This week, the Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), announced $300 million for projects that increase energy affordability and promote climate resilience and $15 million for a prize competition to help rural communities build the capacity needed for clean energy development and deployment. These two new funding opportunities are a critical component of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) program, which aims to improve the resilience, reliability, and affordability of energy systems in communities across the country with 10,000 or fewer people. 

Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas
A $300 million funding opportunity will award projects that increase energy affordability and promote climate resilience with an anticipated federal cost share ranging from $5 to $100 million per project. DOE seeks to provide equal opportunity to qualified applicants and enable potential replication in rural and remote communities across the nation.

The Energizing Rural Communities Prize 
DOE is also launching the Energizing Rural Communities Prize to support capacity building to remove two of the biggest barriers to improving energy systems in rural or remote areas: developing necessary partnerships and securing financing. Through $15 million in funding, this prize competition will help build partnerships by connecting communities to government funding and a network of partners that can help implement clean energy projects.

View the full funding opportunity and register to apply on OCED Exchange. Concept papers are due by April 14, 2023, and full applications are due by June 28, 2023.
Read more about the Energizing Rural Communities Prize. Full applications are due by May 24, 2023.

This workshop is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). OCED Principal Deputy Director Kelly Cummins recording this video which does a great job of explaining the role of the office and these workshops.

The DOE is interested in hearing about how demonstration projects will improve the resilience, safety, reliability, availability, and environmental performance of rural and remote energy systems throughout the country. These workshops are an opportunity to hear from people like you about energy challenges you are facing and the types of projects that can improve your energy systems.

These workshops will:

• Provide a detailed overview of the ERA program to interested stakeholders
• Collect feedback from stakeholders on drivers, challenges, and potential impacts of demonstrations
• Offer a forum for stakeholder networking in preparation for the funding opportunity announcement

Before sharing this opportunity with your rural and remote stakeholders, please watch the video linked in the first paragraph. It really does a great job of explaining the new DOE Office and the role of the workshops. If your coalition represents rural communities and is interested in attending, we also encourage you to register and share your feedback. Let me know if you have any questions.

The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $1 billion to improve energy systems in rural or remote areas of the country with fewer than 10,000 people, and OCED is seeking input as it shapes this new ERA program in preparation for a future funding opportunity announcement.

There are three upcoming ERA workshops (list below) and your stakeholders may interested in joining one at the locations below.

• Workshop focusing on the Western U.S. is set for October 12-13, 2022 in Golden, CO. Register here.
• Workshop focusing on the Eastern U.S. is set for October 25-26, 2022 in Little Rock, AR. Register here.
• Virtual workshop is set for November 1-2, 2022. Register here.

Effective January 1_st, 2023, a new DOE rule will effectively prohibit the manufacture, distribution, and sale of most incandescent and halogen lamps in the US. This rule applies a minimum efficiency of 45 lumens per watt to general service lamps which is understood to be unachievable by incandescent and halogen style lamps. This rule, therefore, will accelerate the full market transition to LED bulbs.

The rule is being applied to retailers along with manufacturers, distributors, and importers. Penalties will start being applied in the first quarter of 2023 and then increase later in the year. Because these penalties are being applied to retailers, we expect to only see LED style bulbs on shelves come January.

How does this affect IAMU Members? First, the full transition to more energy efficient bulbs should reduce your wholesale power consumption. Second, for those members still offering an efficiency rebate for purchasing efficient bulbs, you may want to consider repurposing that budget for other efficiency or load-growth incentive programs.

There is still plenty of time to enroll in MunEEBuck$, and have your rebate program fully launched by July 1st. Please contact Jeff Gorrie (309-678-5579) soon if you would like to move your current rebate program onto our shared platform or if you would like to consider launching a new program.