[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 172 (Wednesday, September 7, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54681-54682]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-19308]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Request for Information on Grid Resilience and Innovation 
Partnerships Program

AGENCY: Grid Deployment Office, U.S. Department of Energy.

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) invites 
public comment on its request for information (RFI) on DOE's 
implementation strategy for the Grid Resilience and Innovation 
Partnerships (GRIP) program, including on the competitive solicitation 
process, draft funding opportunity announcement (FOA) language, 
prioritization of topics and projects, and selection criteria.

DATES: Responses to the RFI must be received by no later than 5 p.m. 
EDT on October 14, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are to submit questions, comments, and 
responses to the Department's RFI to the following email address: 
[email protected]. Include ``Grid Resilience and Innovation 
Partnerships Program'' in the subject line of the email. Responses must 
be provided as a Microsoft Word (.docx) or PDF attachment to the email, 
and no more than 20 pages in length, 12-point font, 1-inch margins. It 
is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be 
compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Only electronic 
responses will be accepted. For ease of replying and to aid 
categorization of your responses, please copy and paste the RFI 
questions, including the question numbering, and use them as a template 
for your response. Respondents may answer as many or as few questions 
as they wish. The Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) 
program RFI is available at: https://www.fedconnect.net/fedconnect/?doc=DE-FOA-0002827&agency=DOE. The Draft Funding Opportunity 
Announcement (FOA) for FY22 and FY23 GRIP funding is available at: 
https://www.fedconnect.net/fedconnect/?doc=DE-FOA-0002740&agency=DOE.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please contact: Dylan Reed, (202) 586-
3185, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act 
(IIJA) (Pub. L. 117-58) approximately $10.5 billion for the five-year 
period encompassing FY22 through FY26, to prevent outages and enhance 
the resilience of the electric grid, deploy technologies to enhance 
grid flexibility, and to demonstrate innovative approaches to power 
sector infrastructure resilience and reliability. Together, DOE refers 
to these programs as the GRIP program.
    The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, 
academia, research laboratories, government agencies, State and local 
officials, labor unions, Tribes, community-based organizations (CBOs), 
and other stakeholders on issues related to the GRIP program.
    To help inform DOE's implementation of the IIJA provisions 
referenced previously, this RFI seeks input on the following 
categories:
    1. DOE's implementation strategy and approach for the GRIP program, 
both overall and for each of the individual topic areas.
    2. DOE's approach to Community Benefits including engagement, 
quality jobs, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA), 
and Justice40.
    3. Build America, Buy America requirements.
    This is solely a request for information and is not a funding 
opportunity announcement. DOE is not accepting applications at this 
time and will not reimburse any of respondents' costs in preparing a 
response.
    The complete GRIP program RFI can be found at: https://www.fedconnect.net/fedconnect/?doc=DE-FOA-0002827&agency=DOE.
    The Draft FOA for FY22 and FY23 GRIP Funding can be found at: 
https://www.fedconnect.net/fedconnect/?doc=DE-FOA-0002740&agency=DOE.

Proprietary Information

    Because information received in response to this RFI may be used to 
structure future programs and formula grant allocations and/or 
otherwise be made available to the public, respondents are strongly 
advised NOT to include any information in their responses that might be 
considered business sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential. 
If, however, a respondent chooses to submit business sensitive, 
proprietary, or otherwise confidential information, it must be clearly 
and conspicuously marked as such in the response. Responses containing 
confidential, proprietary, or privileged information must be 
conspicuously marked as described below. Failure to comply with these 
marking requirements may result in the disclosure of the unmarked 
information under the Freedom of Information Act or otherwise. The U.S. 
Federal Government is not liable for the disclosure or use of unmarked 
information and may use or disclose such information for any purpose.
    Confidential, Commercial, and Financial Information. Consistent 
with 10 CFR 1004.11, DOE requires that any person submitting 
information that he or she believes to be confidential and exempt by 
law from public disclosure should submit via email two well-marked 
copies: One copy of the document marked ``Confidential Commercial and 
Financial Information'' including all the information believed to be 
confidential, and one copy of the document marked ``non-confidential'' 
with the information believed to be confidential deleted. DOE will make 
its own determination about the confidential status of the information 
and treat it according to its determination. The copy containing 
confidential commercial and financial information must include a cover 
sheet marked as follows identifying the specific pages containing 
confidential, proprietary, or privileged information: ``Notice of 
Restriction on Disclosure and Use of Data: Pages [list applicable 
pages] of this response may contain confidential, commercial, or 
financial information that is exempt from public disclosure.'' The 
Government may use or disclose any information that is not 
appropriately marked or otherwise restricted, regardless of source. In 
addition, (1) the header and footer of every page that contains 
confidential, proprietary, or privileged information must be marked as 
follows: ``Contains Confidential, Commercial, or Financial Information 
Exempt from Public Disclosure'' and (2) every line and paragraph 
containing proprietary, privileged, or trade secret information must be 
clearly marked with [[double brackets]] or highlighting.

[[Page 54682]]

Signing Authority

    This document of the Department of Energy was signed on September 
1, 2022, by Maria D. Robinson, Director of the Grid Deployment Office, 
pursuant to delegated authority from the Secretary of Energy. That 
document with the original signature and date is maintained by DOE. For 
administrative purposes only, and in compliance with requirements of 
the Office of the Federal Register, the undersigned DOE Federal 
Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to sign and submit the 
document in electronic format for publication, as an official document 
of the Department of Energy. This administrative process in no way 
alters the legal effect of this document on publication in the Federal 
Register.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on September 1, 2022.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2022-19308 Filed 9-6-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P