FundOpp_DE-FOA-0003136.pdf

EERE T 540.117-01: Funding Opportunity Announcement

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Connected Communities 2.0:

Innovations to Manage Growing Transportation, Building, and Industrial Loads to the Grid

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number: DE-FOA-0003136

FOA Type: Initial Assistance Listing Number: 81.086

FOA Issue Date: July 22nd, 2024 Informational Webinar: July 29th, 2024; 10:30 a.m. ET Submission Deadline for Concept Papers: August 20th, 2024; 5:00 p.m. ET Submission Deadline for Full Applications: October 10th, 2024; 5:00 p.m. ET Expected Date for EERE Selection Notifications: Winter 2025 Expected Timeframe for Award Negotiations: Spring 2025

• Informational Webinar Registration Link:

https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/ec88a42e-242e-4c72-8bf8- 62f1fad891dd@6b183ecc-4b55-4ed5-b3f8-7f64be1c4138

• Applicants must submit a Concept Paper by 5:00 p.m. ET on the due date listed above to be eligible to submit a Full Application.

• To apply to this FOA, applicants must register with and submit application materials through EERE eXCHANGE at https://eere-eXCHANGE.energy.gov, EERE’s online application portal.

• Applicants must designate primary and backup points-of-contact in EERE eXCHANGE with whom EERE will communicate to conduct award negotiations. If an application is selected for award negotiations, it is not a commitment to issue an award. It is imperative that the applicant/selectee be responsive during award negotiations and meet negotiation deadlines. Failure to do so may result in cancelation of further award negotiations and rescission of the selection.

• Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and System for Award Management (SAM) - Each applicant (unless the applicant is excepted from those requirements under 2 CFR https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/ec88a42e-242e-4c72-8bf8-62f1fad891dd@6b183ecc-4b55-4ed5-b3f8-7f64be1c4138 https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/ec88a42e-242e-4c72-8bf8-62f1fad891dd@6b183ecc-4b55-4ed5-b3f8-7f64be1c4138 https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/

Questions about this FOA? Email CCPilotsFOA@ee.doe.gov.

Problems with EERE Exchange? Email EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov. Include FOA name and number in subject line.

25.110) is required to: (1) register in the SAM at https://www.sam.gov before submitting an application; (2) provide a valid UEI number in the application; and (3) maintain an active SAM registration with current information when the applicant has an active federal award or an application or plan under consideration by a federal awarding agency. DOE may not make a federal award to an applicant until the applicant has complied with all applicable UEI and SAM requirements and, if an applicant has not fully complied with the requirements by the time DOE is ready to make a federal award, DOE will determine that the applicant is not qualified to receive a federal award and use that determination as a basis for making a federal award to another applicant.

NOTE: Due to the high number of UEI requests and SAM registrations, entity legal business name and address validations are taking longer than expected to process.

Entities should start the UEI and SAM registration process as soon as possible. If entities have technical difficulties with the UEI validation or SAM registration process they should use the HELP feature on SAM.gov. SAM.gov will address service tickets in the order in which they are received and asks that entities not create multiple service tickets for the same request or technical issue. Additional entity validation resources can be found here: GSAFSD Tier 0 Knowledge Base - Validating your Entity.

mailto:CCPilotsFOA@ee.doe.gov mailto:EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov https://www.sam.gov/ https://sam.gov/content/help https://sam.gov/content/home https://www.fsd.gov/gsafsd_sp?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0058422&sys_kb_id=1b5f22581b2115102fe5ed7ae54bcb4e&spa=1 subject line.

i

Table of Contents

Table of Contents.................................................................................................................................................... i I. Funding Opportunity Description

A. Background and Context

i. Background and Purpose

ii. Research, Development, and Demonstration Needs

iii. Technology Space and Strategic Goals

iv. Partnership Requirements

v. Teaming Partner List

B. Topic Areas

i. Requirements

ii. Teaming Arrangements

iii. Data Requirements

iv. Cohort Approach and National Coordinator

C. Applications Specifically Not of Interest D. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion E. Authorizing Statutes

II. Award Information A. Award Overview

i. Period of Performance

ii. Period of Performance

iii. New Applications Only

B. EERE Funding Agreements

i. Cooperative Agreements

ii. Funding Agreements with Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDCs)

III. Eligibility Information A. Eligible Applicants

i. Domestic Entities

ii. Foreign Entities

B. Cost Sharing

i. Legal Responsibility

ii. Cost Share Allocation

iii. Cost Share Types and Allowability

iv. Cost Share Contributions by FFRDCs

v. Cost Share Verification

vi. Cost Share Payment

C. Compliance Criteria D. Responsiveness Criteria E. Other Eligibility Requirements

i. Requirements for DOE/NNSA and Non-DOE/NNSA FFRDCs Included as a Subrecipient F. Limitation on Number of Concept Papers and Full Applications Eligible for Review G. Questions Regarding Eligibility

