The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public input on the structure of the $2.5 billion Transmission Facilitation Program (TFP), which President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law created to help build out critical new transmission lines across the USA.
The launch of this new program is one of the first down payments on over $20 billion of investments under DOE’s new Building a Better Grid Initiative. The TFP is a revolving fund program that will provide Federal support to overcome the financial hurdles to large-scale new transmission lines and upgrade existing transmission as well as the connection of microgrids in select States and U.S. territories.
Under the TFP, DOE is authorized to borrow up to $2.5 billion to assist in the construction of new and upgraded high-capacity transmission lines through three financing tools: loans from DOE; DOE participation in public-private partnerships; and capacity contracts with eligible projects in which DOE would serve as an “anchor customer”.
