Tracking the 31 projects the U.S. Department of Energy selected in September 2026 for its SPARK program (Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades): who was selected, what they plan to build, and where each project stands.
Interactive version: jphoebus.github.io/spark-grid-tracker
All projects: jphoebus.github.io
SPARK funds upgrades to existing transmission lines, through reconductoring and grid-enhancing technologies, to connect new demand faster than new corridors can be built. DOE selected 31 projects requesting $1.89 billion in federal funds, with $5.25 billion in total project value once utility cost share is included. These are selections, not final awards. DOE expects to sign agreements between October 2026 and January 2027, and this tracker will follow each project from selection to award.
- Headquarters are not project sites. The 26 locations in DOE's list are where prime applicants are based, including Guam and California, where EPRI is headquartered even though its project runs on FirstEnergy and Salt River Project systems. Several projects cross state lines; Basin Electric's covers six states.
- The data center story is narrower than the headlines. Seven of the 31 project descriptions cite data centers, large loads, or new load, and only two name data centers directly. Most describe congestion, reliability, and aging infrastructure.
- States are applicants, not just regulators. Four state-led projects in Colorado, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Indiana request $810 million, 43 percent of all federal funds. One is led by Ohio's utility commission.
- Utilities are bringing more than the minimum. Six smart grid projects request exactly $50 million in federal funds, and several put in far more of their own. Alabama Power's cost share is 73 percent; the New York Power Authority's is 81 percent.
- Selections become signed awards between October 2026 and January 2027. Final amounts may differ from these requests.
- How each project's cost share is recovered: through federally regulated transmission rates, state-regulated retail rates, or cooperative and public power boards.
- Pennsylvania's two projects: PPL's Montour corridor rebuild and Duquesne Light's GRID-SURGE interconnection upgrades.
- How the four state-led projects coordinate work across multiple utilities and grid regions.
The question that will shape the next phase: who gets the capacity these upgrades unlock, the large loads driving demand or the customers paying for congestion today, and who decides.
The full list is in spark-selections.csv, with one row per project and 16 columns covering the prime applicant, topic area, headquarters, states named in the project description, federal request, total project value, cost share, technologies described, whether the description cites data centers, large loads, or new load, and status. All figures come from DOE's Selected Applications for DE-FOA-0003580 (SPARK). Amounts are requested, not awarded, and descriptions condense DOE's summaries. This tracker is for policy analysis and is not investment, tax, or legal advice.
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I'm Joshua Phoebus. I spent seven and a half years in Pennsylvania state government, including four years as Director of Performance and Transformation in the Office of Governor Tom Wolf, where I led the Commonwealth's performance-based budgeting engagement across twenty-nine executive agencies and guided agencies on compliance with the tax credit reviews required under Act 48.
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joshuaphoebus
- Website: joshuaphoebusllc.com