The Preventing Power Outages Act would extend and revise the federal program in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that provides grants to prevent electric grid outages and improve resilience. The bill updates the program’s reliability metrics by explicitly defining CAIDI, SAIDI, and SAIFI and requiring that outages longer than five minutes, including those on Major Event Days, be counted in those calculations. It also directs the Department of Energy, and in some cases states and Indian Tribes administering funds, to give additional weight to applicants with poorer reliability performance over the prior five years, as shown by higher outage-duration and outage-frequency scores.
The bill further clarifies how grants may be prioritized and administered. It bars the Secretary, states, or Indian Tribes from requiring an application to address more than one category of activities, technologies, equipment, or hardening measures, and prohibits giving preference solely because an application covers multiple categories. Finally, it extends the program’s authorization from 2022–2026 to 2027–2031 and makes the funds available until expended.
Impact
If enacted, the bill would amend section 40101 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, affecting federal grid-resilience grant administration and the criteria used to evaluate applicants. It would likely shift more funding toward utilities, states, and Indian Tribes with worse recent outage performance, while also limiting agencies’ ability to favor broader, multi-pronged applications over narrower proposals. The bill would extend the life of the existing grant program and keep federal resilience funding available for a longer period.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee debate or votes, the measure appears to be framed as a targeted, technical extension and refinement of an existing resilience program rather than a controversial overhaul. Its sponsors present it as a way to improve outage prevention and better direct resources to areas with the greatest reliability problems. No formal opposition, amendments, or recorded vote history is provided in the available materials.
Contention
The main policy issues are how to measure grid reliability and how to allocate limited grant funds. The bill favors applicants with worse SAIDI, SAIFI, or CAIDI scores, which could be viewed as a fair way to target need but may be disputed by entities that have invested in reliability and still seek funding. Another possible point of contention is the restriction on requiring applications to address multiple categories of resilience measures, which may be welcomed by smaller applicants but could be criticized by those who prefer integrated, comprehensive projects. No specific stakeholder objections are documented in the provided record.
Establishes a program to develop microgrids that are capable of providing an uninterrupted supply of power to one or more community outage assets through an extended electric distribution outage.