The Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) is requesting proposals for its Energizing Insular Communities (EIC) Program which provides grant funding for sustainable energy strategies that mitigate climate change, reduce reliance and expenditures on imported fuels, develop and utilize domestic energy sources, and improve the performance of energy infrastructure and overall energy efficiency in the territories. All proposals must be directly and explicitly tied to updated and in-use strategic energy plans, energy action plans, or integrated resource plans. The Office of Insular Affairs will use the following criteria in evaluating proposals:
- whether the proposal is identified and supported in the strategic energy plan, energy action plan, or integrated resource plan;
- the projected energy cost savings.
Eligible technologies for energy supply and energy efficiency projects should incorporate commercially available technology. This may include energy from solar, wind, geothermal, geothermal heat pumps, waste to energy, and biogas as well as energy storage, transportation and grid feasibility studies are also eligible.
Examples of projects that were awarded in previous years include: distributed solar, utility-scale solar, integrated resource planning, wind turbines, energy efficiency improvements (lighting, air conditioning, cool rooftop, etc.), plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles and supply equipment, net metering policies, debit meters, backup battery systems, microgrids, grid stability and integration studies.