DOE Awards Over $600 Million for Electric Grid Investments in North Dakota

OCTOBER 21, 2023

Sen. Cramer: DOE Awards Over $600 Million for Electric Grid Investments in North Dakota

BISMARCK – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, released the following statement after the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Grid Deployment Office announced North Dakota will receive funding for three projects from the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program.  

“These awards will help North Dakota write another one of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act success stories,” said Senator Cramer. “By investing in targeted, cost-effective transmission projects, and proactively upgrading and safeguarding lines from grassland fires, we can help improve grid resilience and affordability for ratepayers.”

The GRIP Program, established through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will be distributing a total of $3.46 billion for 58 projects across the country to strengthen electric grid resilience and reliability. These funds are distributed to North Dakota as follows:

• $464,000,000 for the Joint Targeted Interconnection Queue Transmission Study Process and Portfolio (JTIQ)—This project supports the planning, design, and construction of five transmission projects across seven Midwest states. The JTIQ Process replaces the traditional interconnection study approach with a coordinated, long-range, interregional assessment that studies multiple projects at once, rather than in sequential or uncoordinated timelines.

• $99,328,430 for the Wildfire Assessment and Resilience for Networks (WARN) Project – Holy Cross Energy, in conjunction with National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Research, is launching a wildfire mitigation project with a consortium of 39 small, rural, not-for-profit electric co-ops in high-threat areas. It will also enable members to harden their networks by deploying fire-resistant grid infrastructure, undergrounding lines, or upgrading overhead lines to reduce risk of catastrophic wildfires and to increase wildfire resilience.

• $50,000,000 for the Minnesota Power HVDC Terminal Expansion Capability Project which will increase capacity to prepare the system for future expansion. The project will also provide enhanced grid operations support and flexibility.

Earlier this year, Senator Cramer joined the North Dakota delegation in sending a letter to DOE in support of the $464,000,000 JTIQ Project to meet our nation’s growing energy demands.