Grid Resilience Grant Program

The U.S. DOE's Grid Resilience Grant Program is a formula award made available to Oregon through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Section 40401(d).

Opportunity Announcement 25-079 was posted on October 7, 2025, announcing $11.5 million available to Oregon electric utilities for grid resilience projects. Applications were due January 30, 2026 at 3 p.m.

Opportunity Timeline

Program Budget

ODOE's Role

ODOE submitted the initial application for this funding to U.S. DOE in April 2023. The program narrative, approved by the U.S. DOE, can be viewed here.

Round One Grants | 2024

Opportunity Announcement 24-001 opened a $18.9 million funding opportunity for a Grid Resilience Grant Program in March 2024. The program is funded by a state formula grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Section 40101, titled Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid.

ODOE received 13 grant applications from electric utilities throughout the state and continues to work with those utilities to present project details and documentation to the U.S. Department of Energy for review and approval. Upon approval from the U.S. DOE, ODOE and the utilities may enter into grant performance agreements that will allow the utilities to proceed with their projects and receive grant funding.

As of December 2025, eight Grid Resilience projects have been approved by the U.S. DOE and have entered into signed performance agreements with ODOE. Awardees will now move into planning, preparing, and starting their projects:

• Columbia Power Cooperative Association | $1,329,329
  Columbia Power Cooperative Association is planning hazard mitigation in Grant and Wheeler Counties through vegetation management for 700 miles, fuse upgrades, and pole replacements. The installation of sensors and controllers and other equipment and technology upgrades are included to reduce outage response times.
• Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative | $1,128,388
  Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative is planning to underground 2.2 miles of overhead lines in Coos County to reduce natural hazard disruptions and fire risk.
  
• Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative | $700,097
  Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative is planning to underground 10 miles of lines in three areas of Gilliam County to reduce fire risk and natural hazard disruptions.
• City of Forest Grove | $438,190
  The City of Forest Grove Electric Utility is planning to underground 3,500 feet of primary distribution line in a forested area of Washington County to reduce natural hazard disruptions and fire risk.
• Columbia River People's Utility District | $377,402
  Columbia River PUD is planning to underground 1,500 feet of the main feeder line to the area water filtration facility in Columbia County. The line is in a wooded area and undergrounding this line will reduce fire risk, outages, and related use of a diesel generator at a critical public resource.
  
• Midstate Electric Cooperative |  $836,374
  Midstate Electric Cooperative is planning to implement Odell Butte Overhead to Underground project to remove 72 poles and approximately 3.95 miles of overhead electrical conductor.
  
• Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative | $392,366
  Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative is planning the installation of automatic circuit reclosers integrated with a Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, fuse banks and related software and equipment. The equipment will be located throughout their service territory area to reduce the frequency and duration of outages and wildfire risk.
• Umatilla Electric Cooperative | $1,483,494
  Umatilla Electric Cooperative is planning to underground 4.55 miles of distribution line in three areas to reduce fire risk and natural hazard disruptions.
• Pacific Power | $4,101,365
  Pacific Power is planning to enhance wildfire resilience in Josephine County, Oregon, by reconductoring 12.54 miles of distribution lines with covered conductor and replacing 311 existing wood poles with fire-resistant composite or steel alternatives, along with all associated equipment and supplies.

ODOE will continue to update the list of successful applicants once approved by the U.S. DOE and entered into performance agreements. Applicants include cooperatives, investor-owned utilities, municipal utilities, and people's utility districts.

The 13 applications ODOE received represent ratepayers in 17 counties and requested almost $18 million of federal grant funding. Combined with the utilities' matching funds, the proposed projects would invest over $27.5 million in activities, technologies, and equipment for grid hardening measures to reduce the likelihood and consequences of disruptive events to Oregon's electric grid.

Additional Background

In June 2023, the U.S. DOE awarded Oregon $19,907,304. In July 2024, the U.S. DOE modified the award, adding $10,991,729 for a total award of $30,899,033 to Oregon via the Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants program, which is supported by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

ODOE will award these funds to a diverse set of projects, with priority given to efforts that generate the greatest community benefit providing clean, affordable, and reliable energy.

The legislation sets allocations of the funding over five years. The formula is based on population, area, probability of disruptive events, severity of disruptive events, and expenditure on mitigation efforts. Oregon's allocation for the first three years is $30,899,033. The state of Oregon is required to provide a 15 percent match of $4,634,855. Eligible utilities that receive a subgrant from ODOE are also required to match:

• Large Utilities: Entities that sell more than 4,000,000 MWh annually are required to match funds at 100 percent.
• Small Utilities: Entities that sell less than 4,000,000 MWh annually are required to match 1/3 of funds.

ODOE is required to subgrant 95 percent of the funding to eligible entities. While we are statutorily obligated to make 25 percent of these funds available to small utilities, ODOE is setting 40 percent aside for small utilities based on stakeholder feedback.

The remaining 5 percent of federal funds, as well as the state's match, is available for administration of this grant program and technical assistance to aid subgrantees in the implementation of their projects.

Stakeholder Engagement