CPS Energy has been awarded a DOE GRIP grant that includes a federal cost share up to ~$30M over 5 years of program deployment and demonstration. The GRIP grant enables CPS Energy to advance its Community Energy Resiliency (CER) program and distribution grid investments, promising to deliver improved grid resiliency, reliability, and efficiency. 

The objective of the CER Program is to implement and demonstrate Grid of the Future (GoF) use cases for grid resiliency, decarbonization, and outage management improvement for CPS Energy customers, specifically for distribution circuits in underserved communities throughout San Antonio.  The CER Program will play a crucial role in adapting the distribution grid to meet changing energy demands and transitioning towards a more sustainable and resilient grid for the communities in San Antonio.  

The CER Program scope includes four core initiatives, each designed to demonstrate a specific theme for GoF:

• Smart Grid Corridor
• Substation of the Future
• Self-Healing Grid 
• Grid Orchestration

The U.S Department of Energy is administering a historic $10.5 billion investment via the GRIP program, under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed in Nov 2021. This funding is used to enhance grid flexibility, improve the resilience of the power system against growing threats of extreme weather and climate change, and ensure American communities have access to affordable, reliable, clean electricity when and where they need it.

Key Takeaways:

• Community resiliency focused on disadvantaged communities
• Foundation building for CPS Energy Grid of the Future
• Advanced distribution technology - BESS – microgrids, ADMS, DERMS, GIS UN
• Program execution strategy – iterative, integrated releases of power system infrastructure & technologies
• DOE GRIP funding – journey to award