Preventing Outages While Enhancing Resilience (POWER) Program

The Preventing Outages While Enhancing Resilience (POWER) Program is a federally funded program through section 40101(d) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).  Over the next 5 years the Energy Conservation and Management Division expects to receive $32 Million in formula funding administered by the U.S. Department of Energy.  New Mexico electric utilities, other grid infrastructure operators and fuel suppliers are eligible to apply for grants through this program that meet one or more of the following objectives:

• Reduce the number and duration of outages caused by natural hazards disruptions by repairing and strengthening damaged or vulnerable systems while considering the adoption of renewable resources and other grid modernization measures.
• Strengthen community resilience to extreme events and natural hazards and enhance community ability to maintain economic productivity through energy resilience
• Grow the resilience/sustainability workforce in NM and collect relevant data

REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS
Preventing Outages While Enhancing Resilience (POWER) Program Projects

The Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) is requesting applications from Electric grid operators, storage operators, electricity generators, transmission owners or operators, distribution providers, fuel suppliers, and any other relevant entity, as determined by the Secretary of DOE.  POWER Program Projects will target the activities, technologies, equipment, and hardening measures to reduce the likelihood and consequences of disruptive events in under-resourced communities in New Mexico with the greatest resilience need.  EMNRD intends to set aside 60-percent of the available funding for small utilities, including rural electric cooperatives and municipally-owned utilities.  Examples of allowable scopes of work include:

• Weatherization technologies and equipment
• Fire-resistant technologies and fire prevention systems
• Advanced monitoring and control technologies
• Relocation of old overhead conductors and underground cables
• Undergrounding of electrical equipment
• Use of construction of DERs for enhancing system adaptive capacity during disruptive events, including microgrids and battery-storage subcomponents
• Utility pole management
• Vegetation and fuel-load management

Applications must be completed and submitted by March 22, 2024.

Applications will only be accepted electronically. The RFP, application forms, and amendments containing answers to questions can be found on New Mexico State Purchasing Division’s website at this link: Active Procurements. EMNRD may award multiple agreements under this RFP. To be considered for funding, applications must demonstrate that the project will meet all the RFP evaluation criteria.

The presentation from the Pre-proposal conference held on February 15, 2024, can be downloaded below.