Trump administration restores $50 million Minnesota Power grant

Households and businesses in Otter Tail County could see the most direct benefit from Washington’s reversal: a restored $50 million grant for Minnesota Power that may help keep future electric bills from rising as sharply while the utility rebuilds key transmission equipment. The money is tied to a $940 million project to modernize Minnesota Power’s 48-year-old high-voltage, direct-current system, a backbone for regional reliability across the company’s service area.

Minnesota Power has said the federal grant was important because it could help soften customer rate impacts from the terminal expansion project. The utility serves Otter Tail County and communities across northern Minnesota, where dependable transmission matters not only for homes and farms but also for employers weighing whether to expand, invest or stay put. Minnesota Power had said construction could begin in 2024, with the upgraded system in service between 2028 and 2030.

The grant was originally announced in October 2023 by the U.S. Department of Energy through its Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program, a $10.5 billion federal effort aimed at making the grid more resilient and flexible. DOE then terminated the award in October 2025 as part of a broader action that cut hundreds of grants, setting off warnings from Minnesota officials that the move could undercut grid reliability, clean-energy investment and jobs.

That criticism was sharpened by the financing already in place. State officials said the project had secured $25 million in state support, including $10 million from the State Competitiveness Fund. DFL state Sen. Grant Hauschild said the state had already come forward with matching grant money for the project, while Rep. Pete Johnson said the canceled grant threatened grid reliability, modernization of transmission lines, clean energy innovation and good-paying jobs.

The reinstatement also comes as Minnesota continues tracking federal energy funding with high stakes for the Upper Midwest. In May 2026, the Minnesota Department of Commerce said DOE would honor a separate $464 million grid-upgrade grant for Minnesota and six other states, underscoring how much the region’s power plans now depend on federal transmission dollars. For Otter Tail County, the restored Minnesota Power grant keeps a major infrastructure project alive and keeps some of the cost risk off local ratepayers as the grid is pushed toward the next decade.