Preventing Power Outages Act

The Preventing Power Outages Act aims to extend and amend a critical federal program established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which focuses on preventing electric grid outages and enhancing its resilience. This legislation reauthorizes appropriations for the program from 2027 through 2031, ensuring continued funding for grid improvements. A key provision introduces standardized definitions for electric reliability metrics: Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) , System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) , and System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) . These metrics, which must include all outages over five minutes, will now be used to guide grant distribution. The bill mandates that both the Secretary and sub-granting States or Indian Tribes give special consideration and additional weight to eligible entities with lower reliability, as indicated by higher SAIDI, SAIFI, or CAIDI scores over the previous five years, when awarding grants. Furthermore, the act clarifies that grant applications cannot be conditioned on addressing multiple types of activities or technologies, nor can preference be given solely for doing so. This ensures that applicants can focus on specific, critical improvements without being penalized for not proposing a broad range of measures.