Federal grant funding available to cities to address energy assurance and reliability concerns

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is making $10.5 million in competitive grant funding available to cities to prepare energy assurance and reliability plans. This funding is made available through the Local Energy Assurance Planning (LEAP) initiative as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Cities can receive between $60,000 and $300,000 for this effort.

Public Technology Institute (PTI) conducts a variety of energy assurance educational and outreach programs tailored specifically for local officials through the support of the DOE Office of Energy Reliability. PTI is available to provide free support to cities as they prepare their proposals.

Local Government Energy Assurance Guidelines, published by PTI with the DOE’s support, is designed to help city and county officials address energy assurance and security concerns for mission-critical government facilities and will serve as a resource for cities interested in submitting proposals for funding as part of the LEAP initiative. A PDF of this guide is available at no charge on the PTI web site. A soft cover version of the guide can be purchased for $33.49 plus shipping.

According to the DOE, the goal of this funding program is to facilitate recovery from disruptions to the energy supply and enhance reliability and quicker repair of outages. This initiative will create jobs at the local level and allow cities to have well-developed, standardized energy assurance and resiliency plans that they can rely on during energy emergencies and supply disruptions.

Under the LEAP initiative, city governments will address energy supply disruption risks and vulnerabilities in their plans to lessen the devastating impact that such incidents have on the economy and the health and safety of citizens.

The deadline for cities to submit their proposals to the DOE is Oct. 8 at 2 p.m.
For more information on the LEAP initiative, visit the Fedconnect web site (see the public opportunities section, funding number DE-FOA-0000098).

For more information about free assistance from PTI, contact Ronda Mosley, PTI, at rmosley@pti.org.