Launching a $2.3 billion effort for states and tribes to revamp the national power grid is the latest White House effort to bolster electricity usage to modernize transportation infrastructure.

The national power grid is facing numerous challenges resulting from extreme weather, insufficient transmission capacity to transfer power across regions and aging transmission lines and transformers (70% are more than 25 years old), according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Upgrading and expanding the transmission system will improve the national electrical grid’s reliability and resilience while facilitating integration of clean energy sources.

“There is no question that a modernized grid is the linchpin to President [Joe] Biden’s goal of a nation powered by reliable, renewable clean energy,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said April 27 in announcing a new formula grant program under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).