New England states to receive US$389 million in federal funding for offshore wind energy infrastructure

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected the New England states’ Power Up New England proposal to receive US$389 million. Power Up, which was submitted to the DOE through the second round of the competitive Grid Innovation Program (GIP), features significant investments in regional electric infrastructure.

These include proactive upgrades to points of interconnection in Southeast Massachusetts and Southeast Connecticut to ready the onshore transmission system for up to 4,800 MW of additional offshore wind. Power Up will also deploy an innovative, multi-day battery energy storage system in Northern Maine to enhance grid resilience and optimise the delivery of renewable energy.

Together, these investments will provide the New England region with access to thousands of megawatts of offshore wind, greater resource diversity, and increased reliability while lowering consumer costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The GIP is administered through the DOE’s US$10.5 billion Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program to fund projects that improve grid reliability and resilience using advanced technologies and innovative partnerships and approaches.

The maximum award per project is US$250 million, or US$1 billion for a project with significant transmission investment, which Power Up features. In the first round of GIP, only one project received an award greater than US$250 million.

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Maine Governor’s Energy Office, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, the New Hampshire Department of Energy, the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, and the Vermont Department of Public Service submitted Power Up into the second round of the DOE’s GIP in April 2024. The application was supported by Power Up’s project developers Form Energy, Eversource Energy, and National Grid.