$2.5 Million DoE Grant for Virginia Tech

U.S. Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) today announced that the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has awarded $2.5 million to Virginia Tech, through their Grid Overhaul with Proactive, High-speed Undergrounding for Reliability, Resilience, and Security program. This grant money will be used to develop a look-ahead sensing system, which will assist in the undergrounding of power lines.

“It is more important than ever that we harden our electrical grid, in order to make it more safe, reliable, and resilient. One way to do so is by undergrounding power lines,” said Griffith. “This $2.5 million grant from the Department of Energy will help Virginia Tech develop a real-time, look-ahead sensing system based on integrated electromagnetic and seismic sensors to guide and assist drilling to lower the cost and safety concerns of undergrounding power lines.