Oregon Department of Energy outlines first round of grid resilience grants; federal approvals, state match remain

The Natural Resources Subcommittee for Ways and Means on April 28 heard an informational briefing from Janine Benner, director of the Oregon Department of Energy, about a federal grid resilience grant program that will fund utility projects to reduce outages, prevent wildfire ignitions, and strengthen distribution infrastructure.

The federal program, authorized by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and supplemented by other federal funding streams, has allocated $50 million to Oregon over five years, ODOE told the committee. For the first Oregon opportunity announcement, the agency opened nearly $18.9 million in funding and selected 13 utility projects; the U.S. Department of Energy has approved nine of those projects and five performance agreements are fully executed.

Janine Benner, director of the Oregon Department of Energy, said, “This is a program that funds grid resilience projects around the state through a combination of federal, state and utility dollars.” She described activities eligible for funding as including vegetation management, undergrounding of electric equipment, remote monitoring and control, microgrids and battery storage subcomponents, and other hardening measures for lines, facilities and substations.

Why it matters: the grants aim to reduce outage duration and wildfire risk by strengthening distribution systems in areas exposed to natural hazards. ODOE estimated the first round of federal investments will leverage roughly $20 million in utility funds, creating nearly $38 million directed to grid resilience in Oregon. The program is reimbursement-based: utilities build projects and then seek reimbursement through ODOE, which in turn requests funds from the federal government.

Key program…