Electric Grid of Things | DE FOA 0002092

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002092

The Electric Grid of Things funding opportunity (DE FOA 0002092) is a Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) grant program focused on improving how the electric grid interacts with devices and resources at the "grid edge," especially where Internet of Things (IoT) technologies connect to power systems. The core goal is to design and demonstrate practical scenarios, methods, and technical solutions that make it easier for grid services to flow in both directions. In other words, it is not just about utilities sending power and signals outward, but also about enabling distributed assets to send useful services back into the grid in a coordinated, reliable way. The FOA emphasizes that better connectivity, data exchange, and coordination at the edge should translate into higher resilience and reliability for the overall electric system.

A major driver behind this program is the need to maintain "energy surety" for defense installations during abnormal or disruptive events. The opportunity is framed around situations where a defense facility, the local utility, and nearby distributed energy resources (DER) such as solar, batteries, generators, controllable loads, and potentially microgrids must work together to keep critical operations running. The projects funded under this FOA are expected to produce approaches, tools, and systems that help coordinate these parties in real time, so that defense installations can continue functioning longer when the normal grid is stressed or partially unavailable. The underlying idea is that smarter edge connectivity and IoT-enabled control can unlock flexible services from DER and loads, improving the facility's ability to ride through outages or unstable conditions while also supporting the surrounding grid when possible.

The FOA calls for developments in scenarios and operational concepts as well as in enabling technologies. That includes methodologies and techniques for optimizing information exchange, communications, and control between edge devices and grid operators, along with tools or systems that can orchestrate bi-directional grid services. While the announcement text is high-level, the expected direction is toward solutions that can support coordinated actions like demand response, frequency and voltage support, load shedding prioritization, islanding and resynchronization behaviors, and DER dispatch based on grid conditions and mission needs. Because the emphasis is on resilience and reliability, solutions would typically be expected to consider interoperability, latency and bandwidth constraints, cybersecurity implications, and the ability to function under degraded communications or during emergencies, even if those specific requirements are not enumerated in the short description.

In terms of award structure and eligibility, the program is a discretionary funding opportunity using cooperative agreements, which generally means DOE anticipates substantial involvement during the project period (for example, technical collaboration, reviews, or milestone-based management). The funding activity category is Energy, and the CFDA number listed is 81.122. Eligible applicants are limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, signaling that the program is oriented toward universities and similar public academic institutions, likely working with partners such as utilities, technology vendors, or defense stakeholders as part of a broader project team if allowed under the full FOA.

Financially, the opportunity lists an award ceiling of $2,000,000 per award and an expectation of about five awards. The FOA was created on June 19, 2019, with an original closing date of September 9, 2019. Overall, this opportunity is best understood as a targeted R&D and demonstration effort to strengthen grid-edge coordination through IoT-style connectivity, with a clear use case: improving the ability of defense installations to maintain power and operational continuity by coordinating with utilities and surrounding distributed resources during abnormal grid events.

• The Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Electric Grid of Things" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.122.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 19, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 09, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for DE FOA 0002092

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