The Colorado Department of Local Affairs is seeking applications for its MCR Storage/Controller Construction/Implementation Grant.
Donor Name: Colorado Department of Local Affairs
State: Colorado
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/13/2024
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The microgrid storage and controller assets funded through this opportunity will support community-level resilience to reduce impacts during electric grid disruptions.
The Microgrids for Community Resilience (MCR) grant program is designed to build community resilience regarding electric grid disruptions through the development of microgrids.
Funding Information
- A total of $10,223,970 is available.
This total funding has one application, with two different tranches of funding, associated with different eligibility criteria:
- $3,600,000 is available for rural electric cooperative associations and municipally-owned utilities (henceforth “rural-only” applications/projects) in Colorado.
- Awards made under this tranche of funds will need to be spent ideally by April 1, 2026, with the project closed out by June 30, 2026.
- $6,500,000 is available to all utilities, local governments, and community-based anchor institutions in Colorado.
- Awards made under this NOFA will need to be closed out by April 30, 2028.
- Applications should not exceed a maximum award of $2,000,000.
- At least one-third local match is required. If the utility is over the threshold of selling 4 million MWh or more per year, the match increases from one-third to 100%.
Types of Eligible Projects
All applications must propose microgrid projects that increase the community’s resilience and adaptive capacity regarding interruptions to the electric grid that can be caused by severe weather or natural disaster events. Through this funding opportunity, applicants may pursue microgrid construction or implementation projects that implement an existing microgrid plan. Applications should leverage existing energy/physical infrastructure to build microgrid assets.
Eligible assets include:
- energy storage (batteries, Vehicle-to-Grid battery storage, pumped hydro, geothermal) that enhances adaptive capacity
- microgrid controller
- switchgears, inverters, and other electric system component
- replacing old generation components with new components of the same type in order to ensure weatherization/resilience, such as wind turbine blade replacement or damaged solar cells within an existing solar farm.
Eligibility Criteria
- Utilities, local governments, and anchor institutions are eligible to apply.
- For rural-only construction/implementation funding, only rural electric cooperative associations and municipally-owned utilities are eligible to apply.
- Proposed microgrid project(s) must serve one or more eligible rural communities located within the applicant’s service territory. Rural communities are defined as a county with a population of less than 50,000 or a municipality/unincorporated area with a population of less than 25,000.
- For all utilities/local government/anchor institutions applicants, any type of utility is eligible to apply, and the proposed microgrid asset is not limited to serving rural communities.
For more information, visit Colorado Department of Local Affairs.
