Power Grid Grants Extended to 2031, Prioritizing Worst-Hit Areas for Outages

The new Preventing Power Outages Act isn’t creating a brand new program, but it’s making smart, targeted changes to how federal money is used to harden the electric grid—and it’s doing it with a serious focus on fairness. Essentially, this bill tweaks a section of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to make sure grants aimed at preventing blackouts actually go where they are needed most.

The New Scorecard: Why Your Outage Counts Now

If you live in an area where the power flickers every time a squirrel sneezes, this bill is specifically designed for you. The first big change is standardization. The law now requires everyone—from the federal government handing out grants to the local utility applying for them—to use three specific, industry-standard metrics to measure reliability: CAIDI, SAIDI, and SAIFI. These scores measure how long, and how often, the power goes out. Crucially, the bill mandates that when calculating these scores, utilities must now count every outage lasting longer than five minutes, even those that happen during huge storms or “Major Event Days.” Before, some utilities could exclude these big events, which often made their reliability scores look better than reality. Now, if you lose power for six minutes during a blizzard, it counts.

Targeting the Trouble Spots

This standardization leads to the second, most significant change: priority funding. The bill requires that when the Secretary of Energy, or a state/tribe distributing the funds, decides who gets the grant money, they must give extra weight and consideration to applicants with the worst reliability scores over the past five years. Think of it as a triage system for the power grid. If Utility A has had far more frequent and longer outages than Utility B, Utility A gets a leg up in securing the funds needed for improvements like burying power lines or replacing old equipment. This ensures that the federal investment directly addresses the weakest links in the grid, rather than just funding projects in areas that are already pretty reliable.

Cutting the Red Tape for Repairs

For the utilities and infrastructure operators, the bill includes a welcome simplification: it bans "bundling" requirements. Previously, some grant programs might have required an applicant to propose multiple types of improvements—say, a new substation and tree trimming and smart-grid technology—to even be considered for funding. This bill says no more. An eligible entity can now apply for funding for just one specific thing, like replacing a single mile of vulnerable wire, without having to tack on other projects just to satisfy the application criteria. This makes it easier for smaller utilities or those with very specific needs to access the money without having to plan massive, multi-faceted projects.

Five More Years to Fix the Grid

Finally, the bill extends the timeline for this essential funding. The grants were originally set to run through 2026. The Preventing Power Outages Act extends the program for another five years, covering 2027 through 2031. For busy people, this means that the effort to make the grid more resilient against extreme weather and other disruptions isn't just a short-term fix; it’s a sustained, decade-long commitment. This extension provides long-term certainty for utilities to plan and execute large-scale, multi-year hardening projects, which is exactly what’s needed to make a real difference in keeping the lights on.