U.S. Department of Energy Provides $65 Million for Connected Communities 2.0: Innovations to Manage Growing Building, Transportation, and Industrial Loads on the Grid
Posted by Grant Coordinator on Jul. 29, 2024 / Awards & Grants / Subscribe 0
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $65 million for Connected Communities 2.0, a program that drives technical innovations that improve our ability to manage growing electrical loads from buildings, transportation, and industry. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) seeks to validate grid-edge technology innovations in real-world situations and provide new tools for grid operators, utilities, planners, and the communities they serve.
The FOA’s focus areas include:
- $15 million in Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) funding for field validation of smart charge management (SCM) for EVs that can be deployed at large scale
- $50 million in DOE funding for field validation of grid-edge technical measures for buildings, industry, and transportation that can be deployed at large scale.
The rapid growth of EVs connecting to the electricity grid to recharge will result in new loads that will require new management. SCM is an approach that can shift and spread these loads to more desirable times for the grid. SCM also provides grid services such as peak load shaving, demand charge mitigation, voltage support, frequency regulation, renewable generation integration, and more. While various pilots and programs have demonstrated SCM for EVs connected to electric vehicle supply equipment—either at individual charging locations or congregated charging locations across a large distribution network—there are numerous other use cases for SCM that need to be investigated. Subtopic 1A will fund wide-scale demonstrations of SCM in various urban, suburban, and rural use cases to showcase the effectiveness of SCM technology in utilizing the flexibility and value that EVs provide to the grid.
The VTO funding for SCM is the same topic that was previously announced via VTO Notice of Intent, DE-FOA-0003382. DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and Office of Electricity collaborated to support integrated energy system planning with a network of technology offices and industry partners. As a result, this FOA is issued by EERE’s Building Technologies Office and VTO, in collaboration with the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office, Solar Technologies Office, and Geothermal Technologies Office.
Concept papers are due Aug. 20, 2024. Learn more and join an informational webinar on July 29.
0 Comments