Xcel Energy receives $100 million Department of Energy grant to boost wildfire mitigation and grid resiliency
18 Outubro 2023 - 5:22PM
Business Wire
Xcel Energy today announced it has been selected for a $100
million award from the U.S. Department of Energy to boost its work
to reduce and mitigate the threat of wildfires and ensure the
resiliency of the grid through extreme weather.
The funding, provided through the Grid Resilience and Innovation
Partnerships program and matched by a $140 million cost share
provided by Xcel Energy, will support a range of projects that
enhance the grid’s resiliency in the face of fires, severe storms,
and other adverse environmental conditions to better protect lives,
homes and forests while reducing and preventing power outages. The
projects will be based in Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, Texas
and Wisconsin.
“We recognize that the year-round risk of wildfires has grown,
along with the severity of storms and other weather events that
threaten the grid,” said Bob Frenzel, chairman, president and CEO
of Xcel Energy. “This funding from the Department of Energy will
enhance our ability to meet this rising challenge with decisive
action while reducing carbon emissions and ensuring reliable
affordable and clean power for our customers.”
As climate conditions have changed, environmental impacts to the
power grid have grown more severe and frequent. Areas with
traditional fire seasons, for example, have seen them evolve into
year-round battles against rapidly changing and extreme weather
conditions that can generate larger, more intense and faster-moving
wildfires.
Xcel Energy is a leader in the clean energy transition, moving
forward at a pace and scale that allows the company to reach
net-zero carbon emissions responsibly and meet emissions reductions
goals that align with science-based climate targets. The company is
continually making strategic investments and improvements to
strengthen the power grid, build resilience, and increase its
situational awareness of risks. Since 2019, Xcel Energy has
invested over $450 million in wildfire mitigation activities in
Colorado alone to strengthen its systems and better protect
communities and the natural environment.
The projects will take a number of steps to boost grid
resiliency, including adding fire-resistant coatings to 6,000 wood
poles, improving equipment safety features in power lines and
electric vehicle chargers in high fire risk conditions, moving
high-risk distribution circuits underground, and enhancing
vegetation management. They will also build on current programs
using emerging technology, such as drones aided by artificial
intelligence that inspect power lines for safety, wind strength
testing, satellite identification of trees that pose a risk and
modeling software to predict how fires would spread.
In addition, the funding will support greater resilience for
communities of color. Xcel Energy will use Department of Energy
funds to complement an equal investment in customer-funded
microgrids in the Resilient Minneapolis Project, which aims to
support underserved communities in Minneapolis by providing solar,
battery and microgrid technologies to strengthen community
resiliency. Microgrids at key community center locations will allow
critical services to be delivered to communities in the event of a
grid outage.
The projects are expected to span five years, with detailed
design and planning starting in 2024 and projects completing by
late 2028. The Department of Energy grant is contingent on
negotiation and project logistics.
Learn more about Xcel Energy’s Wildfire Mitigation Program.
About Xcel Energy
Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) provides the energy that powers
millions of homes and businesses across eight Western and
Midwestern states. Headquartered in Minneapolis, the company is an
industry leader in responsibly reducing carbon emissions and
producing and delivering clean energy solutions from a variety of
renewable sources at competitive prices. For more information,
visit xcelenergy.com or follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter,
and Facebook.
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