New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced that $5 million is available for projects designed to help integrate renewable energy resources into the state’s electric grid to help make it more resilient.
The program aims to support Cuomo’s Green New Deal proposal that set a target to achieve 70% renewable energy by 2030 and move the state to a carbon dioxide free power grid by 2040.
The funding opportunity is being offered through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) Smart Grid and Distributed Energy Resource Integration Program.
The program is designed to support product development, demonstration and commercialization of innovative technologies that have the potential to lower costs and reduce the time it takes to connect renewable resources to the grid by streamlining the interconnection process by improving the application and technical study phases.
The funds are available for entrepreneurs, clean energy companies and researchers. Proposals submitted should focus on low cost monitoring and control, preventing back-feed from storage systems, and smart inverter functions, NYSERDA said. Proposals will be accepted in three categories: engineering studies, product development projects, and demonstration projects. All proposals must be received by Aug. 15.
The $5 million program complements a $30 million funding opportunity announced in April for NYSERDA’s High Performing Grid program, which is seeking proposals from electric grid technology companies, New York utilities, universities, and researchers to advance smart grid technologies. The proposals must conform to one of five categories: technology feasibility studies, research studies, engineering studies, product development, and demonstration projects.
The $30 million in funding will be distributed through a two-step competitive process. Applicants must first submit concept papers. Concept papers will be reviewed on a continual basis and accepted through Nov. 18, 2020, or until funds are exhausted.
Based on the evaluation of the concept papers, a group of projects will be invited to submit full proposals for further evaluation. Awarded projects will receive funding to move forward.
In March, NYSERDA proposed $350 million in incentives to support the state’s energy storage markets. New York has set a target of adding 3,000 MW of energy storage by 2030 as part of its effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. NYSERDA was also authorized by state regulators in March to spend $310 million on energy storage incentives and to launch solicitations for 350 MW of large-scale storage projects.