IV. Application and Submission Information A. Application Process

i. Additional Information on EERE eXCHANGE B. Application Forms subject line.

ii

C. Content and Form of the Concept Paper

i. Technology Description Spreadsheet

D. Content and Form of the Full Application

ii. Full Application Content Requirements

iii. SF-424: Application for Federal Assistance

iv. Technical Volume

v. Resumes

vi. Letters of Commitment

vii. Statement of Project Objectives (SOPO)

viii. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan

ix. Budget Justification Workbook

x. Summary for Public Release

xi. Summary Slide

xii. Subrecipient Budget Justification (if applicable)

xiii. Budget for DOE/NNSA FFRDC (if applicable)

xiv. Authorization for Non-DOE/NNSA or DOE/NNSA FFRDCs (if applicable)

xv. SF-LLL: Disclosure of Lobbying Activities

xvi. Waiver Requests (if applicable)

xvii. Current and Pending Support

xviii. Impacted Indian Tribes Documentation

xix. Transparency of Foreign Connections

xx. Potentially Duplicative Funding Notice (if applicable)

xxi. Technology Description Spreadsheet

E. Post Selection Information Requests F. Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and System for Award Management (SAM) G. Submission Dates and Times H. Intergovernmental Review I. Funding Restrictions

i. Allowable Costs

ii. Pre-Award Costs

iii. Performance of Work in the United States (Foreign Work Waiver)

iv. Construction

v. Foreign Travel

vi. Equipment and Supplies

vii. Build America Buy America Requirements for Infrastructure Projects

viii. Lobbying

ix. Risk Assessment

x. Invoice Review and Approval

xi. Prohibition Related to Foreign Government-Sponsored Talent Recruitment Programs

xii. Affirmative Action and Pay Transparency Requirements

xiii. Foreign Collaboration Considerations

V. Application Review Information A. Technical Review Criteria

i. Concept Papers

ii. Full Applications

B. Standards for Application Evaluation C. Other Selection Factors

i. Program Policy Factors D. Evaluation and Selection Process

i. Overview

ii. Pre-Selection Clarification

iii. Recipient Responsibility and Qualifications subject line.

iii

iv. Selection E. Anticipated Notice of Selection and Award Negotiation Dates

VI. Award Administration Information A. Award Notices

i. Ineligible Submissions

ii. Concept Paper Notifications

iii. Full Application Notifications

iv. Applicants Selected for Award Negotiations

v. Alternate Selection Determinations

vi. Unsuccessful Applicants

B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

i. Registration Requirements

ii. Award Administrative Requirements

iii. Foreign National Participation

iv. Subaward and Executive Reporting

v. National Policy Requirements

vi. Environmental Review in Accordance with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

vii. Flood Resilience

viii. Applicant Representations and Certifications

ix. Statement of Federal Stewardship

x. Statement of Substantial Involvement

xi. Subject Invention Utilization Reporting

xii. Intellectual Property Provisions

xiii. Reporting

xiv. Go/No-Go Review

xv. Conference Spending

xvi. Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Financing Statements

xvii. Real Property and Equipment

xviii. Implementation of Executive Order 13798, Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty

xix. Participants and Collaborating Organizations

xx. Current and Pending Support

xxi. U.S. Manufacturing Commitments

xxii. Interim Conflict of Interest Policy for Financial Assistance

xxiii. Data Management Plan

xxiv. Open-Source Software Distribution Plan (if applicable)

xxv. Fraud, Waste, and Abuse

xxvi. Human Subjects Research

VII. Questions/Agency Contacts VIII. Other Information

A. FOA Modifications B. Government Right to Reject or Negotiate C. Commitment of Public Funds D. Treatment of Application Information E. Evaluation and Administration by Non-Federal Personnel F. Notice Regarding Eligible/Ineligible Activities G. Notice of Right to Conduct a Review of Financial Capability H. Requirement for Full and Complete Disclosure I. Retention of Submissions J. Title to Subject Inventions K. Government Rights in Subject Inventions subject line.

iv

i. Government Use License

ii. March-In Rights

L. Rights in Technical Data M. Copyright N. Export Control O. Prohibition on Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services or Equipment P. Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Q. Annual Independent Audits R. Informational Webinar

APPENDIX A – COST SHARE INFORMATION

APPENDIX B – SAMPLE COST SHARE CALCULATION FOR BLENDED COST SHARE PERCENTAGE

APPENDIX C – WAIVER REQUESTS FOR: 1. FOREIGN ENTITY PARTICIPATION; AND 2. FOREIGN WORK

i. Waiver for Foreign Entity Participation

ii. Waiver for Performance of Work in the United States (Foreign Work Waiver Request)

APPENDIX D – BUY AMERICA REQUIREMENTS FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

APPENDIX E – OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE

APPENDIX F – DEFINITION OF TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVELS

APPENDIX G – LIST OF ACRONYMS

APPENDIX H – PROJECT EVALUATION METHODS AND DATA STANDARDS

APPENDIX I – CYBER SECURITY PLAN

APPENDIX J – GRID ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED

APPENDIX K – OPEN STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS

APPENDIX L – COMMUNITY BENEFITS, EQUITY ELIGIBLE BUILDINGS, AND DEI DEFINITIONS AND EXAMPLES

APPENDIX M – COLLABORATING DOE OFFICES

APPENDIX N – EXAMPLES OF PAST CONNECTED COMMUNITIES PROJECTS

APPENDIX O – SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF ELECTRICITY SYSTEM CHALLENGES

APPENDIX P – FULL TABLE OF REQUIRED AND ENCOURAGED PROJECT ASPECTS

subject line.

