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US NEWS 
By Emma Haidar
The US Energy Department plans to provide $1.9 billion to help fund 31 grid improvement projects across 26 states as part of a Trump administration’s push to fortify the US power networks.
The funding is intended to be used help replace or rebuild more than 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of transmission lines and put in place technologies to improve grid reliability across nearly 21,000 miles, the Energy Department said Thursday in a statement. The projects would get an additional $3.35 billion through recipient cost-share funding, according to the release.
The funding is part of an Energy Department initiative to upgrade infrastructure across America’s aging electricity networks. The nation’s grids have become strained by soaring demand, notably by data centers feeding the artificial intelligence boom, and vulnerable to extreme weather.
The efforts could make more than 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity available, according to the statement. A gigawatt is the equivalent capacity of one large nuclear reactor and enough to power as many as 1 million US homes.
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