The investment supports the development of advanced technologies, enabling communities across the country to become resilient and adaptive. The investment includes seven awardees in Alaska, California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Tennessee and Washington.
This is in support of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and the Administration’s commitment to improve national power grid resiliency.
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said: "Building in grid resiliency has gained greater urgency in recent years, as demonstrated by the economic and personal losses from electricity outages due to severe weather.
"Keeping the power on during extreme weather events and other electric grid disruptions is essential, particularly so that critical facilities such as hospitals and water treatment plants can continue operating."
The Energy Department supports microgrid activities, which include research and development, regional and state partnerships, as well as a project with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to demonstrate microgrid ability to provide reliable and resilient electric power generation and distribution on military installations.
The investments in new projects seek development of advanced microgrid controllers and system designs for microgrids less than 10MW.
The seven awardees, which secured approximately $1.2m of DOE investments each, include Alstom Grid, Burr Energy, Commonwealth Edison Company, Electric Power Research Institute, General Electric Company, TDX Power and The University of California.
