This bill requires the Secretary of Energy to create a grant program in the Office of Electricity. The program will give grants to electric utilities (including public, municipal, cooperative, investor-owned utilities, and Federal power agencies) to pay for work that is additional to their planned grid-hardening efforts, improves public safety, and either reduces the risk that power lines will start wildfires or increases power-grid reliability. The Secretary must set up the program within 90 days of the law taking effect. Eligible uses listed in the bill include undergrounding power lines; hardening overhead lines with stronger poles or covered wire; replacing old conductors and cables; fast-tripping protection systems; weather stations; fault detection and location equipment; relocating lines to roadways; vegetation and fuels management that follows applicable laws; animal-mitigation equipment; real-time cameras and sensors; downed-conductor detection; equipment and storage for targeted microgrids; seismic hardening of facilities; and other related upgrades. Applicants must submit either a wildfire mitigation plan (for wildfire-focused projects) or a report on past, current, and planned reliability efforts (for reliability-focused projects). The Secretary must give priority to projects that produce the greatest community benefit per dollar spent. The program must reserve at least 40% of funds for wildfire risk projects and at least 20% for small utilities (those selling not more than 4,000,000 MWh per year). Grants generally require a matching share equal to 100% of the grant amount, except small utilities must match at least one-third. Spending by an applicant within the year before a grant can count toward the match if the Secretary approves. The Secretary may provide technical assistance and hire-or-retain grants to support planning and implementation; those assistance grants are not subject to the set-asides or matching rules. Grants to Federal power marketing administrations are nonreimbursable. The Secretary must report to the relevant Congressional committees every two years on how the program has affected grid reliability and wildfire risk from power lines. The bill authorizes $15,000,000,000 for each fiscal year 2027 through 2036 to carry out the program.
If your local electric utility is eligible and chooses to apply, it could receive federal grant money to do work such as burying lines, adding sensors and weather stations, improving vegetation management, or supporting targeted microgrids that help community resilience. Small utilities have a specific funding set-aside and a lower matching requirement. The law sets rules about how grants are awarded, what projects qualify, and what utilities must submit with applications. The bill authorizes funding, but there is no detailed schedule in the bill for exactly when or how funds will reach specific communities.
The bill’s stated purpose is to improve power-grid reliability and reduce the risk that power lines will cause wildfires by providing federal grants for targeted grid upgrades and mitigation activities. The sponsors (Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley) introduced the bill to create this grant program and related reporting and assistance measures.
No publicly available information.