Louisiana 40401(d) Grid Resilience Formula Grant Award - CLOSED
-Round 2 can be found here.
Overview
The State of Louisiana is set to receive $40 million in federal funding under Section 40101(d) of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) as part of the US Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants Program to improve the resilience of the electric grid against disruptive events, such as wildfires, extreme weather, and other natural disasters that are exacerbated by the climate crisis. These investments will support efforts to ensure all communities will have access to affordable, reliable and clean electricity.
Located along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana is susceptible to major hurricanes and other forms of climate threats (e.g., flooding, winter storms, heat waves) each season. Since 2000, Louisiana has experienced 57 distinct billion-dollar disasters. Along with Texas and Florida, Louisiana is among the top three states in terms of climate risks. Beyond extreme weather events, vulnerabilities on the electric system impact residents and businesses in Louisiana on a regular basis.
In May 2023, Louisiana was one of first states to obtain an award in the first cycle of the Grid Resilience Formula Grants Program, receiving $15,990,093 for the first two program years. Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources is designated as the program administrator and will hold a competitive selection process to identify projects for this federal funding. All relevant information and announcement about the program will be posted on this webpage.
QUICK LINKS
Eligible Entities and Matching Requirements
Louisiana Infrastructure Opportunities Monthly Webinar
In 2022, the State of Louisiana worked to engage stakeholders, share best practices, collaborate to develop objectives, metrics and criteria for Section 40101(d) projects, and align on near-term needs and long-term strategies to invest in power infrastructure improvements that enhance all-hazards resilience. This foundational effort supported the development of the core objectives, metrics, and project criteria, as described below.
The awarded funding will focus on five core objectives: Resilience, Environment, Equity, Affordability, and Safety.
1. RESILIENCE: Reduce the frequency, duration, and impact of outages for Louisiana residents, businesses, and critical services.
2. ENVIRONMENT: Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, pollutants impacting public health, fuel costs, and energy burden in Louisiana (particularly in disadvantaged communities).
3. EQUITY: Create new careers, training programs, and apprenticeship opportunities for residents in disadvantaged communities/businesses and enable residents to have safe and efficient homes.
4. AFFORDABILITY: Reduce energy bills and energy burden for disadvantaged communities, take advantage of new federal and private funding, and reduce the cost of long-duration outages for communities.
5. SAFETY: Reduce customer- and grid-side power quality and wires down instances while improving awareness of new safety considerations with distributed energy solutions.
Eligible Entities and Matching Requirements
“Eligible Entities” for subawards under this funding, pursuant to BIL Sec. 40101(d), include:
- An electric grid operator,
- An electricity storage operator,
- An electricity generator,
- A transmission owner or operator,
- A distribution provider,
- A fuel supplier, and
- Other relevant entity, as may be determined by the Secretary of U.S. Department of Energy.
Louisiana DENR is working with the US Department of Energy to additionally qualify as eligible entities the following: units of local government, critical facilities, non-profit organizations, and co-ops whose organizational mission is to serve and benefit disadvantaged communities throughout the State of Louisiana.
The State is looking to prioritize the following project types for funding under this initiative:
- Critical Facility Microgrids. Grid-connected and behind-the-meter generation, storage, and controls for hospitals, emergency, water treatment and pumping, and other life-essential services. Projects should include the ability to island (stand alone) from the main grid, ideally with black-start capability (ability to start up independently after an outage).
- Community Microgrids. Community-oriented local grid system with connected DER, storage, and controls for a defined set of residential and commercial buildings to enable communities to be resilient in place. Projects should include the ability to island (stand alone) from the main grid, ideally with black-start capability (ability to start up independently after an outage).
- Community resilience hubs. Create local / community-based resilience hubs (e.g., cooling / heating centers, first responders, food and supplies, charging stations) to help a community ride out outage events in their own neighborhood. Projects could include microgrids. .
- Vehicle-to-Building and Vehicle-to-Grid. Leveraging energy storage in vehicles to provide critical back-up and other services to improve resiliency in buildings or the local distribution grid.
In the initial stage, the State is looking for three types of project teams:
- “Shovel-ready” projects. The State is looking to identify shovel ready projects that can be finished within 24 months.
- Early-Stage Community-Based Project Partnerships. The State is looking to support projects in and/or benefitting disadvantaged communities that may need additional resources, time, and technical assistance, and ultimately completed over a 5-year timeline.
- All other timing.
Eligible Community-Based Project Partnerships must meet the following criteria:
- Led by a community or co-op utility, unit of local government, community- based non-profit, company located in a disadvantaged community, or other state approved entity.
- Work with the local community through meaningful engagement.
- Substantially and meaningfully provide benefit to disadvantaged communities.
- Include carbon-free energy sources.
The State will provide a set-aside of at least 24.72% of its total funding amount to entities selling not more than 4,000,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year (small utilities).