I. Funding Opportunity Description

A. Background and Context

i. Background and Purpose

This Funding Opportunity (FOA) issued by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is designed to address major new loads from transportation, industry, and buildings on the electric grid by providing new tools for users, planners, and operators of the electric grid. This FOA has two major topical areas:

1. Connected Communities 2.0, focused on technical measures at the grid edge (defined later) in buildings, industry, and transportation to prepare the electric grid for these new loads, and improve the resilience of customers and the grid; and

2. Smart Charge Management (SCM), focused on various unique urban, suburban, and rural use cases to build confidence in SCM as an effective approach for electric vehicles (EVs) to provide flexibility and value to the electric grid.

This FOA, both for Connected Communities 2.0 and SCM, is designed to validate technology in real world situations and share outcomes in ways that will enable these practices to be replicated by other jurisdictions and to inform technical assistance and stakeholder engagement. The learnings from these projects should enable electric system planners and operators, strategic planners, regulators such as Public Utility Commissions (PUCs), and other stakeholders to understand and plan for new load growth and peak loads driven by electrification, growth in manufacturing, and new computing developments; and to plan for physical and cyber threats to reliability and resilience, while keeping costs affordable for customers and ratepayers.

This FOA will support research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) at the grid edge – the portion of the electric grid between the feeder and the plug – to evaluate how to right size future electricity infrastructure using various technical measures, which can also improve customer benefits and grid resilience. Grid edge technical measures include a wide range of technologies such as low power appliances, managed EV charging, demand-flexible building systems, thermal energy networks with energy storage, batteries, and rooftop solar.

This FOA will advance the Nation’s goals to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and to “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050”1 to the benefit of all Americans. The Department of Energy is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of underserved communities. This FOA supports these administration goals above by funding RD&D to drive innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection.

This FOA has three primary goals for the cohort of awarded projects:

1. Demonstrate how smart and coordinated management of EVs and other Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), including the integration of efficiency, smart electrical panels, solar, heat pumps, controls, EV charging, and storage can together provide grid support, reduce system costs, and improve the economics of customer technology adoption, at a scale sufficient to enable confidence in wide-scale adoption.

2. Demonstrate approaches that enable acceptance by utilities, PUCs, and communities of smart charge management, technical measures at the grid edge, and innovative planning strategies as valid methods towards right sizing investments in the distribution system; and

3. Demonstrate approaches towards improved resilience for communities, end-use customers, and the overall grid in the face of growing loads, extreme weather events, cyber threats, and increasing reliance on the electric grid through the use of grid edge technical measures.

a. Definitions:

This FOA builds on terms that we define here to use in the rest of this document:

Grid Edge: The grid edge describes electrical infrastructure between feeders on the utility side and plugs in customer premises. The grid edge is where changes in electricity use in transportation, managed EV charging, thermal energy networks (TENs), energy storage, distributed solar, and/or integration of additional DERs can be better coordinated and integrated.

Right Sizing: Recognizing that the growth of new loads will lead to a necessary increase in electric infrastructure, the concept of right sizing refers to reducing the amount of needed infrastructure against a counterfactual scenario of “unmitigated

1 Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” January 27, 2021.

expansion”. What this means in practice is targeting the use of energy efficiency, power efficiency, managed EV Charging, and DERs to reduce peak loading along with innovative planning tools that use stochastic planning of system components such as transformers to reduce the growth of the system (e.g., a 50% increase in distribution grid infrastructure with efficiency measures instead of a 150% increase in an “unmitigated expansion” scenario).

Smart Charge Management (SCM): Smart Charge Management refers to controlling the amount of power exchanged between chargers and EVs to meet customers' charging needs while also responding to external power demand or pricing signals to provide load management, resilience, or other benefits to customers and the electric grid, including reduced overall grid investment and downward pressure on rates for EV charging.

DERs: Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) include inverter-connected generation and storage systems such as solar PV, battery energy storage, clean hydrogen energy storage, fuel cells, and electric vehicles, as well as building load controls, smart thermostats, heat pumps, heat pump-based systems and water heaters, and continuously variable controllable loads. In Connected Communities 2.0, DERs need to be controllable by either direct communications or an economic signal.

Power Efficiency: Power Efficiency refers to the reduction of peak power needs at the grid edge. Peak power needs drive grid planning in an era where grid capacity is a primary constraint, as more accessible and lower cost energy comes on the grid from renewable resources.

