The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently selected 21 states to receive technical assistance from the National Laboratories as they work towards improving the reliability of electric grids and developing new strategies to reduce carbon emissions.
The program, supported by the DOE’s Grid Modernization Initiative (GMI), will provide up to two years of assistance “focusing on critical emerging and existing topics, including equity and justice, distributed energy adoption and integration, grid planning, and energy resilience,” a DOE press release said.
“Public utility commissions are at the front lines of our energy transition,” Kelly Speakes-Backman, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, said in the release. “Rapid technological advancements and clean energy goals present changes to the status quo—but also great opportunities for consumers. These efforts can help to make the grid more reliable, face climate change, and increase equity.”
The program will give state regulators access to the “expertise and world-class modeling capabilities” of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the release said.
The states selected for technical assistance are Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin, according to the release.
GMI, a cooperative effort operated by five DOE offices, aims to reduce the environmental impact of energy production through research and development, the release said. The state assistance is provided in an effort “to help set the nation on an affordable path to a resilient, secure, and reliable grid.”
