DOE Commits $1.9 Billion to 31 Grid Upgrade Projects in 26 States

The U.S. Department of Energy said on September 24, 2026 that it will direct $1.9 billion in federal funding toward 31 transmission projects across 26 states, part of a $5.25 billion combined investment aimed at squeezing more capacity out of the existing power grid rather than building new lines from scratch. The department expects the selected projects to add more than 23 gigawatts of grid capacity, enough, DOE said, to serve roughly 16 million homes.

The funding comes through DOE’s SPARK program — Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades — which the department launched earlier this year and for which it selected the 31 winning projects this week. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity Catherine Jereza announced the selections at an event in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with a parallel announcement held the same day at CenterPoint Energy’s Houston headquarters to detail Texas-specific awards.

What SPARK Actually Funds

SPARK money does not pay for new transmission corridors. Instead, it funds “reconductoring” — replacing older aluminum or steel-cored conductors on existing towers with modern high-capacity composite-core cables that can carry significantly more current over the same right-of-way — together with grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) such as dynamic line rating sensors and real-time weather-responsive monitoring that let grid operators push more power through lines without waiting years for permitting and construction of new corridors.

According to the department, the 31 projects are expected to reconductor or rebuild more than 1,500 miles of transmission line and deploy grid-enhancing technologies across nearly 21,000 miles of existing infrastructure. Of the $5.25 billion total, $1.9 billion is federal money and the remaining roughly $3.35 billion comes from the recipient utilities and states as cost-share.

Named Recipients

Trade publication Utility Dive, citing DOE’s selection list, named Alabama Power, Duke Energy Carolinas, Eversource Energy, Kit Carson Electric Cooperative and PPL Electric among the utilities receiving awards, alongside state energy offices in Colorado and Oklahoma. DOE’s own announcement did not publish a full project-by-project breakdown in the initial release, and The Daily Energy could not independently confirm dollar amounts for each individual project as of publication.

“These selected SPARK projects put advanced transmission technologies to work, modernizing critical infrastructure and maximizing the capacity of existing lines,” Jereza said, according to the department’s announcement. Wright framed the program around cost and reliability, saying the investments would “get more out of the infrastructure we already have” and help “deliver affordable, reliable and secure power.”

Why Reconductoring, Not New Lines

Building new high-voltage transmission in the United States typically takes seven to fifteen years once permitting, siting fights and interconnection studies are factored in, according to prior DOE grid-planning assessments. Reconductoring existing corridors sidesteps most of that timeline because it uses towers and rights-of-way that are already permitted, which is why the department is pitching SPARK explicitly as a way to add capacity in what it calls “record time” rather than over a decade or more.

The timing is tied to a specific demand driver: data centers. U.S. grid operators have flagged rapid load growth from AI and cloud computing facilities as the primary reason for tightening capacity margins in several regions, and DOE’s own SPARK program materials cite rising electricity demand as the rationale for prioritizing fast-turnaround upgrades over new-build transmission that would arrive too late to meet near-term load requests.

Funding Source and Political Context

The $1.9 billion in federal SPARK funding originates from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the 2021 legislation that created DOE’s broader grid resilience and innovation funding authority. The program’s rollout under the current administration — with Secretary Wright publicly crediting President Trump for prioritizing grid modernization — reflects continuity in using that existing funding pool even as the administration has diverged from Biden-era energy policy in other areas, such as offshore wind permitting.

DOE said the selected projects are expected to benefit approximately 100 million Americans, a figure based on the service territories of the recipient utilities rather than a direct count of households receiving new capacity.

What Comes Next

DOE has not published individual project completion timelines. Recipients will now move into award negotiations with the department, a standard step for DOE grant programs that typically precedes finalized contracts and construction start dates. The department’s SPARK funding opportunity, when it opened earlier this year, set out application deadlines running from concept papers in April through full applications in May, with selections expected by August — this week’s announcement effectively closes out that selection process about a month behind the department’s original internal timeline, though DOE has not commented publicly on the delay.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Energy, “Energy Department Announces Speed to Power Investments Across 26 States to Lower Electricity Costs and Improve Grid Reliability,” September 24, 2026 (energy.gov) — federal/cost-share totals, project and state counts, GW figure, official quotes.
• Utility Dive, “Advanced transmission projects get $1.9B in DOE funding,” September 24, 2026 — named utility recipients, mileage figures, confirming quote from Assistant Secretary Jereza.
• Click2Houston, “Federal grid funding coming to Texas as DOE, CenterPoint Energy hold joint Houston announcement,” September 24, 2026 — Texas-specific announcement context.

Illustrative image. Photo: Frans Berkelaar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source