EE Times
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Department of Energy has released its final call for proposals for $3.9 billion in stimulus funds available for smart electric grid projects.
The so-called Funding Opportunity Announcements include $3.3 billion in cost-sharing grants for immediate deployments of existing smart-grid products and services. It also includes $615 million for demonstration projects showcasing next-generation technologies.
The final solicitations provide cost-sharing grants of up to $200 million for product deployments and awards up to $100 million for the next-generation demonstration projects.
The call for proposals has been in a draft stage since mid-April. The DoE received more than 600 comments on its draft.
"These investments will be used to develop a smart, strong and secure electrical grid that will help integrate renewable resources onto the grid, deliver power more reliably and effectively with less environmental impact, and create new jobs across the country," said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a prepared statement. "By investing in updating the grid now, we will lower utility bills for American families and businesses, lessen our dependence on oil, and help advance a clean energy future for the nation," he added
Industry groups were quick to praise the news.
"Today's DOE announcement finally opens the spigot for critical public and private investments to flow into new smart grid technologies and deployment, which will dramatically enhance energy efficiency and create cutting-edge jobs," said Katherine Hamilton, president of the GridWise Alliance, a 90 member coalition of public and private organizations promoting smart grid technology.
"This critical public funding, coupled with private sector investment, will jump-start many smart grid projects throughout the nation and provide much-needed jobs and economic stimulus in the electricity sector," Hamilton added, in a prepared statement.
"We are pleased that DoE has followed through on recommendations offered by the GridWise Alliance to raise the level of funding for larger and more expansive projects, which has opened this funding stream to initiatives by small, medium and large companies," she said.
Market watcher Parks Associates estimates four million smart meters have been deployed in the U.S. to date, though many have not been enabled for two-way communications. An estimated 50 million could be installed in five years, the group said.
"Its been going faster than anticipated in part as a result of government stimulus funds," said Bill Ablondi, a Parks researcher.
Separately, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released an interim report last week on the requirements for smart grid standards. NIST is working in parallel with the IEEE 2030 group to define technical standards for smart grids.
Details of the call for proposals are available on the FedConnect site for government-approved contractors. The solicitations can be found by searching for the Smart Grid Investment Program and Smart Grid Demonstrations using the search terms DE-FOA-0000058 and DE-FOA-0000036, respectively.
A separate solicitation is expected to be released within days for the first round of an estimated $7.5 billion in funds for rural broadband projects.
The DoE funding announcement comes just one day after the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and ZigBee Alliance announced availability of the next generation market requirements and use cases for what the groups call smart energy. Their new documents describe functions needed to provide consumer home control of smart-grid features on a home network such as monitoring energy use and providing for plug-in vehicles.
"The Smart Energy market requirements document reflects the consensus of many utility companies to maximize both the consumer benefits and ROI of the home network and smart grid," said Rob Ranck, HomePlug Alliance president, speaking in a prepared statement.
