The U.S. Department of Energy announced $125 million in grants to nine states and five tribal nations on Sept. 5 to modernize electric grids.

Montana is among the recipients through the Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants established by the federal infrastructure bill.

The grants “will help modernize the electric grid to reduce impacts of climate-driven extreme weather and natural disasters while also ensuring power sector reliability. This funding will enable communities to access affordable, reliable, and clean electricity,” as part of President Biden’s clean energy goals, according to DoE.

“This year, the U.S. has already incurred $15 billion in extreme climate-related disaster costs, underscoring the urgent need to strengthen the grid to deliver dependable power supply to Americans,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a release.

This cohort of nine states and five tribes will receive a combined total of $125 million.

Since May 2023, DOE has distributed more than $580.5 million in Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants under Biden’s Investing in America Agenda.

Montana is receiving $14 million to “improve the reliability and resilience of the electric grid by reducing the vulnerability to disruptive events and the consequences of outages to community facilities and critical infrastructure. The grant funding will be used to limit wildfire ignition from transmission and distribution equipment and increase the skilled workforce in Montana to operate and maintain resilience measures,” according to a DoE release.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality will administer the grant through a competitive selection process.