Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) — Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades (SPARK)

Summary

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE-NETL) is soliciting applications under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) for the SPARK program. The program focuses on accelerating the deployment of advanced transmission technologies, with an emphasis on reconductoring and other key grid upgrades. The intent is to speed up power delivery capacity improvements on the U.S. electric transmission grid. This is currently posted as a synopsis/pre-announcement ahead of the full Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA DE-FOA-0003580).

What they want

How they evaluate

Risks & flags

• Only a synopsis/pre-announcement is available — full FOA details, evaluation criteria, and eligibility requirements are not yet published, limiting preparation time once full FOA drops
• Short window between open date (03/12/2026) and close date (05/20/2026) — approximately 69 days — may disadvantage applicants without prior awareness or existing project development