US utilities are expected to spend almost $160 billion this year, the most ever, to green and fortify power grids that have been battered by a string of extreme weather events.
(Bloomberg) — US utilities are expected to spend almost $160 billion this year, the most ever, to green and fortify power grids that have been battered by a string of extreme weather events.
Nearly half of that spending will be to make transmission and distribution systems more resilient to storms while also accommodating greater amounts of clean power, executives with the Edison Electric Institute, the nation’s main utility trade group, said during an investor briefing on Tuesday.
The announcement comes two years after a severe winter storm crippled the Texas power grid, resulting in days of widespread blackouts and more than 200 deaths. Another deep freeze in December triggered rotating blackouts in the US Southeast, where more than 1 million homes and businesses lost power.
The record capital spending will help boost profits for investor-owned utilities because they can earn a regulated, guaranteed return on those infrastructure investments. Utilities also stand to be big beneficiaries of President Joe Biden’s climate bill, which includes nearly $272 billion in clean-energy tax benefits, the utility trade group said.
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