[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 21, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16964-16965]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-05737]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Notice of Request for Information: Puerto Rico Energy Resilience 
Fund

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

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) is 
providing notification of the issuance of a Request for Information 
(RFI) on the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund authorized by the 
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. The RFI is seeking input on the 
Department's program design, specifically qualifying beneficiary 
criteria, technologies, and deployment priorities. DOE expects to 
release one or more competitive solicitations in the areas of 
technology deployment and community engagement, education, and 
workforce development. Information collected from this RFI will be used 
by DOE for program planning purposes and the potential development of 
one or more funding opportunities.

DATES: Responses to this RFI must be received by 5:00 p.m. ET on April 
21, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may submit comments electronically to 
[email protected]. For information relating to the Puerto Rico 
Energy Resilience Fund, including a copy of the RFI, please see https://www.energy.gov/gdo/puerto-rico-energy-resilience-fund.
    Instructions: Responses must be provided as attachment(s) to an 
email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 
25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Responses 
must be provided as a Microsoft Word (.docx) attachment to the email, 
no more than 20 pages in length, 12-point font, 1-inch margins. Please 
identify your answers by responding to a specific question or topic. 
Respondents may answer as many or as few questions as they wish.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For more information regarding the 
RFI, please contact Eric Britton, (240)-364-4719, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Consolidated Appropriations Act, Public Law 117-328, authorizes 
$1 billion to the Secretary of Energy to carry out activities to 
improve the resilience of the Puerto Rican electric grid, including 
grants for low- and moderate-income households and households that 
include individuals with disabilities for the purchase and installation 
of renewable energy, energy storage, and other grid technologies. DOE 
expects to release one or more competitive solicitations in the areas 
of technology deployment and community engagement, education, and 
workforce development. The RFI describes the program design and seeks 
public input on:

1. Technology & Engineering
2. Beneficiary & Community Considerations
3. Financial Assistance
4. Technical Assistance, Capacity Building, and Workforce Development; 
and
5. Monitoring, Evaluation, Auditing

    The RFI is available in English: https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-02/Puerto%20Rico%20Energy%20Resilience%20Fund%20RFI%20-%2002.21.23_0.pdf. 
The RFI is available in Spanish: https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-02/Fondo%20de%20Resiliencia%20Energ%C3%A9tica%20RFI%20-%2002.21.23lowbar;0.pdf. For information relating to the Puerto Rico 
Energy Resilience Fund, including a copy of the RFI, please see https://www.energy.gov/gdo/puerto-rico-energy-resilience-fund.

Proprietary and Confidential Information

    Because information received in response to this RFI may be used to 
structure future programs and grants and/or otherwise be made available 
to the public, respondents are strongly

[[Page 16965]]

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.
    If your response contains confidential, proprietary, or privileged 
information, you 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, 
proprietary, or privileged information that is exempt from public 
disclosure. Such information shall be used or disclosed only for the 
purposes described in this RFI. The Government may use or disclose any 
information that is not appropriately marked or otherwise restricted, 
regardless of source.

Signing Authority

    This document of the Department of Energy was signed on March 15, 
2023, by Maria D. Robinson, Director, 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 upon publication in the 
Federal Register.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on March 16, 2023.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2023-05737 Filed 3-20-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P