Resilience: The ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions.2

VPPs: Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are aggregations of DERs that support utility operations by providing the services that would normally be provided by the next power plant coming online or through fuel-based resources, such as:

- Load reduction to avoid brownouts or voltage sag;

- Frequency support services through rapid load up/load down services as well as rectification through inverter embedded sources; and

- Management of harmonics through inverter embedded sources.3

2 U.S. Department of Energy. (2023). Resilience. In Directives Program, Office of Management.

https://www.directives.doe.gov/terms_definitions/resilience 3 U.S. Department of Energy. (2023). Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Virtual Power Plants.

https://liftoff.energy.gov/vpp/ mailto:CCPilotsFOA@ee.doe.gov https://www.directives.doe.gov/terms_definitions/resilience https://liftoff.energy.gov/vpp/

DERs can provide these functions on either side of the meter with appropriate value created for customers by these services.

Thermal Energy Networks: Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) are building heating and cooling networks that leverage thermal assets such as geothermal (i.e., ground-source), combined heat and power, wastewater, low carbon fuel based generation or stranded thermal energy to provide energy-efficient heating and cooling that lowers demand on the local electric infrastructure for residential, commercial, and mixed-use communities and districts. TENs systems can be hybridized with other grid edge solutions or used alone to increase energy resilience, reliability, and durability during extreme events for various geographies and population densities.

Non-Wires Alternatives: Non-Wires Alternatives (NWAs) are electric utility system investments and operating practices that can be used to avoid upgrades on the transmission and distribution systems.4

b. Electricity System Background Achieving the goal of a net zero economy by 2050 with electrified buildings, industry, and transportation will require a zero emissions electric grid. The grid has to change and modernize to enable rapidly changing load patterns. This will require:

1. New forecasting and planning strategies that incorporate temporal variability in distribution circuits;

2. New technology solutions that emphasize power efficiency; and

3. Better coordination of devices and systems that interact at the grid edge in the face of increasing electric demand, customer costs, and temporal mismatch between electricity production and use.

Electric distribution has been the most rapidly growing portion of customer electricity bills over the past decade. There is a growing understanding at the regional, city, and state levels about the planning and expenditure required to ensure a reliable distribution grid. A paucity of data and visibility exacerbates the challenges; examples of such are provided in Appendix O.

Increased demand for electricity coupled with more extreme weather and physical and cyber threats to the electric grid has important implications for customer resilience. Customer resilience means being able to store and cook food, sustain life saving medical needs, stay within survivable temperature, retain mobility, and produce essential goods during and after extreme weather events such as heat

4 Electricity Advisory Committee. (2012, October 17). Recommendations on Non-Wires Solutions [Letter to US Department of Energy]. https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/EAC%20Paper%20- %20Recommendations%20on%20Non-Wires%20Solutions%20-%20%20Final%20-25-Oct-2012.pdf mailto:CCPilotsFOA@ee.doe.gov https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/EAC%20Paper%20-%20Recommendations%20on%20Non-Wires%20Solutions%20-%20%20Final%20-25-Oct-2012.pdf https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/EAC%20Paper%20-%20Recommendations%20on%20Non-Wires%20Solutions%20-%20%20Final%20-25-Oct-2012.pdf waves, hurricanes, wildfires, flooding, and extreme cold. Energy efficiency, flexibility, and demand management at the building and community level can also help offset loads locally and provide additional resilience. For example, highly energy efficient housing can reduce loads and increase passive survivability.

Achieving a more flexible, right sized, and resilient grid will require various grid edge technical measures that can overcome many of the current electricity system limitations. The future grid will require a shift in the ways customers and communities interact with the grid, and the way grid planning and operations practices are carried out.

c. Electric Vehicle Background The rapid growth of Electric Vehicles (EV) connecting to the electricity grid to recharge will result in new loads that will require new management. Smart Charge Management (SCM) is an approach that can shift and spread these loads to more desirable times for the grid as well as provide grid services such as peak load shaving, demand charge mitigation, voltage support, frequency regulation, and renewable generation integration, to name a few. While various pilots, and programs have demonstrated SCM for EVs connected to electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) either at individual charging locations or congregated charging locations across a large distribution network, there are numerous other use cases for SCM that need to be investigated. There is also a need to identify smart charge management approaches that scale and help enable SCM to become the norm, thereby maximizing the value of smart charge management to reduce costs.

However, there is uncertainty about the balance between more complex SCM schemes that in theory deliver more grid resources and simpler approaches that may be easier to implement or get large scale consumer support. A key goal of this topic is to understand how to go from isolated pilots or programs to approaches that can be implemented at large scale. Scaling will likely necessitate greater commonality in approaches to have more consistent consumer/automotive experiences. This in turn will necessitate more commonality in how the signals from utilities communicate SCM opportunities to consumers through either their vehicle or the home EVSE equipment used to charge vehicles.

d. DOE Background DOE is engaged in multiple efforts to develop flexible approaches to accelerate the transition to a modern grid edge and respond to rapidly evolving technology demands. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and Office of Electricity (OE) are supporting integrated energy system planning with a network of technology offices and industry partners. This FOA is one of three FOAs totaling more than $100 million to conduct research, development, and field validations that seek to understand new and more dynamic electric loads, integrate them with the electric grid, and modernize the grid edge while promoting equitable investments.

