Community Energy Efficiency Development (CEED) Program

The CEED Program, established by the New Mexico Legislature in 2022, aims to improve residential energy efficiency and affordability for underserved communities across the state. By providing block grants to local and tribal governments, the program enables partnerships with community organizations to implement targeted energy upgrades for low-income households. These improvements are designed to reduce energy consumption, lower utility bills, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions, while enhancing the comfort and safety of homes in energy-burdened areas.

In 2025, the Community Benefit Fund was established to support projects for purposes that include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing electricity from renewable energy resources, and increasing the efficiency of electricity from energy efficiency projects. The State Legislature allocated $15M from this fund to the CEED Program, and ECAM anticipates making multiple project awards from this RFA.

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REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS

Community Energy Efficiency Development (CEED) Program Projects (2025)

The ECAM Division is requesting applications from Indian nations, tribes, or pueblos; county or municipal governments; and Housing New Mexico | MFA for CEED Program projects to provide improvements to residential buildings in underserved communities in New Mexico that will in the aggregate, decrease residents’ energy use, energy burden, and/or carbon intensity of energy consumption.

Community energy efficiency projects will target the adoption of energy-efficient consumer behavior, equipment, or devices that result in a decrease in energy consumption without reducing the amount or quality of energy services. This includes health and safety measures, including those that use efficient equipment or devices to improve indoor air or drinking water quality, and equipment or electrification upgrades.

Applications must be complete and submitted by September 30, 2025. Prospective applicants will be able to ask questions leading up to the RFA deadline. A non-mandatory pre-proposal information session was held at 3:00 p.m. on August 8, 2025 via Microsoft Teams. (Link to recording can be found here.) 

ECAM may award multiple agreements under this RFA. To be considered for funding, applications must demonstrate that the project will meet all of the RFA evaluation criteria.

Questions concerning this RFA should be submitted electronically in writing with “CEED 2025 RFA” in the subject header to:

Ed McIlvain
EMNRD – ECAM
1220 S. St Francis Drive
Santa Fe, NM 87505
EMNRD-CEED@state.nm.us

Written answers to those questions will be posted below and to: https://www.emnrd.nm.gov/ecmd/about-us/requests-for-proposals-applications/.
Please submit all questions no later than Friday, September 12, 2025.

Closes – September 30, 2025 at 5:00pm MT.

• Application packages contain application and attachments (Budget, Grant of Authority progress—see links below) and must be submitted via email in PDF format to EMNRD-CEED@state.nm.us.

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 CEED Program Projects

The CEED Program is supported by both state and federal funding, including the U.S. DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, with combined awards totaling over $11.5M. These programs will work together to achieve their shared objectives of reducing emissions, conserving energy, and lowering energy costs. CEED Program awardees include:

• City of Albuquerque
• City of Aztec
• City of Las Cruces
• City of Santa Fe
• Santa Fe County
• Taos County
• Town of Bernalillo
• Housing New Mexico | MFA