In support of President Biden's Investing in America agenda, in June 2023, the U.S. DOE awarded $19,907,304 to Oregon via the Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants program, which is supported by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
ODOE will award these funds to a diverse set of projects, with priority given to efforts that generate the greatest community benefit providing clean, affordable, and reliable energy.
The legislation sets allocations of the funding over five years. The formula is based on population, area, probability of disruptive events, severity of disruptive events, and expenditure on mitigation efforts. Allocations for years one and two were included as one package, leaving three future allocations available. Oregon's allocation for the first two years is $19,907,304. The Oregon Legislature has provided the required 15 percent match, of $2,986,096. Eligible utilities that receive a subgrant from ODOE are also required to match:
- Large Utilities: Entities that sell more than 4,000,000 MWh annually are required to match funds at 100 percent.
- Small Utilities: Entities that sell less than 4,000,000 MWh annually are required to match 1/3 of funds.
ODOE is required to subgrant 95 percent of the funding to eligible entities. While we are statutorily obligated to make 25 percent of these funds available to small utilities, ODOE is setting 40 percent aside for small utilities based on stakeholder feedback.
The remaining 5 percent of federal funds, as well as the state's match, is available for administration of this grant program and technical assistance to aid subgrantees in the implementation of their projects.
Additionally, this Grid Resilience program is covered by the Justice40 Initiative, based on U.S. DOE's implementation of Executive Order 14008. The goal of Justice40 is that at least 40 percent of the benefits from federal climate and clean energy investments flow to disadvantaged communities. Disadvantaged communities are identified at the census tract level on the
Climate and Environmental Justice Tool (CEJST) map. Made available by the White House, the CEJST map was developed by the Council on Environmental Quality using high quality datasets that identify climate, environmental, and other burdens on communities.
Stakeholder Engagement