State of Oregon: INCENTIVES - Grid Resilience Grant Program

The Grid Resilience grant program is a formula award made available to states and tribes through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Section 40401(d).

Opportunity Announcement 24-001 opened a $18.9 million funding opportunity for a Grid Resilience Grant Program in March 2024. The program is funded by a state formula grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Section 40101, titled Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid.

ODOE received 13 grant applications from electric utilities throughout the state and continues to work with those utilities to present project details and documentation to the U.S. Department of Energy for review and approval. Upon approval from the U.S. DOE, ODOE and the utilities may enter into grant performance agreements that will allow the utilities to proceed with their projects and receive grant funding.

As of May 2025, six Grid Resilience projects have been approved by the U.S. DOE and have entered into signed performance agreements with ODOE. Awardees will now move into planning, preparing, and starting their projects:

Columbia Power Cooperative Association | $1,329,329
Columbia Power Cooperative Association is planning hazard mitigation in Grant and Wheeler Counties through vegetation management for 700 miles, fuse upgrades, and pole replacements. The installation of sensors and controllers and other equipment and technology upgrades are included to reduce outage response times.

Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative | $1,128,388
Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative is planning to underground 2.2 miles of overhead lines in Coos County to reduce natural hazard disruptions and fire risk.

Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative | $700,097
Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative is planning to underground 10 miles of lines in three areas of Gilliam County to reduce fire risk and natural hazard disruptions.

City of Forest Grove | $438,190
The City of Forest Grove Electric Utility is planning to underground 3,500 feet of primary distribution line in a forested area of Washington County to reduce natural hazard disruptions and fire risk.

Columbia River People’s Utility District | $377,402
Columbia River PUD is planning to underground 1,500 feet of the main feeder line to the area water filtration facility in Columbia County. The line is in a wooded area and undergrounding this line will reduce fire risk, outages, and related use of a diesel generator at a critical public resource.
Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative | $392,366
Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative is planning the installation of automatic circuit reclosers integrated with a Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, fuse banks and related software and equipment. The equipment will be located throughout their service territory area to reduce the frequency and duration of outages and wildfire risk.

ODOE will continue to update the list of successful applicants once approved by the U.S. DOE and entered into performance agreements. Applicants include cooperatives, investor-owned utilities, municipal utilities, and people's utility districts.

The 13 applications ODOE received represent ratepayers in 17 counties and requested almost $18 million of federal grant funding. Combined with the utilities' matching funds, the proposed projects would invest over $27.5 million in activities, technologies, and equipment for grid hardening measures to reduce the likelihood and consequences of disruptive events to Oregon's electric grid.

Timeline

Milestone	Date
Opportunity Announcement Published	March 15, 2024
Application Portal Opened	June 4, 2024
Applications Due/Portal Closed	2 p.m. PT June 21, 2024
Eligibility and Feasibility Review Start	June 24, 2024
Selection Review Start (approximate)	July 22, 2024
U.S. DOE Approval Review Start (approximate)	August 12, 2024
Award Notification (approximate)	As approved by US DOE

Program Budget

Funding	Reserved	Remaining
$29,354,081	$17,846,858	$11,507,223

ODOE's Role

ODOE submitted the initial application for this funding to U.S. DOE in April 2023. The program narrative, approved by the U.S. DOE, can be viewed here.

Background

In June 2023, the U.S. DOE awarded Oregon $19,907,304. In July 2024, the U.S. DOE modified the award, adding $10,991,729 for a total award of $30,899,033 to Oregon via the Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants program, which is supported by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

ODOE will award these funds to a diverse set of projects, with priority given to efforts that generate the greatest community benefit providing clean, affordable, and reliable energy.

The legislation sets allocations of the funding over five years. The formula is based on population, area, probability of disruptive events, severity of disruptive events, and expenditure on mitigation efforts. Oregon's allocation for the first three years is $30,899,033. The state of Oregon is required to provide a 15 percent match of $4,634,855. Eligible utilities that receive a subgrant from ODOE are also required to match:

Large Utilities: Entities that sell more than 4,000,000 MWh annually are required to match funds at 100 percent.
Small Utilities: Entities that sell less than 4,000,000 MWh annually are required to match 1/3 of funds.

ODOE is required to subgrant 95 percent of the funding to eligible entities. While we are statutorily obligated to make 25 percent of these funds available to small utilities, ODOE is setting 40 percent aside for small utilities based on stakeholder feedback.

The remaining 5 percent of federal funds, as well as the state's match, is available for administration of this grant program and technical assistance to aid subgrantees in the implementation of their projects.

Stakeholder Engagement

Meeting Details	Meeting Materials
Applicant Support Webinar Friday, June 7, 2024 10 - 11 a.m.	Open forum; no materials
Applicant Support Webinar Friday, May 31, 2024 10 - 11 a.m.	Open forum; no materials
Applicant Support Webinar Friday, May 24, 2024 10 - 11 a.m.	Open forum; no materials
Applicant Support Webinar Friday, May 17, 2024 10 - 11 a.m.	Open forum; no materials
Grid Resilience Public Q&A Wednesday, May 15, 2024 2 - 3 p.m. Webinar Recording	Webinar Presentation
Webinar: Overview of Round 1 Subgrant Opportunity Open for Utilities to Apply for Grid Resilience Funding Wednesday, April 17, 2024 2 - 3 p.m. Webinar Recording	Webinar Presentation
Grid Resilience Grant Program Public Hearing Review Program Narrative for Additional U.S. DOE Award March 21, 2024 11 a.m. Meeting Recording	Meeting Notice ODOE Grid Resilience Program Narrative Proposed Edits to Program Narrative Meeting Presentation
Eastern Oregon Open House on Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid Wednesday, May 24, 2023 10 a.m. - noon Meeting Recording	Meeting Agenda Meeting Presentation Recent Opportunities for Consumer-Owned Utilities FAQ on Build America Buy America Act FAQ on Justice 40 FAQ on National Environmental Policy Act FAQ on Davis-Bacon Act
Western Oregon Open House on Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid Tuesday, May 23, 2023 10 a.m. - noon Meeting Recording	Meeting Agenda Mee ting Presentation Recent Opportunities for Consumer-Owned Utilities FAQ on Build America Buy America Act FAQ on Justice 40 FAQ on National Environmental Policy Act FAQ on Davis-Bacon Act
Public Hearing : Grid Resilience Funding Wednesday, March 15, 2023 Meeting Recording	Hearing Presentation ODOE Draft Proposed Program Narrative for IIJA Grid Resilience Prompting Questions for Public Comments
Public Hearing on Application for Federal Funding to Enhance Oregon's Grid Resilience Wednesday, August 31, 2022 - 2 p.m. Meeting Recording	Meeting Presentation Slides Draft Program Narrative for IIJA Funding List of prompting questions in the Portal Attendee List