The Washington State Department of Commerce announced last week that $23 million in funding is being awarded to 18 projects across the state. The projects are aimed at making our electrical grid stronger, more reliable, and better prepared for challenges brought by disruptions. The projects include replacing outdated power poles and transmission lines, installing modern relay panels, upgrading and hardening electrical lines, and moving vulnerable power lines underground.
Awarded projects will receive both federal and state matching dollars, including funding from the Climate Commitment Act. Washington secured its first three years of federal Department of Energy funding through the Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants program, which supports state, territorial and tribal efforts to build more resilient energy systems. The projects include:
- Benton Rural Electric Association: $3 million for the purchase of fire prevention systems, smart grid technologies, replacement of old power lines to reduce wildfire risk, and modernization and electric grid upgrades
- Clallam County Public Utility District No. 1:
- $2,148,916 for undergrounding power lines on the north Olympic Peninsula, a densely forested area prone to frequent outages
- $2,072,638 for replacing critical transmission line poles with fire-resistant fiberglass
- $2,631,956 for upgrading distribution poles, Gunstone transmission rebuild, and pole replacements on Burnt Mountain
- $2,456,897 for improving substations and infrastructure across the north Olympic Peninsula
- Douglas County Public Utility District No. 1: $1,515,115 for a three-mile distribution line undergrounding project
- Klickitat County Public Utility District No. 1:
- $150,141 for the second phase of a transmission line pole upgrade and reconductoring along Highway 142
- $297,333 for rerouting 3,000 feet of overhead single-phase line and upgrading it to an underground system
- $40,000 to upgrade existing single-phase direct buried conductors to a new three-phase underground system
- $133,333 for the first phase of the transmission line and pole upgrade and reconductoring project along Highway 142
- $1,133,333 to replace 7.5 miles of overhead poles with a three-phase infrastructure
- $666,667 to upgrade single phase lines to three phase lines and connecting circuits from different substations together
- $108,002 for undergrounding 2,400 ft of overhead lines
- $106,807 for 10,000 feet of transmission line upgrades
- Mason County Public Utility District No. 1:
- $3 million for a substation build on Highway 101 to increase redundancy in the electrical grid
- $1,118,707 for undergrounding powerlines in the Seal Rock area
- Mason County Public Utility District No. 3: $1,999,133 for the Pioneer substation transformer upgrade and installation of new relay panels
- Tanner Electric Cooperative: $1,017,994 for line reconductoring and the replacement of 50 aging transmission poles with taller poles