Duke Energy transmission rebuild project awarded $57M in federal cost-share funding

A transmission rebuild project that Duke Energy is involved in has been selected to receive $57 million in federal cost-share funds to enhance the power grid’s resiliency.

“The grant announced today by the Department of Energy is a win for the communities Duke Energy serves and signals North Carolina’s leadership in the energy transition,” said Kendal Bowman, Duke Energy North Carolina state president, on Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Grid Deployment Office selected the North Carolina Innovative Transmission Rebuild project, a partnership between Duke Energy, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and State Energy Office to reconstruct the 230-kilovolt (kV) Lee-Milburnie transmission line.

The goal is to improve reliability for customers and meet growing electricity demand in eastern North Carolina, according to Duke Energy, which provides electricity to 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky and collectively owns 54,800 megawatts of energy capacity.

“This project will help reduce outages, enhance the power system’s resilience against extreme weather, enable the connection of more clean energy sources to the grid, and create job opportunities and new partnerships with community organizations,” Bowman said.

The Lee-Milburnie transmission line spans from the Greater Raleigh area to outside Goldsboro, N.C., including portions of Wake, Johnston, and Wayne counties. The line rebuild will take place in the existing right of way to minimize the impact to nearby communities, according to Scott Batson, senior vice president and chief power grid officer at Duke Energy.

“Supporting our customers by helping ensure they have reliable service and restoring that service safely and quickly when we need to is our No. 1 job,” said Batson. “The generous grant provided by the U.S. Department of Energy for this transmission line reconstruction work will improve the reliability of the grid while delivering affordable, clean energy to our customers.”

The funds are part of the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program, which DOE says is the federal government’s single largest direct investment into critical grid infrastructure. The GRIP program is funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, administered by DOE’s Grid Deployment Office, and leverages federal and private investments.

“The Biden-Harris administration is investing in the most crucial component of the nation’s infrastructure, expanding and hardening the grid to allow more resilient, clean power to reach more households, and support the ongoing manufacturing boom — all while creating thousands of local jobs,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.

The North Carolina Innovative Transmission Rebuild will create opportunities for local economic development, including investments in workforce development programs at Nash Community College and North Carolina A&T State University, and will create an estimated 550 new jobs that can be filled through partnerships with historically black colleges and universities and local community colleges.

“We have been a proud partner of Duke Energy for many years and are truly excited about this new initiative to enhance power grid reliability in North Carolina,” said Lew Hunnicutt, president of Nash Community College. “We look forward to doing our part to support this important project, which will benefit our community through new job opportunities for skilled workers.”

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