The Energy Department is spending $5.25 billion to squeeze 23 more gigawatts out of the aging grid

The U.S. Department of Energy is putting $5.25 billion behind 31 grid-improvement projects spread across 26 states, an investment officials say will unlock more than 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity without a single new transmission corridor. Of that total, $1.9 billion comes from federal grants and $3.35 billion from the utilities and cooperatives that applied, a cost-share DOE says will ultimately reach roughly 100 million Americans through lower bills and fewer outages. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced the selections on September 24, 2026, under a program the department calls Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades, or SPARK.

The pitch is speed. Instead of routing brand-new lines through years of permitting fights and land disputes, the selected projects work with equipment already standing on existing towers, a method DOE says can add capacity in a fraction of the time a new corridor would take to site and build.

31 Projects Across 26 States Under the SPARK Program

DOE’s own announcement lays out the scope in blunt numbers: 31 grid-improvement projects across 26 states, roughly 100 million Americans covered, and more than 23 gigawatts of additional capacity available once the work is finished. That capacity figure is not a projection built from a national model; DOE arrived at it by summing the individual gains each of the 31 selected projects is expected to deliver on its own stretch of grid.

SPARK draws its money from the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program, a $10.5 billion effort authorized under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to harden the power system against extreme weather and widen access to reliable electricity. This round is the reconductoring-focused slice of that program: DOE’s own project page lists more than 1,500 miles of transmission lines slated for reconductoring or rebuilding, plus nearly 21,000 miles marked for grid-enhancing technology deployment, all feeding into the 23-gigawatt capacity figure.

Recipients range from large investor-owned utilities to small rural cooperatives. PPL Electric, Duke Energy Carolinas, Eversource Energy, Alabama Power and Kit Carson Electric Cooperative all appear among the 31 selections, a spread DOE points to as evidence the money reaches both metropolitan grids and rural ones at once.

Reconductoring Existing Lines Instead of Building New Ones

Two technologies do most of the work. Reconductoring swaps an existing conductor for a higher-capacity one on the same towers, and grid-enhancing technologies — mostly dynamic line ratings and power-flow controls — release capacity a line already has on a cool, windy day without adding any physical wire at all. Neither requires the multi-year siting battles that a brand-new corridor typically triggers, which is the entire rationale DOE gives for favoring this approach over new construction on aging rights-of-way.

Building a new high-voltage corridor from scratch routinely takes a decade or more once permitting, environmental review and local opposition are factored in, and many of the towers these projects touch have carried power since the mid-20th century. Reconductoring keeps the same footprint and the same easements, so the schedule DOE is promising looks more like a construction timeline than a permitting one — months and years, not another decade of hearings.

A $71.5 Million Down Payment in Pennsylvania

The clearest single example is in Pennsylvania. PPL’s Montour Grid Resilience and Advanced Reconductoring Project received up to $71.5 million to rebuild roughly 29.3 miles of an existing 230-kilovolt corridor serving the Susquehanna Valley, the Lehigh Valley and northeastern Pennsylvania, according to mGrid’s review of the selections. It is one project out of 31, but it shows what the abstract mileage totals translate into on the ground: the same steel towers, new conductor, more power moving through a corridor that already exists.

Assistant Secretary for Electricity Catherine Jereza framed the goal in similarly concrete terms, saying the selected projects “maximize the capacity of existing lines and unlock more than 20 gigawatts of additional grid capacity.” That figure sits just under DOE’s own 23-gigawatt headline number, a gap that reflects rounding across dozens of individual project estimates rather than a discrepancy in the underlying math.

Selections, Not Yet Signed Awards

None of this is money in hand yet. The 31 selections announced on September 24 are exactly that — selections, not executed award agreements — and DOE has not published a public schedule for converting them into signed contracts. Ratepayers will also carry the $3.35 billion cost-share before any bill relief shows up, since utilities and cooperatives typically recover that spending through rates over time rather than absorbing it outright.

That leaves a gap between the announcement and the outcome DOE is promising. Twenty-three gigawatts is a real number tied to specific corridors and specific utilities, not a rough estimate for the whole country. Whether it arrives on the timeline DOE described, and whether the 100 million Americans the department cites actually see lower bills rather than merely fewer outages, depends on 31 separate negotiations that had not concluded as of the announcement.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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