Pacific Power received a $50 million federal grant on Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Energy to upgrade transmission infrastructure, reduce large-scale outages, and boost electricity capacity moving between Oregon and Washington. The money is earmarked for three distinct transmission technologies at sites stretching from the Lewis River to the high desert of southeastern Oregon.
According to KATU, Pacific Power plans to use the funding to transmit more electricity while reducing the frequency of major outages. The grant will support advanced power-flow control at the Merwin substation along the Lewis River, remote-controlled equipment near Walla Walla, Washington, and grid-enhancing technologies in Lakeview, Oregon, all aimed at improving how power moves through the system.
A Federal Push to Speed Up the Grid
The award comes through the Department of Energy's Speed to Power initiative, which aims to modernize the grid and reduce electric costs, per the station's report. Rohit Nair, Pacific Power's managing director of transmission and distribution grid innovation and strategy, said existing infrastructure upgrades can improve reliability, accommodate future growth, and sustain safe and affordable energy.
The federal initiative behind this grant isn't limited to the Pacific Northwest. The U.S. Department of Energy announced in September its intention to help fund 31 grid-improvement projects spread across 26 states, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Why Oregon's Grid Is Under Pressure
The timing lines up with warnings about surging electricity demand across the state. State Rep. Mark Gamba has said Oregon is expecting 30 percent statewide load growth over the next 10 years and 100 percent growth over the next 30 years, as reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The Bonneville Power Administration, meanwhile, has reported 68,000 megawatts of transmission service requests sitting in its queue, spread across 641 unique requests.
Building brand-new transmission lines to meet that demand is extremely costly and typically takes 10 to 20 years, per the same Oregonian/OregonLive report. That long timeline helps explain why federal and state programs are increasingly funding upgrades to existing substations and equipment rather than waiting on new lines to be built from scratch.
Other Grid Investments in the Region
This isn't the only recent infusion of grid money in the region. The Oregon Department of Energy selected nine Oregon electric utilities earlier this year to receive $11.5 million in Grid Resilience Grants, according to the Oregon Department of Energy. Separately, the federal government awarded four financial assistance grants totaling approximately $33.5 million to Oregon and Washington earlier this year, the agency noted. The available evidence does not establish whether those awards share the same scope or funding conditions as the Pacific Power grant.
