Colorado Advanced Power Grid Monitoring Grant Program

The Colorado Advanced Power Grid Monitoring Grant Program, managed by the Colorado Energy Office, provides funding for electric utilities to enhance grid monitoring and resilience projects. Grants of up to $500,000 are available, with a total of $1,967,669 for 2024. Projects focus on wildfire and weather impact monitoring, and require matching funds from applicants. The program aims to improve grid reliability through innovative technologies and strategic investments in infrastructure.

Colorado Advanced Power Grid Monitoring Grants are available to help electric utilities fund critical grid monitoring and resilience projects. The Colorado Energy Office (CEO) will prioritize funding based on demonstrated need, project impact, project readiness, and labor impact. These resilience projects will facilitate monitoring and/or modeling of a variety of impacts, including wildfires and extreme weather, on different portions of the grid. This funding comes from part of Colorado’s appropriation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation (BIL) (2021) 40101(d) Grid Resiliency funding.
For: All Colorado Utilities
Amount: Maximum $500,000 per applicant; $1,967,669 total funding available for the 2024 funding year.
Match: One-third match required for smaller utilities (less than 4 million MWh sold in 2022); 100% cost match (or 50% cost share) for larger utilities (more than 4 million MWh sold in 2022)

Eligibility

Eligible Applicants
All Colorado electric utilities are eligible to apply for this electrical grid monitoring grant.Eligible Projects
Eligible projects for grant funding include:Power grid monitoring systems, tools, and related technologies for fire monitoring and prevention
Advanced Vegetation and fuel-load management using LiDAR, satellites, AI, or other information technology

Ineligibility

Ineligible Project Types
Projects will be deemed ineligible for this grant if they meet one or more of the following criteria:Projects that are outside of the list of eligible project types in Section III(B).
Projects in which the main objective is cyber security. (However, all projects will need to follow applicable cybersecurity requirements, and where possible, utilize best practices in deploying technologies under their sub-award.)
Projects that are listed on the organization’s budget and that have been allocated funding. This funding opportunity cannot supplant the normal operating budget of the organization.
Multiple applications from a single eligible entity.