This FOA is being issued by the Building Technologies Office (BTO) in collaboration with the following offices: Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO), Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), and Office of Electricity (OE). For full scope of office priorities as they relate to Connected Communities 2.0, see Appendix M.

Examples from prior Connected Communities and related projects are described in Appendix N.

e. Connected Communities Background This FOA builds upon the foundation of the first Connected Communities FOA launched in 2020. DOE first launched Connected Communities in 2020 and invested $61 million in 10 community projects nationwide. Details of the first Connected Communities project cohort are available in Appendix N. While the first version was focused on DER integration to support a more variable grid, this next version focuses on preparing the grid for new loads and extreme weather. For example, the growth of electric transportation in all vehicle classes, along with the installation of heat pumps in buildings, will lead to new load growth and changing load patterns. Large companies now aim to meet sustainability goals by electrifying their buildings, industrial processes, and transportation fleets. Data centers associated with new digital industries are also growing rapidly. All these trends are introducing new loads on the distribution system at growth rates not seen in decades in many parts of the country. This requires us to envision how to right size the future electric system and how to incorporate DERs and grid edge technical measures to address new growth.

This FOA includes both a Connected Communities 2.0 topic and a focused Smart Charge Management (SCM) sub-topic. It will therefore expand beyond buildings and renewables to add vehicles, industrial loads, and thermal energy networks as potential grid edge technical measures. This FOA incorporates some of the early lessons learned from the first Connected Communities cohort by soliciting projects to create scalable solutions for grid planners to achieve decarbonization and electrification goals, while minimizing impacts to the distribution grid, mitigating grid upgrade needs, and improving customer resilience.

This FOA also incorporates priorities such as the Justice40 Executive Order on Environmental Justice which stipulates that at least 40% of federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow directly to disadvantaged communities.5 The goals of this order are consistent with those of the Affordable Home Energy Shot, which seeks to reduce the upfront costs of energy

5 The White House. (n.d.). Justice40: A Whole-of-Government Initiative. White House. Retrieved June 6, 2024, from https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/ upgrades in homes by 50% and reduce energy bills by 20% within a decade.6 Recognizing that disadvantaged communities might also have some of the least robust parts of the grid infrastructure, this Connected Communities 2.0 FOA seeks to address disadvantaged community needs through innovative approaches to building, vehicle and grid technology integration and demonstration.

ii. Research, Development, and Demonstration Needs Achieving the primary desired outcomes requires research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of technologies and systems that can overcome multiple, complex, and interrelated challenges across current technology, business, regulation, and practice. Consistent with federal strategies and actions to decarbonize the transportation7, electricity8, industrial9, and building10 sectors, this FOA targets four RD&D areas that are essential for developing the future grid.

For SCM projects:

1. Field validation of SCM for EVs: Subtopic 1A is focused on smart charge management and aims to address the controllability and visibility of EVs to utility operators. If completely unmanaged, EVs plugging into the grid to recharge when people return home or when fleet EVs return to their business at the end of the day could create additional evening peak loads that utilities would have to meet. Simple charge management techniques such as time-of-use rates can shift these loads to later in the night when electricity demand is lower but can also result in “timer peaks,” i.e., significant night-time peak loads. However, Smart Charge Management (SCM) is an approach that can shift and spread these loads to more desirable times for the grid. In concert with other DERs, SCM can provide grid services such as peak load shaving., demand charge mitigation, voltage support, frequency regulation, and

6 U.S. Department of Energy. (2024). Affordable Home Energy Shot. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. https://www.energy.gov/eere/affordable-home-energy-shot 7 U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, & U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2023). The U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization. https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/the-us-national-blueprint-for-transportation-decarbonization.pdf 8 U.S. Department of Energy. (2023). On the Path to 100% Clean Electricity. Office of Policy.

https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/DOE%20-%20100%25%20Clean%20Electricity%20- %20Final.pdf 9 U.S. Department of Energy. (2022). Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap. https://www.energy.gov/industrial-technologies/doe-industrial-decarbonization-roadmap 10 U.S. Department of Energy. (2024). Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy by 2050: A National Blueprint for the Buildings Sector. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. https://www.energy.gov/eere/decarbonizing-us-economy-2050-national-blueprint-buildings-sector mailto:CCPilotsFOA@ee.doe.gov https://www.energy.gov/eere/affordable-home-energy-shot%C2%A0 https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/the-us-national-blueprint-for-transportation-decarbonization.pdf https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/the-us-national-blueprint-for-transportation-decarbonization.pdf https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/DOE%20-%20100%25%20Clean%20Electricity%20-%20Final.pdf https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/DOE%20-%20100%25%20Clean%20Electricity%20-%20Final.pdf https://www.energy.gov/industrial-technologies/doe-industrial-decarbonization-roadmap https://www.energy.gov/industrial-technologies/doe-industrial-decarbonization-roadmap https://www.energy.gov/eere/decarbonizing-us-economy-2050-national-blueprint-buildings-sector https://www.energy.gov/eere/decarbonizing-us-economy-2050-national-blueprint-buildings-sector renewable generation integration, to name a few. These grid services can not only provide benefit to the grid operator but also to the EV owner and charging network operator through lower or more predictable charging costs.

