ARLINGTON, Va. – The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), Basin Electric Power Cooperative, and five other electric cooperatives today secured $87 million through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program. The funding will be used to make transmission infrastructure improvements across six states.
“Electric cooperatives are making substantial investments to strengthen the electric grid, which is critical to providing reliable and affordable power in rural communities,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. “These project funds will help co-ops get more capacity from existing transmission infrastructure while improving reliability and supporting economic growth. We are grateful for our partnership with the Department of Energy that is helping co-ops deploy these and other solutions to meet the nation’s growing energy needs.”
The funding will increase transmission capacity, reduce congestion, improve reliability and help deliver affordable power to rural communities against the backdrop of skyrocketing electricity demand. The federal investment, paired with funds from participating electric cooperatives, represents a total project investment of $174 million.
The award is the latest in a series of successful NRECA-led projects funded through the Department of Energy’s GRIP program. Across three funding rounds, NRECA and more than 50 rural utilities have secured more than $280 million in federal funding, supporting more than $510 million in grid resilience and modernization investments nationwide.
Altogether, more than 80 electric cooperatives have received at least one GRIP award across the three rounds, representing total federal support of $1.3 billion and a combined DOE and electric cooperative investment of $2.3 billion. NRECA and electric cooperatives have used this funding to deploy new wildfire resilience technologies and much more, demonstrating a consistent record of success as a federal partner.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing nearly 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $15 billion annually in their communities.
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