U.S. Energy Department Launches Program to Support Utilities in Advancing Grid Reliability, Resilience, and Integration

The U.S. Energy Department on Jan.13 selected utility companies in several states for its Utility and Grid Operator Technical Assistance program designed to assist utilities and grid operators with the knowledge and expertise required to develop resilient and secure grid infrastructure.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in partnership with Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will manage the technical assistance initiative. The program offers three tracks of support: Key Assist provides up to $1 million for comprehensive technical assistance to navigate complex grid integration challenges, Interconnection Assistance offers $100,000 to $150,000 to address short-term interconnection needs, and Rolling Technical Assistance grants up to 100 hours of expert guidance.

Key Assist provides selected utilities access to facilities such as NREL’s Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems to comprehensively study grid integration issues. The five selected utilities for the Key Assist track are: North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives, Vermont Electric Cooperative, Puget Sound Energy, Guam Power Authority, and Golden Valley Electric Association.

The two selected Interconnection Assistance participants include Alaska’s Golden Valley Electric Association and the Hawaiian Electric Company. This track of the program offers participants up to $150,000 per project for one year to address short-term and medium-term interconnection challenges. Some of the areas of focus include technical scoping of host capacity maps, developing protocols for dynamic or flexible interconnection solutions and services, and developing cybersecurity requirements and protocols for Interconnection Agreements and secure data sharing.

With the growing demand for electricity from new sources such as data centers and electric vehicles, it is imperative for utility companies to possess up-to-date tools and programs to sustainably manage this demand without compromising the reliability of electric grids. NREL offers innovative tools such as the Advanced Distribution Management System test bed to help utilities and grid operators study complex demand scenarios. The system has tools such as grid simulators, renewable energy generators and other assets to help operators model different scenarios. These scenarios include, for example, how surplus power from rooftops can be distributed to neighboring homes or how multiple electric vehicles can be charged at the same building without overwhelming the electric grid.