DOE puts $50M of Defense Production Act money into Virginia–West Virginia grid upgrades
Victoria Shinder2 min readThe U.S. Department of Energy said on 16 October 2026 that it intends to use Defense Production Act (DPA) funding to expand transmission capacity in Virginia and West Virginia. The money goes to Virginia Energy's "Grid Enhancing Technologies for Virginia & West Virginia Large Load Growth" project, which will receive up to $50 million to deploy advanced transmission technologies on existing power lines.
What the project does. Rather than build new lines, the project applies advanced reconductoring — replacing conductors with higher-capacity ones — and Dynamic Line Rating, which adjusts a line's rated capacity in real time to conditions. DOE's estimate is that this adds about 290 megawatts of transmission capacity across Appalachian Power's Virginia system, and does so one to four years faster than a conventional transmission upgrade. The stated 48-month project is led by Virginia Energy with Appalachian Power, Potomac Edison and regional partners, and DOE frames it as making better use of existing corridors rather than adding new ones.
The funding source. DOE ties the money to $1 billion appropriated under what it calls the Working Families Tax Cut for energy projects deemed critical to national security. Presidential Determination No. 2026-10 identifies transmission lines and conductors, substations, and power-control and protection equipment as essential to national defence, which is the basis for routing the support through the Defense Production Act. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Office of Electricity Assistant Secretary Katie Jereza are quoted framing the award around grid reliability, lower costs and support for military and defence-related loads in the region.
The announcement is of an intent to deploy the funding and describes the project as proposed; it gives a capacity estimate and a timeframe but no construction start date, and the quoted political framing is DOE's own. What a reader can take as firm is the instrument (DPA), the ceiling ($50 million), the technologies (reconductoring and dynamic line rating) and the capacity estimate (about 290 MW).
Source: U.S. Department of Energy, "Energy Department Announces Virginia and West Virginia Transmission Project to Receive Defense Production Act Funding" — https://www.energy.gov/articles/energy-department-announces-virginia-and-west-virginia-transmission-project-receive