For Connected Communities 2.0 projects:

2. Field validation of grid edge technical measures that reduce the necessary level of investment into distribution infrastructure: Utilities and PUCs have a fiduciary duty to ensure system reliability and energy affordability for customers. Utilities’ primary objective is reliability over a 40-year planning period. Using grid edge technical measures to reduce the level of future investment in the distribution grid still requires field validation for the valuation to be accepted by both utilities and PUCs. Field validation is required to understand customer acceptance of the technologies; avoid stranded assets; reduce new grid infrastructure requirements; quantify the impact at scale for developing new customer programs, rates, tariffs, incentives, and/or business models; and lower the risk in utility investment decision making.

3. Demonstration of increased customer benefits and grid resilience using grid edge technical measures, both in front of and behind the meter: Connected Communities 2.0 solutions could improve the resilience of both individual customers and the electric grid by leveraging efficient, dynamic, and flexible grid edge technical solutions. Customer resilience may also be improved through improved envelope and energy efficiency for passive survivability, local energy generation, low power appliances, embedded energy storage, low carbon fuels, and vehicles-to-building technologies. Ultimately, resilience is about providing customers with continuity of services such as food, shelter, and transportation, and, in the case of industries, continuation of production. Microgrids leveraging these technologies can provide for sustenance of services that customers require, such as food, and livable shelters. Metrics and performance indicators for valuing and evaluating resilience in a more holistic and equitable manner need to be developed and standardized so that utilities and PUCs can effectively plan and approve investments.

4. Data collection to assess system readiness for new loads: There is a pervasive lack of data at the grid edge, even for utilities, such as sensing at transformers.

This impacts the effectiveness and reliability of controls-based solutions. Distribution operators cannot always access building-level data or controls, even in some demand response programs. More data will also be required to understand how new loads will impact distribution network reliability, explore load minimization technologies, and plan and optimize multiple asset classes (envelopes, DERs, demand flexibility control, etc.) to increase customer and grid resilience. One emerging avenue is the use of advanced analytics, such as meter–transformer mapping, to identify the strain on the grid at the edge and to identify methods to alleviate that stress.

Fulfilling these four RD&D needs will require broad partnerships between utilities;

building developers; product providers such as automotive and truck OEMs, HVAC manufacturers and appliance manufacturers; community organizations; energy service providers; local authorities for energy policy and code implementation; and, at the center of it all, customers. It will also require creating new internal partnerships within utilities between customer programs, distribution planning, and distribution operations, and between utilities and their governing bodies such as PUCs or municipal agencies.

Leveraging grid edge technical measures can constructively enhance customer comfort and many other benefits ranging from indoor air quality to residents’ health, safety, and financial stability, while also improving resilience. Further R&D is required to understand customer motivations, the full scope of non-energy benefits (see Appendix L), and the most effective incentives and customer programs.

Strengthening partnerships between community organizations and utilities is crucial to fully understanding the potential of grid edge technical measures for operators and planners.

iii. Technology Space and Strategic Goals

This FOA seeks applications that:

• Help move beyond small scale pilots and provide the learnings necessary to move to larger scale implementation;

• Address practical barriers to implementation that can allow for successful support among customers, utilities, and utility regulators;

• Provide data and analysis on energy use, grid operations, and integration of innovative grid edge technologies;

• Enable learning in this sector through practical demonstrations of grid edge technical measures;

• Develop new frameworks to plan, operate, and regulate the electricity system for grid edge technical measures; and

• Engage broad stakeholder groups to address new load growth and resilience, including system planners and operators, industry, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), policy makers, regulators, communities, end-use customers, and technology developers;

• Reduce technological and institutional uncertainty and enhance confidence in grid edge technical measures for all communities.

The following list provides a few examples of projects in each category, though respondents can and should suggest other projects that meet the selection criteria. DOE is looking for innovative solutions that clearly outline expected future grid challenges and take data based, and unique approach to resolving these challenges and to right size the future grid.

1. Field validation of SCM for EVs:

• The overall priority is projects that can demonstrate consistent, wide-scale consumer usage and integration with how home consumers charge their EVs at home and interact with their EVs or EVSE. Priority should be given to approaches that can easily scale across OEMs, EVs, and utilities, allowing managed charging to essentially become the default way that EVs are charged at home and other places where vehicles regularly dwell versus small, one-off programs with higher costs or approaches that each consumer opts into, thereby minimizing scale.

