Indiana is set to receive $175 million in federal funding to expand transfer capacity between the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic power grids, a move state officials say will ease congestion across the region's electricity system. Governor Mike Braun announced the award Thursday alongside a separate deal expanding the state's authority over nuclear materials, framing both moves as part of a broader push to keep Indiana's power supply ahead of surging demand.
The funding comes through the U.S. Department of Energy's SPARK program — short for Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key advanced transmission technology upgrades — which will bankroll 31 grid improvement projects across 26 states, according to the DOE website as reported by the Chicago Tribune. Braun made the announcement at a Thursday news conference alongside Suzanne Jaworowski and DOE General Counsel Jonathan Brightbill, the paper reported. Indiana has added more generation to the grid than any other state within the footprint of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator or the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection in recent years, per the same account.
Indiana and its project partners plan to modernize existing transmission corridors with advanced conductors rather than build entirely new lines, deploying dynamic line ratings, advanced power flow controllers, and topology optimization software along the way, the Tribune's reporting states. The upgrades are expected to unlock between 2,000 and 4,000 megawatts of transfer capacity across the MISO and PJM systems, reduce congestion costs, and deliver between $50 million and $150 million in annual benefits to surrounding ratepayers. The improvements are also projected to support more than five megawatts of new dispatchable generation and large-load interconnections, generating real-world operational data intended to inform similar projects elsewhere in the country.
A National Program With Regional Stakes
Indiana's award is a slice of a much larger federal effort. SPARK projects nationwide will receive $5.25 billion in total funding, combining $1.9 billion in federal dollars from the DOE with $3.35 billion in cost-share contributions from recipients, according to the agency's website. The program is designed to reduce costs and increase affordability for households and businesses, with projects expected to reconductor or rebuild more than 1,500 miles of transmission lines and deploy grid-enhancing technologies across nearly 21,000 miles nationwide. Altogether, SPARK is projected to create more than 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity, benefiting more than 39 million customer sites across participating territories.
Indiana's award was followed the next day by Ohio's announcement of $273 million for high-voltage grid reconductoring. PPL Electric Utilities in Pennsylvania was awarded up to $71.5 million to modernize 29.3 miles of a 230-kilovolt transmission corridor, according to the Office of the Governor of Ohio. Project implementation periods stretch up to 48 months, per SecondWatt.
The bottleneck the grant targets has been building for years. Hoodline previously reported that MISO overtook PJM as the nation's largest grid, fueled in part by a 59% year-over-year jump in cleared solar capacity to 12.2 gigawatts in its most recent planning resource auction. Meanwhile, interconnection queue delays in PJM exceeded an average of eight years for new energy projects by 2025, prompting federal regulators in June 2026 to approve a temporary fast-track process for shovel-ready generation across PJM's 13-state footprint.
Nuclear Authority Expands Alongside Grid Upgrade
Braun also announced Indiana's partnership with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to assume regulation of radioactive materials, according to the Tribune's report. That announcement coincides with Indiana officially becoming the nation's 41st “Agreement State” with the NRC, a designation that transfers authority under the Atomic Energy Act to the state to regulate radioactive materials, per the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Indiana Department of Homeland Security will oversee the newly assumed radioactive materials program using five health physicists funded through licensing fees, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle, with the goal of shortening permit review times and cutting regulatory costs.
The nuclear push extends beyond regulatory paperwork. The Department of Defense announced plans earlier this month to install Indiana's first power-producing nuclear reactor — a commercial Micro Modular Reactor — at Naval Weapons Station Crane by September 2028 under the military's Janus Program, as reported by Navy Times. In April, Braun signed a letter of intent with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company to evaluate deploying small modular reactors to supply industrial base load power at the 9,000-acre LEAP Research and Innovation District in Lebanon, where Lilly has already committed more than $13 billion to drug manufacturing facilities, according to NucNet.
Demand From Data Centers Fuels the Urgency
Much of the pressure on Indiana's grid traces back to explosive growth in energy-hungry data centers and industrial sites. Northern Indiana Public Service Company struck an agreement this year with Amazon Web Services to build energy infrastructure capable of supporting up to 2.4 gigawatts of new data center capacity in the northern part of the state, while aiming to shield ratepayers from direct expansion costs. Indiana lawmakers have also moved to smooth the path for new nuclear development: Senate Bill 424, enacted in March 2025, lets electric public utilities petition the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to recover small modular reactor preconstruction costs directly from ratepayers before a facility even begins operating, a mechanism that has drawn scrutiny from consumer advocates.
Whether Indiana's reconductoring work can move fast enough to keep pace with the 48-month SPARK implementation window, and how ratepayer advocates will respond to the costs tied to the state's nuclear ambitions, remain open questions as the projects move from announcement to construction.