More than 50% of funds are intended to be awarded to projects that are located in and/or can demonstrate benefits to Disadvantaged Communities.
Applicants that are small utilities (sell not more than 4,000,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year) must demonstrate cost match of 33% of the federal grant amount costs. All other applicants must demonstrate cost match of 100% of the federal grant amount.
On August 22, 2023 LDENR issued an RFI to collect information and feedback on program design and administration from the stakeholders and entities interested in applying for funding under this program.
The purpose of this RFI is to: (a) generate community and stakeholder awareness of the upcoming funding opportunities; (b) identify existing projects that can be completed within a 24-month time period; (c) identify possible early-stage community-based project partnerships that would benefit from a longer planning horizon; and (d) see feedback on scoring criteria and parameters for early-stage community-based project planning.
You can find the copy of the RFI here.
Deadline for providing responses: September 15, 2023
If you have any questions, please direct them to 40101d@la.gov
On December 1, 2023 LDENR issued a Request for Projects from stakeholders and entities applying for funding under this program.
The purpose of this Request for Projects is to: (a) generate community and stakeholder awareness of the funding opportunity; (b) identify existing projects that can be completed within a 24-month time period; and (c) identify possible early-stage community-based project partnerships that would benefit from a longer planning horizon.
You can find the copy of the Request for Projects here.
You can find the copy of Attachment A here.
Deadline for providing responses:January 8, 2024
If you have any questions, please direct them to 40101d@la.gov
Louisiana Infrastructure Opportunities Monthly Webinar
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act have provided billions of dollars in funding opportunities to improve critical infrastructure across the country. The call will be held monthly with the purpose of strengthening stakeholder knowledge on current and upcoming infrastructure opportunities for Louisiana. The call will provide a list of upcoming grants and a deep dive into available opportunities.
June 30, 2023 webinar slides.
For additional information about infrastructure opportunities for Louisiana please visit infrastructure.la.gov and email infrastructure@la.gov with a request to sign up for the Louisiana Weekly Opportunities Update to stay informed on all upcoming grant deadlines, guidance, and other program news.
Q: Do you have an anticipated timeline for when this program will be open?
A: An RFI has been issued and is available here. Responses to the RFI are due September 8, 2023. More details regarding the RFI/RFP timeline and results will be posted on this page.
Q: Are you looking to fund more planning/design or implementation?
A: Both types of projects will be funded. DENR is looking for shovel ready projects that can be finished within 24 months but will also look at projects that need design/planning work that could be completed in a 5-year timeline. For the projects needing design/planning support we are looking for projects with extensive community engagement that need. From feedback they received last fall, there are projects with urgent need and opportunities to get money out the door quickly, but if they only focus on shovel-ready projects then we may not be properly supporting communities that are not as equipped and ready to go. So would want to support earlier stage projects with extensive community engagement that need planning and design work that can position them well to receive funding 2-3 years down the line.
Q: Are projects with powerlines eligible and would burying overhead lines be a good fit?
A: Once the RFI is out, that type of project is something DENR would look at and consider.
Q: Do you have examples of Co-op relationships that have been beneficial in the energy space?
A: Louisiana has been very aggressive in supporting needs of cooperative utilities plans with communities and utilities. Louisiana is very happy to continue to support those efforts and projects that require early-stage planning and design and have large scale needs.
Q: Will you accept proposals for multi-year projects where the projects will last more than 12 months?
A: There is no 12-month restriction and we anticipate most projects will take longer than 12 months.
Q: Are engineering and planning administrations eligible for funding as part of the planning/design/implementation of projects? If yes, what percentage?
A: The details would be finalized in the RFP and questions related to that will be asked in the RFI. Early-stage community-based project partnerships will likely be a lot of early-stage engineering planning work. For other buckets, we won’t be seeking to fund only engineering and planning work. Most competitive projects would likely be ready to go to be built in 24 months. More details on percentages and expectations would be available in the RFP/RFI.
Q: Clarify the community match?
A: For small utility providers (under 4 million megawatt hours sold per year) the community match is 1/3 cost share. For all other entities, the cost match is one to one.
Q: Can other grant funds be used as part of cost shares, especially for disadvantaged communities with limited funding/tax base?
A: If they are federal funds, they cannot be used as cost share for these projects. But they could be used to bring down the overall costs of the project. State/local/nonprofit/philanthropic funds could be used as cost share for the program.
Q: How do I learn about other infrastructure funding opportunities in Louisiana?
A: Visit infrastructure.la.gov to learn more about available opportunities, infrastructure news, and upcoming events and webinars. There, you can also sign up for the weekly Louisiana Infrastructure Opportunities Update.
Q: Who do we reach out to at the State level for assistance?
A: The 40101(d) Coordinator - 40101d@la.gov