Request for Information- Energysheds: Exploring Place-Based Generation | DE FOA 0002548

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002548

The Department of Energy (DOE), through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and administered by the Golden Field Office, issued a Request for Information (RFI) titled "Energysheds: Exploring Place-Based Generation" (Funding Opportunity Number DE FOA 0002548). This is not a traditional grant competition making awards; it is a market and stakeholder listening exercise meant to shape DOE thinking and potentially set the stage for a future funding opportunity focused on developing and deploying an "energyshed management system." The RFI was posted July 8, 2021, with responses due August 10, 2021, and it is listed under the energy funding activity category (CFDA 81.087). Eligibility is effectively open (unrestricted), meaning DOE wanted to hear from a wide range of organizations and individuals, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full posting on EERE Exchange.

At the center of the RFI is the concept of an "energyshed," which can be thought of as a place-based framing of electricity supply, similar in spirit to the way a watershed describes where water comes from and how it flows to a location. DOE is asking stakeholders to help define what an energyshed should mean in practical terms and what its operational boundaries should be. That includes questions like how local is "local," how to draw geographic or electrical boundaries, how energysheds should be defined across different grid structures (vertically integrated utilities versus organized wholesale markets), and how to handle complexity such as transmission constraints, imports and exports, and temporal variation (hourly, seasonal, or peak conditions). The goal is to move beyond a purely abstract definition and toward something that can be measured, tracked, and used in planning and operations.

A major theme is tracking and attributing the location of generation that serves a particular load area, and understanding who benefits from that information. DOE is looking for input on the value of knowing where electricity is produced relative to where it is consumed, and what different stakeholders would do with that knowledge. For example, cities and states pursuing clean energy or decarbonization goals may want credible ways to quantify how much of their electricity is locally produced, how much comes from nearby regions, and how those patterns change over time. Utilities, grid operators, and planners might use energyshed information to assess congestion, resilience, and the operational impacts of changing resource mixes. Customers, community groups, and corporate buyers might care about location-based claims for renewable procurement, local economic development, or community benefits. The RFI also asks what specific information and capabilities would be most useful, which implicitly includes questions about data granularity, verification, transparency, and how to communicate results in ways that are actionable rather than purely academic.

DOE also emphasizes the need for tools, methods, and analyses that could define, establish, and operate an energyshed and an energyshed management system. This points to potential software platforms, modeling approaches, dashboards, datasets, and analytical frameworks that can translate complex grid realities into understandable energyshed metrics. Respondents are encouraged to identify what analytical building blocks are missing today, what data access barriers exist, what standards or definitions would be needed for consistent use across regions, and how to deal with issues like real-time versus annual accounting. In practice, this could range from power flow and production-cost modeling integrations, to metadata and tagging systems for generation attributes, to decision-support tools that help local governments and utilities test scenarios for increasing local renewable supply.

Another key focus is understanding the impacts of increasing locally derived renewable generation. DOE is seeking feedback on what happens to reliability, costs, emissions, and community outcomes when a load area tries to source more of its electricity from nearby renewables rather than relying on a broader regional mix. This includes questions about variability management, the role of storage and demand response, land use and siting constraints, interconnection queues, and whether local procurement changes the buildout of transmission or distribution infrastructure. DOE is effectively asking stakeholders to surface both the benefits and the unintended consequences, recognizing that "more local" may improve certain resilience or community objectives but could also introduce operational challenges or tradeoffs depending on the region and grid configuration.

The RFI explicitly asks how energyshed management systems could affect grid operations both day-to-day and over the long term. Day-to-day impacts might include how operators schedule and dispatch resources, manage congestion, balance variable renewables, and incorporate local constraints or priorities. Longer-term impacts could include capacity expansion decisions, transmission planning, distribution system modernization, and how resource adequacy is achieved as more distributed energy resources and microgrids come online. DOE is signaling interest in whether energyshed approaches can complement existing planning processes or whether they would require new planning constructs, new coordination mechanisms, or updated regulatory frameworks.

DOE is also asking respondents to discuss business models that could realistically increase locally derived electricity generation. This opens the door to ideas like utility programs, community choice aggregation, green tariffs, community solar, local power purchase agreements, municipal or cooperative ownership structures, energy-as-a-service offerings, and innovative rate designs that encourage local generation and flexibility. The underlying question is what economic and institutional arrangements make "local generation for local load" feasible at scale, and how value streams (energy, capacity, ancillary services, resilience value, avoided losses, deferred infrastructure) could be captured and shared among participants.

Finally, the RFI ties energysheds to resilience, explicitly including microgrids. DOE is looking for insight into how more local generation, combined with management systems that track and optimize local supply, could support a more resilient power system. This includes resilience to extreme weather, wildfires, cyber incidents, and other disruptions, as well as the ability to maintain critical services when the bulk grid is stressed. Stakeholders are invited to explain how energyshed concepts intersect with microgrid deployment, islanding strategies, critical load prioritization, and community resilience planning, and what information or tools are needed to make those systems more effective.

In short, this opportunity is best understood as DOE collecting practical input to refine definitions, identify barriers, and map the tool, data, market, and regulatory needs for energysheds and energyshed management systems. DOE is explicitly inviting responses from a broad set of stakeholders, including state and local governments, universities, national labs, NGOs, interest groups, and private companies, because energyshed concepts touch operations, planning, markets, policy, and community priorities all at once. The output of the RFI is intended to inform whether and how DOE might later fund development and deployment efforts in this area, rather than to directly fund projects under this specific announcement.

• The Department of Energy, Golden Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Request for Information- Energysheds: Exploring Place-Based Generation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.087.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 08, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 10, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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