On a sweltering summer day in Washington, federal officials finalized a move that reshaped energy priorities: the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) approved a $3.26 billion loan to American Electric Power Texas on July 8 to fund 100 transmission projects. These include rebuilding existing lines and adding new infrastructure stretching roughly 2,800 miles.
Transmission upgrades and savings
The DOE claims the projects will cut electricity costs for more than one million Texas households and businesses by about $685 million over the next 30 years. The deal marks the third utility financing under the Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF), which has been actively channeling funds toward baseload power, transmission, and nuclear projects.
A repositioning of energy lending
Since Congress passed the Working Families Tax Cuts Act a year ago, the EDF has taken a distinct turn. The office, once known as the Loan Programs Office, now boasts $289 billion in loan authority, making it the world's largest energy lender. But the shift is not just in size—it's in direction.
The EDF has restructured or canceled more than $83 billion in loans from the Biden administration. That includes $9.5 billion tied to wind and solar projects. For energy firms, the move signals a clear pivot from intermittent renewables to more stable, traditional energy sources.
EDF Director Gregory A. Beard described the shift as necessary. 'The prior administration had policies that undermined our grid with intermittent and expensive technologies that didn't deliver the affordable, reliable, and secure energy that Americans need,' he said in a July 2 statement.
Big deals, big savings
EDF says it has already deployed $30 billion in utility loans, with $8 billion in savings passed to customers. The largest deal to date was a $26.5 billion loan to subsidiaries of Southern Company, the biggest in DOE history.
That loan is expected to deliver over $7 billion in savings to customers in Georgia and Alabama while supporting more than 16 gigawatts of firm power. This includes 5 GW of new gas generation, 6 GW of nuclear through uprates, and 1,300 miles of new transmission.
Smaller efforts, like a $1.6 billion loan to AEP covering 5,000 miles of transmission in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, follow a similar model. A June loan to DTE Gas will modernize 800 miles of gas distribution in Michigan, saving customers more than $700 million.
It will double the power capacity of upgraded lines and connect new baseload generation, serving demand from expanding data centers and manufacturing in the Permian Basin.