As a leading organization in promoting and accelerating grid modernization, Grid Forward congratulates the winners of the latest round of investments under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program. This second round awarded eight projects across 18 states (see featured image above from the U.S. DOE) to protect against growing threats of extreme weather events, lower costs for communities, and catalyze additional grid capacity to meet load growth stemming from an increase in manufacturing and data centers.
In particular, Grid Forward looks forward to its supportive role with the State of Virginia’s winning project, Data Center Flexibility as a Grid Enhancing Technology. The Virginia Department of Energy, along with its partners, will implement Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) technology at the Iron Mountain data center in Virginia, and has plans to deploy a combination of turbine, solar PV, and BESS technologies at the Grace Complex in South Carolina. The U.S DOE award will include over $85 million in federal investment and $105 million in private investment.
“This is the latest example of Virginia continuing to lead in energy innovation and grid resilience, while strengthening our economic engine and national security leadership,” commented Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick in a prepared release. “Leading this coalition will provide the Commonwealth with the experience to replicate this technology throughout Virginia.”
Addressing demand flexibility and data center load growth
Data centers are one of the leading drivers of U.S. electricity demand growth, projected to consume up to 9% of U.S. electricity generation annually by 2030, up from 4% of total load in 2023. This project will deploy critical clean energy and operational solutions that improve resilience for data centers as well as local and regional power grids.
“As data centers become increasingly woven into the fabric of communities it creates an opportunity to leverage our expertise to support grid modernization,” said Chris Pennington, Director Energy & Sustainability, Iron Mountain Data Centers. “We’re very excited to be collaborating with the Commonwealth of Virginia, Grid Forward, and others to develop and demonstrate the role data centers can play in enhancing grid performance within the communities we operate in.”
Grid Forward’s role of promoting and accelerating grid modernization
As a convener and connector for advancing grid modernization, Grid Forward helped to bring together the coalition that submitted this winning proposal. Grid Forward previously announced that it is playing a similar role in two other projects awarded during the first round of GRIP awards.
- Advanced Solutions For Wildfire Mitigation: UMS Group will partner with six utilities across the western United States to deploy wildfire mitigation technologies and advance community engagement and preparedness.
- Reducing Wildfires And Increasing Resilience In Central And Western States: Holy Cross Energy, in conjunction with NRECA Research, is launching a wildfire mitigation project with a consortium of 39 small, rural, not-for-profit electric co-ops in high-threat areas. The Wildfire Assessment and Resilience for Networks (WARN) will enable co-op consortium members to harden their networks by utilizing existing methods and advanced technologies to reduce wildfires and increase wildfire resilience.
“Grid Forward applauds U.S. DOE in its continued efforts to support critical investments that modernize and harden the electric grid,” said Bryce Yonker, executive director and CEO, Grid Forward. “We are pleased to see all the communities that are receiving funds for grid enhancing projects. It is especially good to see data center clean energy integration and added energy flexibility in the Data Center Flexibility as a Grid Enhancing Technology coalition. We look forward to helping document the lessons from advanced energy deployments at data centers and then sharing the learnings with the wider community.”
Grid Forward also assisted other coalitions in submitting U.S. DOE GRIP proposals. To learn more about our broader activities supporting federal funding opportunities contact David Smith at david@gridforward.org.
About Grid Forward
Grid Forward is a 501(c)(6) non-profit, member-driven trade association dedicated to promoting and accelerating innovation on the regional electric system. We deliver community, expertise and resources for leaders who are working to modernize the grid. Learn more and become a member at GridForward.org.
Media contact: David Smith
