SPOKANE, Wash. — As fire season begins to wind down across the Inland Northwest, Avista Utilities is receiving over $85 million to combat wildfires.
The funding is part of a federal grant that comes from the Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program, authored by Senator Maria Cantwell.
“A smarter grid is a more efficient and reliable grid, and key to meeting our region’s need for 30% more affordable electricity over the next decade,” said Senator Cantwell. “Upgrading transmission lines with technologies like sensors and advanced controls will not only help prevent wildfires but also keep the lights on during extreme weather and natural disasters.”
With the money, Avista and Idaho Power Company will reconstruct the Lolo-Oxbow transmission line, a vital power line connecting the Pacific Northwest and mountain regions. The project will use designs and materials that make the line more resistant to wildfires and also make outages more rare.
The project will deploy advanced technology that controls and optimizes the flow of power and increases capacity for the whole region, enabling the Nez Perce Tribe to increase their capacity for renewable energy generation on their reservation.
The grant also states that Avista plans to use drones to string the new lines, which will limit outages during construction. Overall, the grant will give $85,664,781 to the project, with Avista paying $87,296,824.
According to a press release, the Department of Energy received applications requesting more than seven times the amount of funding available in this round, an oversubscription rate of nearly 800%.