DOE seeks public input on spending $1B to improve rural, remote energy systems

Following up on a $1 billion program funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve energy generation in rural or remote communities of the United States, the Department of Energy issued a public Request for Information (RFI) to gather feedback on a path forward.

The Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) program was launched to bring the nearly one-in-six Americans who live in remote or rural communities in line with the rest of the country regarding their energy grids. Historically, these areas have suffered from higher costs and poor reliability, which are only exacerbated by the fact that these areas tend to have a disproportionately high number of low and moderate-income families.

As proposed, the ERA program would offer federal support to these areas for:

1. Improving the cost-effectiveness of energy generation, transmission, or distribution systems
2. Siting or upgrading transmission and distribution lines
3. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy generation
4. Creating or modernizing electric generation facilities
5. Developing microgrids
6. Increasing energy efficiency

Next, the DOE seeks to tighten these broad strokes into a firm action plan, and for that, it wants public input to shape the program and its implementation. Types of projects, programmatic design considerations, equity efforts, environmental and energy justice – all are on the table for discussion, so long as they bear in mind the DOE’s one caveat: these projects must be scalable and replicable.

The RFI will proceed until Nov. 28, 2022. A funding opportunity through which project proposals will be solicited is expected to follow next year.