The Department of Energy announced the SPARK (Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades) funding opportunity in March 2026, making nearly $2 billion available for projects that expand transfer capability on existing transmission corridors using advanced conductors and grid-enhancing technologies. The program explicitly targets upgrades that do not require new right-of-way acquisition, the single largest source of project delay for conventional transmission expansion.
Reconductoring, replacing aging aluminum conductors on existing towers with modern advanced conductors such as ACCC (aluminum conductor composite core) or high-temperature low-sag designs, can increase a line’s carrying capacity by 50-100% with no new land footprint and a fraction of the cost and timeline of building new transmission. SPARK funds projects that demonstrate this approach at scale, alongside topology optimization software, dynamic line rating systems, and static synchronous compensators that together make existing grid assets carry more power more reliably.
The program is one of the last major Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grid investments before the budget environment shifted. For project developers and transmission owners, SPARK funding reduces the cost and timeline of the capacity additions most likely to clear permitting without multi-year litigation. The practical constraint remains interconnection: reconductored lines carry more power, but the generator projects that would use the additional capacity still need to clear the FERC interconnection queue.