Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas Demonstration Funding

ERAFOA1@hq.doe.gov

The Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas Program will provide financial investment, technical assistance, and other resources to advance clean energy demonstrations and energy solutions in rural and remote areas that can be replicated and scaled.

Program goals:

1. Deliver measurable benefits to energy customers in rural or remote areas by funding replicable energy projects that lower energy costs, improve energy access and resilience, and/or reduce environmental harm
2. Demonstrate new rural or remote energy system models using climate-resilient technologies, business structures that promote economic resilience, new financing mechanisms, and/or new community engagement best practices
3. Build clean energy knowledge, capacity, and self-reliance in rural America

Key benefits and metrics:

• Improved grid performance, measured through positive changes in metrics such as a reduction in total prolonged outages, reduction in threshold major event days, improvement in system average interruption duration index (SAIDI) and/or system average interruption frequency index (SAIFI), or similar metrics demonstrating improved reliability because of the project
• Improved resilience, measured through positive changes in metrics such as restoration time, total number of event days, and/or average number of customers impacted by events because of the project
• Reduced energy burden and poverty, measured through positive changes in metrics such as improvement in energy burden from a baseline established prior to project implementation, reduction in the number or frequency of customer arrearages, and/or the percent of customers receiving shut-off notices because of the project
• Increased economic resilience, measured in ongoing permanent jobs created in the community, wages and benefits, and build-out of the supply chain or other induced economic effects
• Improved environmental performance from energy generation to support public health, measured through positive changes in metrics such as air quality index (AQI), total dissolved solids (TDS), streamflow, and aquifer hydraulic head because of the project
• Reduce greenhouse gas impact of energy system, measured by change in carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions because of the project, relative to an established baseline
• Energy Access, reducing the number of homes currently without access to electricity

Eligible applicants include:

• Institutions of higher education
• Nonprofit entities
• For-profit entities
• Tribal nations (federally recognized and other than federally recognized)
• State and local governmental entities
• Incorporated Consortia
• Unincorporated Consortia

Award ceiling: $100,000,000
Award floor: $5,000,000
Project period: 7 years
Estimated number of awards: 28
Estimated total program funding: $300,000,000

A minimum of 50% non-federal cost share is required unless the applicant is eligible for the Special Cost Share. The recipient cost share requirement for the non-federal share of projects is reduced from 50% to 20% where the prime recipient is an institution of higher education; nonprofit entity; or U.S. state, local, or tribal government entity (including Alaska Native Corporations and Alaska Native Village Corporations).

Links to the full announcement, application instructions, and the online application process are available through grants.gov and the Department of Energy website.

Submit a concept paper online through the OCED eXCHANGE website by April 14, 2023. Selected applicants will be encouraged to submit a full application, with a deadline of June 28, 2023.

Technical assistance website