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On January 12, 2017, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the issuance of a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and Presidential Permit for the Lake Erie Connector Transmission Line. The Lake Erie Connector project is an electric transmission line that would originate in Haldimand County, Ontario, Canada, and terminate in Erie County, Pennsylvania. The project facilities would serve the Pennsylvania New Jersey Maryland (PJM) Interconnection and would be capable of transmitting up to 1000 megawatts (MW) of renewable hydropower. The project has the potential to provide enough reliable, affordable and carbon-free electricity to serve 810,000 households in the region.

The second installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review explores the transformations in the Nation’s electricity system that will be needed through 2040.

DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability (OE) is committed to working with our interagency (including NASA, DHS, DOD, ODNI, and USGS) and industry partners to advance science on impacts, protection strategies, and mitigation solutions to the numerous threats and hazards that may severely impact the Nation’s critical energy infrastructure.

Building and maintaining a hardened, resilient and secure grid of the future is essential for our nation to function at its best in a modern society. The electric power grid faces an increasing number of hazards and threats – whether they are in the form of severe storms or cyberattacks. In the face of those challenges, the U.S. Department of Energy is committed to working with the interagency as well as partners in Canada to ensure the reliable and secure delivery of electricity throughout North America.

The Department of Energy today announced the issuance of a Record of Decision and Presidential Permit for the New England Clean Power Link. The 154-mile underground and underwater direct current transmission line will bring up to 1000 megawatts of hydropower from Quebec, Canada to Southern Vermont.

The Department of Energy today announced the issuance of a Record of Decision and Presidential Permit for the Great Northern Transmission Line. The 224-mile overhead alternating current transmission line will bring up to 883 megawatts of hydropower from Manitoba Power in Canada to Grand Rapids, Minnesota and deliver wind power generated in North Dakota to Manitoba Power in Canada.

The project has the potential to provide enough reliable, affordable and carbon-free electricity to serve approximately 600,000 residential customers in the Upper Midwest.

I recently joined the North American SynchroPhasor Initiative (NASPI) community for its Working Group meeting where industry representatives, researchers, and vendors gathered to share lessons learned and discuss advances in a technology that is a core component of a modernized power grid.

The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) is working with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to enhance the places where we can test advanced systems, at the scale of a real neighborhood or zip code, without risk to actual customers. Under the guidance of OE, INL works with industry, universities and government stakeholders to provide a testing environment which reduces the risks and enables real world validation and verification of new ideas, devices and systems including new smart grid devices, distribution automation, communication systems, renewable energy, and grid scale energy storage. INL just broke ground this week on enhancements to its Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex, which is part of INL’s 61 miles of transmission system, seven substations and associated distribution systems.

Today, at the North American SynchroPhasor Initiative (NASPI) meeting in Seattle, I announced over $5 million in fundamental research that will allow electric sector organizations in California, New York, and Tennessee to develop synchrophasor applications in two important areas: reliability management and asset management.

As Hurricane Matthew bears down on Florida, the Energy Department (DOE) is monitoring energy infrastructure and coordinating responses across the federal community, state and local governments, and with partners in industry.