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 Planning Grants
ECAM also offers smaller planning grants through the federally funded Energy Conservation and Efficiency Block Grant (EECBG) Program. A planning grant is a great stepping-stone for municipalities and counties that would like to eventually apply for CEED Program funding and implement a residential energy efficiency project, but would like to hammer out additional details or prepare more prior to launching a full program.

The funding for this planning grant will be used to develop a community energy efficiency plan for low-income residential households. Funds can be used to hire technical consultants to assist in the development of the plan and/or hire auditors to do certified audits for pilot projects. Additional uses of the funding include, but are not limited to:

• Conducting outreach and education around residential energy savings;
• Initiating certified energy audits for selected households to gauge the breadth and scope of energy retrofits needed;
• Meeting with community stakeholders and partners;
• Working out the goals for the local CEED Program and the metrics that will be employed to gauge program success.

If a planning grant sounds like a more appropriate grant for your community, please contact Ed McIlvain at edward.mcilvain@emnrd.nm.gov.