• Also of interest are aggregations of EVs that can be scaled and integrated to support load shaping, load shifting, or load shedding to provide resiliency;

use clean energy price signals or other means to maximize generation from renewables, and implement controls signaling to support demand response events and other grid resiliency activities like voltage support targeted at the distribution system; and/or use-cases that have received less attention, including but not limited to: charging for multifamily housing; curbside charging; lightly loaded long rural feeders; and/or dense urban grids with minimal available grid hosting capacity.

2. Field validation of grid edge technical measures that reduce the necessary level of investment into electric infrastructure, especially in distribution systems:

• Electrification using a “power efficiency” strategy that minimizes distribution system investments using elements such as envelope improvement/air sealing, smart circuits/panels, low power appliances, 120V heat pumps, efficiency retrofits, building/community scale managed charging to avoid distribution system upgrades;

• Demonstration of Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) - including geothermal (ground-source), wastewater, and other stranded thermal energy - and thermal energy storage to reduce peak loads in industrial, multifamily and residential communities;

• Demonstration of DER integration to reduce peak loads in local electric networks with electrified buildings, communities, and industrial facilities, including the enabling of virtual power plants (VPPs);

• Electrification of industrial uses that typically connect to transmission or distribution networks;

• Reducing impact to local electricity systems from decarbonization using hybrid approaches using zero carbon fuels;

• Validation of new stochastic distribution planning tools that can be used to reduce size of distribution systems for electrification;

• Campus/large building/neighborhoods/industrial demonstrations that reduce distribution system upsizing;

• Aggregation of rooftop, community- or utility-owned and controlled solar Photovoltaic (PV), including business models for cooperative leasing, management, and maintenance; and/or

• Integrated gas and electric network planning for decarbonization.

3. Demonstration of increased customer benefits and grid resilience through integrative strategies:

• Electrified communities, industries, and/or large buildings that leverage innovative microgrid strategies such as directly coupled Direct Current (DC) connection with energy storage, vehicle-to-building (V2B) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies; or production, storage, and use of clean hydrogen and fuel cells all at distribution scale;

• High efficiency neighborhood homes and building projects that integrate storage, reduce peak demand and/or size of microgrids, and reflect community needs; and/or

• Demonstration of Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) that utilize thermal assets such as geothermal (i.e. ground-source), wastewater, or stranded thermal energy to provide energy-efficient heating and cooling, thus lowering demand on the local electricity system for residential, commercial, and mixed-use districts.

4. Data collection to assess system readiness for new loads and potential for innovations in customer technologies that enhance system readiness:

• Mapping meter data to transformers and understand loading within distribution system elements (transformers, feeders, etc.)

• Data on electric vehicle charging infrastructure related to the loading on distribution systems

• Large scale transformer loading data across multiple affordable housing communities;

• New grid planning tools, and methodologies that can help with scenario and power flow analysis on the grid and utilize these scenarios to project the impact of right sized grid infrastructure.

iv. Partnership Requirements Bringing together key project partners and stakeholders to engage in conversations and collaborations around the wide range of social, physical, economic, and regulatory issues is a necessary step to achieve the two primary desired objectives.

The FOA projects are expected to have utilities as a primary or a substantial contributing partner (including financially), along with other partners who can engage with the local PUCs or the governing authority for the utility. This is to ensure that there is a pathway to implement project findings and work with PUCs for program development or investment analysis. The Project Partners & Stakeholders requirements in Section I.B in the Topic Area below suggests some partnering types but is not comprehensive.

Additional teaming requirements for Sub-topic 1A on SCM are described below in that section.

Selected projects will work as a portfolio to enable this FOA to meet multiple goals. It will allow for selected projects to learn from one another, and to address diverse and heterogeneous energy situations throughout the country. Selections will be made based on portfolio diversity factors. For the full selection criteria see Section V.A and for program policy factors see Section V.C.i. The cohort will be supported by a national coordinator, which will result in additional convening (virtual and in person) and additional uniform reporting requirements across the cohort (Appendix H).

Similarly, the diversity, equity, and inclusion goals of the Biden Administration will be fulfilled by the entire cohort and portfolio of projects. As part of this whole of government approach, this FOA seeks to encourage the participation of underserved communities and underrepresented groups. Applicants are highly encouraged to include individuals from groups historically underrepresented in STEM on their project teams. Minority Serving Institutions, Minority Business Enterprises, Minority Owned Businesses, Woman Owned Businesses, Veteran Owned Businesses, or entities located in an underserved community that meet the eligibility requirements (see Section III.) are encouraged to apply as the prime applicant or participate on an application as a proposed partner to the prime applicant. The Selection Official may consider the inclusion of these types of entities as part of the selection decision (See Section V.C.).

