Grant Funding Update: Iowa Grid Resilience Fund

IAMU is working closely with the officials at the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) on developing what will become the Iowa Grid Resilience Fund. IAMU has had initial discussion with members about this program, and it seems that there will be a high amount of interest in this program. To learn more about the program, please see a short summary created by IEDA.

Some recent updates to this program:

• At the very earliest, the application window will open for this grant by Early Q2, 2023
• There will likely be a cap on each grant award. It’s possible this cap is in the neighborhood of $590,000
• They will likely fund 10 projects per year, for 5 years, so this program will be competitive
• Helping underserved areas, or contributing to workforce development will be highly weighted in the selection process
  • IEDA will likely make their grant scoring matrix public     
• It’s possible that starting a project before the grant window is open would disqualify the project

If you are considering a project for this program, or have questions, please check in with Jeff Gorrie: [email protected].
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The goal of this U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) formula grant program, part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is to support the efforts of States and Indian Tribes to improve the all-hazards resilience of the electric grid and prevent outages. These grants offer a unique opportunity to advance the capabilities of States and Indian Tribes, and their communities, to address not only current, but future resilience. The State of Iowa is slated to receive an annual allocation of $5,917,777 each year for five years, a portion of which must be set aside for small utilities.