White House announces $3.5B for power grid upgrades across the US, including Michigan

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - The U.S. power grid is getting a $3.5 million upgrade across 44 states, and Michigan is one of them.

The funding is meant to strengthen the electric grid and protect it from extreme weather, President Joe Biden's administration announced Wednesday. The upgrades will also aim to deliver cheaper and cleaner energy.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said it was the largest federal investment ever in grid infrastructure, supporting projects that will harden electric systems and improve energy reliability and affordability. The federal spending, combined with money promised by private partners, could result in up to $8 billion in investments nationally to upgrade the grid, Granholm said.

"Things are going to be stronger and better and hopefully produce a lot of really high paying jobs to get this work done," said White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu. 

Recently, Michigan has had 25 extreme weather events, costing the state upwards of $5 billion. 

In the first round of funding, DTE Energy will receive approximately $23 million to deploy adaptive networked micro-grids in the Detroit area to enhance reliability and reduce outages.

"They have adaptive micro grids so that they don't feed off of each other all the time so when the big part of it goes down, the small parts stay up," Landrieu said.

Consumers Energy anticipates receiving $100 million to upgrade circuit systems and increase capacity to local substations in some of Michigan's most disadvantaged communities, Landrieu added.

About $300 billion in infrastructure spending has already been allocated across the United States, Landrieu said, with 38,000 projects currently in progress across all states.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.