Detailed technical descriptions of the specific Topic Areas are provided in the sections that follow.

v. Teaming Partner List DOE is compiling a Teaming Partner List to facilitate the formation of project teams for this FOA. The Teaming Partner List allows organizations that may wish to participate on a project to express their interest to other applicants and explore potential partnerships. EERE is compiling a Teaming Partner List to facilitate the widest possible participation for this FOA, and strongly encourages teams from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form interdisciplinary and cross-sector teams that span organizational boundaries in order to enable and accelerate the achievement of scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible. The list allows organizations with topical expertise that wish to participate in an application, but may not wish to apply as the Prime applicant to the FOA, to express their interest to other potential applicants and to explore potential partnerships. It also serves as a resource for Prime applicants seeking specific expertise in potential partner organizations.

The Teaming Partner List will be available on EERE eXCHANGE and will be regularly updated to reflect new teaming partners who provide their organization’s information.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: View the Teaming Partner List by visiting the EERE eXCHANGE homepage and clicking on “Teaming Partners” within the left-hand navigation pane. This page allows users to view published Teaming Partner Lists. To join the Teaming Partner List, submit a request within eXCHANGE. Select the appropriate Teaming Partner List (TPL-0000052) from the drop-down menu and fill in the following information: Investigator Name, Organization Name, Organization Type, Topic Area, Background and Capabilities, Website, Contact Address, Contact Email, and Contact Phone.

DISCLAIMER: By submitting a request to be included on the Teaming Partner List, the requesting organization consents to the publication of the above-referenced information. By facilitating the Teaming Partner List, DOE is not endorsing, sponsoring, or otherwise evaluating the qualifications or eligibility to participate under this FOA of the individuals and organizations that are identifying themselves for placement on this Teaming Partner List. DOE will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any applicants or requesting organizations for the development of such information.

B. Topic Areas This FOA calls for projects that seek to gather data and leverage grid-edge technical measures to address the goals of decarbonization, improving customer resilience, and right-sizing grid upgrades to accommodate expected future load growth. Projects should address relevant RD&D needs within the identified areas of (1) field validation of SCM for EVs and scaling to programs, (2) field validation of grid edge technical measures that reduce the necessary level of investment into electric infrastructure, especially in distribution systems; and demonstrate increased customer resilience through integrative strategies, such as energy efficiency, low power usage, smart charge management, storage embedded appliances, and redundant power sources. The FOA will also invest in data collection to assess system readiness for new loads and potential for innovations in customer technologies that enhance system readiness.

Proposed demonstrations should meaningfully address grid issues, particularly for the distribution grid. The demonstration outcomes should ultimately yield methods for evaluating various grid-edge technical measures that are accepted by utilities and regulators with high certainty and can be incorporated into distribution system planning. Energy efficient neighborhoods, buildings and industry, and flexible electric vehicles should be used as foundational resources and utilized to the greatest extent reasonable in project communities. Grid edge technical measures alter not only planning for utilities and regulators, but they also change the way occupants and community members interact with the energy system.

It is critical that as the energy system changes, it continues to serve customer needs, ensure customer security and privacy, and keep energy costs low. In addition to providing existing levels of service to occupants, there is also an opportunity to draw customers and community members into the evolving energy system to better address customer and community non-energy benefits (Appendix L). The project will require coordination between utilities, regulators, technology specialists, community members, relevant workforce, and other stakeholders depending on the project scope. A desired outcome is being able to convert demonstrations into pilots and into programs that scale the results of the work conducted under this FOA.

One specific area of interest on EV Smart Charge Management is funded by Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) and described as Subtopic 1A below. All of the chosen projects should be performed at sufficient scale to convincingly demonstrate sustained or improved customer resilience in a manner that yields reliable, replicable, and scalable frameworks, especially for subsequent use by utilities and regulators.

For SCM projects, see the requirements in subtopic 1A below.

Topic 1: Connected Communities 2.0

Table 1 lists requirements for all projects not applying under the SCM subtopic. For aspects that encouraged or allowable within the proposed Connected Communities 2.0 projects, see Appendix P.

Table 1. Critical requirements for proposed Connected Communities 2.0 Projects. For encouraged and allowed aspects, see Appendix P.

Category Description

Requirement Area 1 - Grid Planning and Resilience Grid issues and services

Each project must:

• Address one or more electric grid challenges as discussed above, accounting for new load growth and the increased integration of renewable energy resources;

• Propose a method for evaluating and incorporating the demonstrated grid edge technical measures into long term system planning; and

• Include the amount of load reduction, flexibility, and/or local generation needed to provide a viable demonstration of the provision of grid services at a scale meaningful to participate at the distribution grid level over multiple seasons. See Appendix J for more detail.

For encouraged and allowable aspects for projects to include, see Appendix P.

Resilience Each project must:

• Incorporate resilience at a defined scale (e.g. Building, Campus, Community, Feeder, Substation, etc.) enhancing the ability to withstand or recover from disruptions.

For encouraged and allowable aspects for…