Smart Grid Investment Grant Program

[Luke_Wilbur]

The Department of Energy (DOE) announces its intent to issue a competitive Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to solicit applications for grants for the Smart Grid

Investment Grant Program (SGIG). The Smart Grid Investment Grant Program was originally authorized by Section 1306 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of

2007 (EISA; Public Law 110-140) and later modified by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act; Public Law 111-5).

 

The purpose of the program is to gain the improvements in cost and performance that will come from the deployment of smart grid technology. The program will provide federal assistance to cover up to fifty percent of investments by electric utilities and other entities for projects that promote the goal of deployment, including development of component technologies.

 

These investments will help implement the necessary digital upgrades to the electric grid enabling it to work more efficiently, as well as making it capable to effectively integrate renewable and energy efficient technologies and demand management practices. In addition to promoting grid modernization, the program will also provide a stimulus to the nation with respect to expanding economic opportunities, creating jobs for American workers, and increasing worker skills.

 

The Research and Development (R&D) Division within DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) will implement the Smart Grid Investment Grant

Program.

 

The program will apply a competitive, merit-based approach for providing funds to organizations for qualifying smart grid investment projects to advance smart grid

functions.

 

In addition to providing funds for smart grid projects, DOE will allocate a portion of the funds for projects that deploy Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) technology within the transmission system infrastructure.

 

DOE desires to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and other benefits of deployed smart grid technology. Therefore, applicants will be required to collect data that will enable

quantitative evaluation of the benefits of the technology. DOE will apply an analytical approach that will be further elucidated within the subsequent formal solicitation for this

grant program. Wherever possible, the key variable should be applied using a randomized control trial design. For example, in the case of smart meters the most

important data is hour by hour consumption. To determine differences based on pricing mechanisms, the pricing should be assigned randomly (e.g. by lottery); to compare real time usage will require smart meters for both experimental and control groups. Projects should endeavor to include commercial and industrial accounts. This will allow for a “gold standard” evaluation of whether projects achieve their stated goals.