On Tuesday, January 10, 2023, from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST, NAFOA is hosting a webinar with the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office to discuss new opportunities as part of the Grid Resilience Formula Grants available specifically for tribes. As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed last year, the Department of Energy has launched a new program that enables federally recognized Tribes to apply for electric grid resilience formula grants.
As outlined in Sec. 40101(d) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, this program will have approximately $84M per year in formula grants available to Tribes for the next 5 years. Applications for Year 1 (FY22) and Year 2 (FY23) funding are due March 31st, 2023.
Grid resilience projects can be implemented on or off tribal trust lands as long as they provide benefit to the tribal community with the grant funding a wide array of resilience measures, including:
- weatherization technologies,
- equipment hardening or undergrounding,
- vegetation management, and
- energy storage.
During this information session, representatives of the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office will present a detailed overview of the opportunities and limitations of the Grid Resilience Formula Grant program, provide guidance and strategies for submitting an application, and answer questions from the audience.
Topics will include project eligibility, cost match requirements, and how to approach constructing a program narrative for the application. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) team that will be administering the grant program will also provide an overview of the process for program execution once applications have been approved.