The Duck Curve#spp
DOE selects 31 SPARK grid projects for $1.9 billion in federal funding
The US Department of Energy's Office of Electricity said on September 24, 2026 that it intends to help fund 31 grid-improvement projects across 26 states under the SPARK initiative: $1.9 billion in federal funding and $3.35 billion in recipient cost share, expected to reconductor or rebuild more than 1,500 miles of transmission lines and deploy grid-enhancing technologies across nearly 21,000 miles. Four state-led Topic Area 3 selections account for $810,395,919 of the listed federal funds by The Duck Curve's sum of DOE's selection document.
FERC approves SPP plan to reroute power around grid congestion
FERC accepted Southwest Power Pool's economic topology optimization tariff on August 19, 2026 in docket ER26-2592, letting market participants and SPP propose reconfigurations of the transmission network to relieve congestion, effective October 1, 2026. Commissioner David Rosner's concurrence puts SPP's average congestion costs above $1.6 billion a year; MISO has run a similar process since 2023.
