The U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday that it is soliciting applications for $3.9 billion in grants to support efforts to modernize the nation’s electric grid to allow for greater integration of renewable energy sources while increasing the reliability and efficiency.
Grants will be funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) are split into approximately $3.3 billion for the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program and $615 million for smart grid demonstration projects.
As part of the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program, DOE will provide cost-shared grants to support manufacturing, purchasing and installation of existing smart grid technologies that can be deployed on a commercial scale.
Funding under the Smart Grid Demonstration Program will be used to demonstrate how emerging technologies can be applied in innovative ways within the electric delivery system to provide integrated and economically-feasible solutions. The Investment Grant program is intended to enable smart grid functions on the electric system as soon as possible, while the Demonstration program is aimed at identifying and developing new and more cost-effective smart grid equipment, tools, techniques, and system configurations that can significantly improve upon today’s technologies.
The final FOAs reflect the more than 600 comments DOE received on the draft solicitations. The Department previously announced that while the maximum award limits for both programs were being increased, the Department will support projects of all sizes. Under the final solicitations, the maximum award for the Smart Grid Investment Grants will be $200 million; the maximum award for the Smart Grid Demonstrations will be $100 million.
The final FOAs are available at the link below. Search public opportunities for the following reference numbers: Smart Grid Investment Program (DE-FOA-0000058) and Smart Grid Demonstrations (DE-FOA-0000036).
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