National Grid to spend over $4 billion on multi-year Upstate Upgrade to improve grid resilience

National Grid (NYSE: NGG) on Wednesday said it plans to invest more than $4 billion to “transform its energy delivery system and propel economic growth across Upstate New York.”

Referred to as the Upstate Upgrade, National Grid describes it as a “collection of transmission–enhancement projects [that] will deliver a smarter, stronger, cleaner energy grid to support a more resilient energy network for generations to come.”

The company says it’s embarking on more than 70 projects through 2030 that will “generate thousands of new jobs” and more than a billion dollars in additional economic growth, while “ensuring the energy grid is able to meet customers’ growing demand for electricity.”

“The Upstate Upgrade represents a landmark investment and speaks to how National Grid is reinforcing the grid to meet our customers’ growing energy needs while leading the clean energy transition,” Rudy Wynter, president of National Grid New York, said in the announcement. “This six-year portfolio of work will transform the grid, improve reliability and resilience and enable us to deliver renewable energy to homes and businesses across New York.”  

The effort seeks to help reach the state’s climate goals as outlined in New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, National Grid said.

The planned upgrades will also provide “greater resilience” with “increasingly frequent” extreme weather, such as blizzards, tornadoes, and severe windstorms, “which are destructive to grid infrastructure.”

Crews will have a goal of “reinforcing and upgrading infrastructure like transmission lines and substations,” National Grid said.

The utility also believes the Upstate Upgrade will benefit local economies by bringing over 1,700 new construction jobs and associated residual spending to local communities.The residual spending will create thousands of additional jobs, and at least $1.9 billion in overall economic output during and after construction, National Grid contends, citing a third-party analysis performed by the consultancy West Monroe.

The analysis also forecasts the Upstate Upgrade will create up to two percent economic growth in the project areas through 2030.

National Grid is the largest energy delivery company in upstate New York, serving electricity to 1.7 million electricity customers across 25,000 square miles, per its announcement.