Colorado’s electric utilities will get roughly $200 million in federal funds to enhance grid resiliency and wildfire mitigation.

Xcel Energy, the state’s utility providers, received a $100 million award to boost its $597 million resiliency and wildfire program.?The grant requires $142 million in cost sharing from Xcel.

The U.S. Department of Energy said the grant will support a range of projects that enhance grid resiliency in the face of fires, severe storms, and other adverse environmental conditions and better protect lives, homes and forests, while reducing and preventing power outages. The Xcel projects will be based in Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, Texas and Wisconsin.

“Grid resilience investments benefit all Coloradoans. While our next steps are to begin award negotiations and other processes required by DOE, we expect today’s DOE grant will provide nearly $41M to our Colorado customers, in addition to Xcel Energy’s $100M matching investment,” said Robert Kenney, president of Xcel Energy-Colorado in a statement to The Denver Gazette. “These investments will better prepare our grid for severe storms and a changing climate – while also keeping customer bills low.”

Xcel said its projects will add fire-resistant coatings to 6,000 wood poles; improve equipment safety features in power lines and electric vehicle chargers in high fire risk conditions; move high-risk distribution circuits underground; and, enhance vegetation management. Xcel said it will use emerging technology, such as drones aided by artificial intelligence that inspect power lines for safety, wind strength testing, satellite identification of trees that pose a risk and modeling software to predict how fires would spread.

“We recognize that the year-round risk of wildfires has grown, along with the severity of storms and other weather events that threaten the grid,” said Bob Frenzel, chairman, president and CEO of Xcel Energy. “This funding from the Department of Energy will enhance our ability to meet this rising challenge with decisive action while reducing carbon emissions and ensuring reliable affordable and clean power for our customers.”?

Holy Cross Energy received a $99.3 million grant with a $45.7 million cost share for a wildfire mitigation project with a consortium of 39 small, rural, not-for-profit electric co-ops in high-threat areas in 17 western states, including Colorado. Co-op consortium members committed to “hardening” their networks by deploying fire-resistant grid infrastructure and undergrounding lines, or by upgrading overhead lines to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.

As climate conditions have changed, environmental impacts to the power grid have grown more severe and frequent.

Areas with traditional fire seasons, for example, have seen them evolve into year-round battles against rapidly changing conditions and extreme weather that can generate larger, more intense and faster-moving wildfires, according to Xcel.

Xcel reported that, in 2020, its power and transmission lines sparked 647 fires in the areas of Colorado at high risk for wildfires.

Calculations by Verisk Analytics, Inc., an insurance industry analytics firm, said nearly 17% of the homes in Colorado, representing 373,900 residences, are located in areas of the state considered at high and extreme risk for wildfires. Another 14% of homes, or 301,700 additional housing units, are in areas at moderate risk of wildfires, the analysis found.

The resiliency projects are expected to span five years, with detailed design and planning starting in 2024 and projects completing by late 2028. The Department of Energy grant is contingent on negotiation and project logistics.?

Senior investigative reporter and editor Chris Osher contributed to this report.