Starting May 13, EEI will join United for Infrastructure in recognizing Infrastructure Week, the annual nationwide event focused on raising awareness and advocacy around the importance of infrastructure.

Every day, EEI’s member companies are hard at work enhancing and hardening the grid. They are helping to protect critical energy infrastructure from cyber and physical security threats and they are investing in smart technologies that optimize grid operations.

As data centers, artificial intelligence, and an increasingly electrified economy spur demand for electricity in the years ahead, we will need new energy infrastructure investments of all kinds. These efforts will be vital to electric companies’ mission of delivering resilient clean energy to the customers and communities they serve, without sacrificing reliability or affordability.

Grid Infrastructure Investments 

Over the past decade, electric companies have invested more than $1 trillion in critical energy infrastructure, including $167.8 billion in 2023 alone to make the grid stronger, smarter, cleaner, more dynamic, and more secure. including More than $30 billion of last year’s investments were focused on adaptation, hardening, and resilience initiatives to strengthen the nation’s transmission and distribution infrastructure.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the clean energy tax package in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are accelerating the industry’s infrastructure enhancement efforts.

For example, last year, the U.S. Department of Energy Grid Deployment Office awarded its first round of Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program grants, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to help enhance grid flexibility and resilience against growing threats of extreme weather and climate change. More than 25 EEI member companies and their affiliates received a federal cost share of more than $1.7 billion through the first round of GRIP funding.

Siting and Permitting Reform

The biggest challenge standing in the way of efforts to expand the energy grid to meet growing demand is  the inefficient siting and permitting process.

In order to maximize the investments and funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the IRA and to facilitate further investment in much-needed energy infrastructure, we need a coordinated, consistent, and efficient siting and permitting regulatory framework. EEI and our member companies continue to advocate for further siting and permitting reform. Despite the inclusion of some meaningful provisions in the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act, it still takes far too long to site and permit critical energy infrastructure projects. 

Several infrastructure- and grid-enhancing projects have been recognized as finalists for the annual Edison Award, the electric power industry’s highest honor, which will be awarded during EEI 2024 in Las Vegas. Read our press release to learn more about this year’s Edison Award finalists.