The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) launched the FY20 Resilient Maryland Pilot incentive program to help municipalities and other organizations plan microgrid and distributed energy projects. Resilient Maryland intends to promote potential ways to incorporate clean energy and distributed energy by providing grant funding to identify, plan and design microgrids, resilient facility power systems, advanced combined heat and power systems (CHP), and resiliency hubs.
“MEA recognizes that the costs incurred in designing successful projects can be significant, and also that well-engineered and analyzed plans lead to shovel-ready designs which achieve quicker buy-in from decision-makers and capital providers,” the agency stated.
The program is designed to attract local governments seeking to bolster essential services; economic development districts seeking to attract new industries; academic organizations; businesses seeking high quality power; and, multi-family housing communities.
The desired outcomes of Resilient Maryland are to:
- identify microgrid, advanced CHP, and resiliency hub candidate sites;
- encourage clean energy development in the built environment;
- prime the market for broader clean energy system adoption;
- design shovel-ready microgrid, advanced CHP, and resiliency hub projects;
- inform MEA and industry stakeholders of practical, replicable system designs;
- encourage technical and financial innovation in the energy services sector;
- connect participants to current and future MEA incentive programs; and,
- encourage constructive dialogue between communities, utilities, and other stakeholders on clean and resilient energy systems.
The MEA plans to distribute $500,000 this year, allocated as individual grants of up to $100,000 for individual community/campus microgrid planning, $25,000 for resilient energy system planning, and $10,000 for advanced CHP planning and design and resiliency hub planning and design. The grants cannot cover hard or soft asset costs for clean energy systems or system components. Grant applications are due by May 1.