Massachusetts Program
In August 2023, the Commonwealth was awarded approximately $9.2M from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the formula grant opportunity "Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid," established by Section 40101(d) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also know as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
In collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER), MassCEC developed a proposed program that aims to:
- Identify and fund projects that can improve energy reliability and resilience, while reducing the cost and number of outages for communities and underserved populations
- Support clean energy and decarbonization solutions, including building electrification
- Advance MassCEC and DOER equity, environmental and energy justice priorities
- Create good-paying jobs with the free and fair choice to join a union
In summer 2024, MassCEC posted a Request for Proposals soliciting applications from eligible subawardees that align with the Massachusetts Program Narrative.* Prior to the release of that RFP, MassCEC solicited feedback on draft guidelines for subawards and responded to all questions from stakeholders. MassCEC plans to reopen the solicitation in 2025.
Contact us with any questions via grid@masscec.com!
Public Hearing
On September 23, 2024, MassCEC hosted a public forum regarding changes to the Grants for Enhancing MA Grid Resilience & Reliability Program Narrative.
Proposed Changes: Utilizing a data source suggested by DOE, MassCEC estimated that approximately 59% of customers were served by small utilities (defined as utilities that sell less than 4,000,000 MWh of electricity annually), and therefore indicated in the Program Narrative that 59% of program funding would be made available for small utilities, per DOE guidelines. However, MassCEC identified a data source more accurate for Massachusetts and determined that approximately 13.5% of customers are served by small utilities. MassCEC will therefore update the Program Narrative to indicate that 13.5% of program funding will be made available for small utilities. This change does not limit small utilities' share of funding to 13.5%; rather, it represents the minimum that must be made available for small utilities.
Why This Change is Being Made: 13.5% is likely a more accurate representation of the proportion of electricity customers in Massachusetts that are served by small utilities.
MassCEC initially used the data source recommended by DOE (EIA’s 2022 Utility Bundled Retail Sales data table) to determine the size of eligible entities (large vs. small) and the percent of the MA population served by small utilities. However, bundled retail sales only describe sales where utilities both purchased electricity on behalf of the customer and delivered that electricity. However, bundled sales do not capture the full electric delivery services provided by utilities.
The same EIA data source also provides information about electric delivery services (2022 final data zip file, file name “EIA_Sales_Ult_Cust_2022")). The combination of bundled retail and delivery services data more accurately reflects the services that utilities provide to customers in MA.
Additionally, some municipal light plants (MLPs) do not report data to the EIA. Data for these MLPs was pulled from the most recent annual return that was submitted to the DPU.
Note: Updates to the Program Narrative have been highlighted in yellow for clarity.
Special thanks to the following stakeholders for their thoughtful feedback:
- Nexamp
- Western Mass Unitarian Universalist Network
- Town of Truro Energy Committee
- Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company
- The City of Framingham
- Solect Energy
Please sign up for Net Zero Grid email updates to receive notifications (https://www.masscec.com/subscribe, select “Net Zero Grid”).
Federal Program Background
As part of upgrading and modernizing infrastructure, DOE's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments will address the climate crisis and support efforts to build a clean and equitable energy economy that achieves zero carbon electricity by 2035 and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050 to benefit all Americans.
"Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid” will provide $459 million annually over a period of five years to States and Indian Tribes to improve the resilience of the electric grid against disruptive events. Under the program, the DOE will provide grants to eligible applicants to improve the resilience of their electric grids. These grants offer a unique opportunity to advance the capabilities of States and Indian Tribes to address current and future resilience needs.