Department of Energy Allocates $350 Million to Deploy Dynamic Line Rating and Grid-Enhancing Tech

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced on Monday the distribution of $350 million in federal grants from the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program to deploy Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs) and Dynamic Line Rating (DLR) sensor arrays across 12,000 miles of high-voltage transmission corridors in fifteen states.

The advanced hardware deployments enable regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and electric utilities to safely unlock up to 30 percent in additional electricity carrying capacity on existing high-voltage transmission lines without the ten-year delay and multi-billion-dollar expense of constructing new towers.

Unlocking Immediate Transmission Capacity for AI and Renewables Conventional transmission line ratings rely on conservative, static assumptions about ambient air temperatures and wind speeds, frequently forcing utilities to curtail clean wind and solar farms due to artificial grid congestion limits.

"The demand for electricity in America is surging at the fastest pace in decades, driven by domestic manufacturing, electric transportation, and artificial intelligence data centers," Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in Washington. "We cannot afford to wait a decade to build new high-voltage lines. By deploying smart Dynamic Line Rating sensors and automated power-flow controllers, we are squeezing maximum capacity out of the transmission lines we already have, lowering power bills for consumers and connecting gigawatts of clean energy to the grid today."

Major Regional Utility Deployments Funded project packages include:

• MISO & PJM Interconnection Corridors (Midwest/Mid-Atlantic): $110 million to deploy 4,500 real-time thermal line sensors across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
• SPP Wind Belt (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle): $85 million for modular power-flow control devices that reroute power away from overloaded lines.
• CAISO Western Intertie (California, Oregon, Nevada): $80 million for fiber-optic acoustic dynamic line monitoring.
• ERCOT Industrial Corridor (Texas): $75 million for advanced high-temperature low-sag (HTLS) reconductoring demonstrations.

Federal energy regulators and industrial power consumers praised the investments, noting that dynamic line ratings prevent costly transmission congestion surcharges.