[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 194 (Friday, October 7, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61008-61009]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-21892]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Capabilities of Universities and Private-Sector Firms for 
Providing Technical Assistance to States, U.S. Territories, Indian 
Tribes, and Other Eligible Entities To Enhance the Resilience of 
Electricity Delivery Systems

AGENCY: Grid Deployment Office (GDO), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking information from 
universities and private-sector firms, including non-profit 
organizations, on their capabilities for providing assistance to 
States, U.S. Territories, Indian Tribes, and other eligible entities to 
enhance their ability to plan and implement strategies for improving 
the resilience of systems that deliver electric power. Towards that 
aim, DOE requests that interested parties provide responses to the set 
of questions presented within this notice. DOE intends to use this 
information to ascertain the best available resources and approach for 
carrying out a technical assistance program under the Infrastructure 
Improvement and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA).

DATES: Responses to the RFI must be received by no later than 5:00 p.m. 
EDT on November 21, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are to submit responses to the following 
email address: [email protected]. Include ``40101 TA RFI'' 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 10 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. Respondents are 
requested to provide the following information at the start of their 
response to this RFI:
     Company/institution name.
     Company/institution contact.
     Contact's address, phone number, and email address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joe Paladino, (202) 586-0020, 
[email protected]. Submitting inquiries to the email address is 
preferred.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The purpose of the IIJA section 40101, 
Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid, 
is to help States, U.S. Territories, Indian Tribes, and other entities 
eligible to receive funding deploy a variety of measures to improve the 
resilience of the electric grid against disruptive events in which the 
operations of the electric grid are disrupted, preventively shut off, 
or cannot operate safely due to extreme weather, wildfire, natural 
disasters, or cyber-attacks.\1\ These measures may range from hardening 
assets to deploying more advanced practices and grid technologies, 
including energy storage systems and microgrids, for improving 
resilience.
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    \1\ The entirety of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act 
(IIJA), Public Law 117-58, is available at: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3684/text. IIJA 
Section 40101 defines an eligible entity as being (a) an electric 
grid operator, (b) an electricity storage operator, (c) an 
electricity generator, (d) a transmission owner or operator, (e) a 
distribution provider, (f) a fuel supplier, and (g) any other 
relevant entity, as determined by DOE.
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    Under this program, DOE is interested in helping entities better 
understand the implication of threats to their electricity delivery 
system and determine strategies for improving its resilience. This may 
include the formulation of planning guidelines that set priorities for 
mitigating impacts to critical facilities and services, as well as for 
investments that will lead to measurable enhancements in the resilience 
of infrastructure intended to provide reliable electric power. In 
addition, DOE will encourage the application of energy justice 
principles in efforts to determine and implement resilience measures so 
that the benefits derived from them are realized in an equitable manner 
by all.\2\
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    \2\ Information on DOE's Justice40 Initiative is available at: 
https://www.energy.gov/diversity/justice40-initiative.
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    The technical assistance envisioned would apply expert capabilities 
in several areas including, for example:
    1. Forecasting methods and tools to determine customer electricity 
demand, the adoption of distributed energy resources, and weather/
climate parameters (e.g., temperature, rainfall, windspeed, flooding/
inundation) at national, regional, and local levels.
    2. Risk assessment methods, tools, and processes to examine risks 
and their impacts on energy infrastructure, essential human services 
(e.g., water supply and emergency services), and vulnerable populations 
to prioritize resilience investments.
    3. Modeling and simulation methods and tools to determine the 
severity and impact of threats on energy and electricity infrastructure 
at national, regional, and local levels.
    4. Methods and tools for multi-objective decision analysis to 
enable the prioritization of electric infrastructure investment options 
across a range of policy objectives.
    5. Methods and tools for addressing energy equity (e.g., relating 
to procedural, distributive, and restorative energy justice principles) 
in the determination of resilience measures.\3\
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    \3\ Ibid.
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    6. Cost-effectiveness methods and tools to ascertain the 
appropriateness and benefit of infrastructure investments to aid 
decision-making.

[[Page 61009]]

    Where it may pertain to their specific capabilities, areas of 
expertise, or business interests, DOE would like interested parties to 
provide responses to the following questions:
    1. What methods, tools, and datasets would you recommend for 
undertaking efforts associated with any of the areas of expertise 
listed previously? What methods, tools, and datasets are you 
developing, have developed, and/or applied for undertaking any of these 
areas of expertise? What additional advancements (e.g., spatial or 
temporal resolution) are needed to improve these methods, tools, and 
datasets?
    2. What approaches (e.g., partnerships and business models) would 
you recommend for providing services and technical assistance in the 
areas of expertise listed above? What successful approaches have you 
observed and/or have undertaken in providing such services and 
technical assistance in ways that have specifically benefited States, 
U.S. Territories, Indian Tribes, and/or other eligible entities?
    3. What are the current limitations in planning frameworks for 
improving the resilience of electricity delivery systems and how would 
you address them?
    Interested parties may also provide reference documents and website 
links to support their responses.
    Proprietary Information: Because information received in response 
to this RFI may be used to structure future programs 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.

Signing Authority

    This document of the Department of Energy was signed on September 
30, 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 October 4, 2022.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2022-21892 Filed 10-6-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P