Now that DOE is funding the proposal, GPI will help achieve its objectives through community outreach. As shared in the joint release:
“A key component of the joint proposal is to ensure disadvantaged communities in the region would benefit from the energy infrastructure investments. The Justice40 Initiative, a stated federal government goal that at least 40% of the project benefits accrue to disadvantaged communities, is a component of GRIP funding. Justice40, and its foundation of equity in energy resources, is supported by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.”
Prorok added that “GPI looks forward to continuing our collaboration with Minnesota Department of Commerce, MISO, SPP, and our utility partners, with the support of DOE Grid Deployment Office, to execute our proposal. And we’re excited to support communities across the Midwest in realizing the potential benefits of these planned transmission lines.”
Learn more about the benefits and next steps for the proposed projects in the full press release from the Minnesota Department of Commerce, MISO, and SPP.
