Through the newly issued request for proposals (RFP), the US Department of Energy (DOE) will purchase up to 50% of the capacity from transmission lines. Credit: ml1413/Shutterstock.com.

The US DOE has announced an investment of $1.2bn to expedite the construction of large-scale transmission lines.

The announcement was the second round of the DOE’s Transmission Facilitation Program’s RFP.

The initiative aims to address the financial barriers hindering the development of new and upgraded transmission lines.

The DOE expects to provide the $1.2bn investment through federal support under the RFP.

This funding will be used to accelerate the development of transmission lines by utilising capacity contracts and mitigating potential risks.

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The federal investments are expected to catalyse additional billions in state and private sector funding.

The transmission projects will contribute to the national goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated: “There is no way around it: to realise the full benefit of the nation’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035, we need to more than double our grid capacity.

“President Biden’s historic clean energy legislation is helping modernise the nation’s transmission to deliver reliable, more affordable energy to every American community, in turn driving down costs for American families and generating good paying jobs for American workers.”

The Transmission Facilitation Program, managed by the Grid Deployment Office, allows the DOE to borrow $2.5bn to support the construction of essential new, high-capacity, inter-regional transmission lines.

The newly issued RFP will enable the DOE to commit to purchasing up to 50% of the maximum capacity of a transmission line through capacity contracts.

This move also aims to prevent project developers from under-building or under-sizing transmission capacity projects.

The DOE plans to sell its capacity rights in these projects to other customers to recoup its investment.

Late in 2023, the DOE announced the launch of the first round of capacity contract negotiations.

The initial round provided support for three transmission lines across six states, with a total investment of $1.3bn to add 3.5GW of additional grid capacity.