Notice of Intent (NOI) related to Critical Facility Energy Resilience (CiFER)

Background
The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) intends to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) seeking applications for financial assistance awards that would address FY2024 Congressional Direction, which directs OE to pursue a competitive pilot demonstration grant program, as authorized in section 3201 of the Energy Act of 2020, for energy storage projects that are wholly U.S.-made, sourced, and supplied. The Nation’s electricity grid is essential for maintaining economic prosperity, critical societal services, as well as national security functions. The grid faces a number of threats such as extreme weather, cyber or physical attacks, aging infrastructure and electromagnetic events that have the potential to cause widespread power outages.

Grant Details
In the anticipated FOA, partnerships between storage technology providers, beneficiary organizations, and resiliency analytics partners will be required. Entities that could apply in each of these 3 categories include academic or research organizations, consultants, national labs as resiliency analytics partners; private energy storage companies, institutions of higher education and other organizations involved in Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) of a storage system as technology providers; first responders or emergency response facilities, critical service sites such as healthcare, telecommunications, data centers, and government facilities as critical facility or infrastructure owners. Systems must be a bi-directional electricity-in electricity out system with quality performance metrics justified by the applicant based on their intended storage application.

Eligibility Requirements
Partnerships between storage technology providers, beneficiary organizations, and resiliency analytics partners will be required. Entities that could apply in each of these 3 categories include academic or research organizations, consultants, national labs as resiliency analytics partners; private energy storage companies, institutions of higher education and other organizations involved in Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) of a storage system as technology providers; first responders or emergency response facilities, critical service sites such as healthcare, telecommunications, data centers, and government facilities as critical facility or infrastructure owners.

Period of Performance
The DOE plans to make the FOA available by the fall of 2024. If released, the FOA is expected to make up to $15 million available for cost-shared research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) project(s) to support the goals of the DOE. The period of performance lasting up to 36 months starting from the funding being awarded and ending once the demonstration is operational and has initiated data collection for ROVI.

Grant Value
$15 million available for cost-shared research, development and demonstration project(s) with up to $5 million contribution for each award from DOE.