The Joint Assessment of Resilience in Vulnerable Infrastructure Systems (JARVIS) Opportunity will provide funding to utilities to deploy advanced technologies and incorporate modeling to identify and mitigate grid vulnerabilities, enabling greater integration across diverse energy portfolios. Eligible applicants are utilities and partner technical assistance providers (which includes companies/entities, research institutions, consulting firms, technology companies, for-profit and non-profit organizations). JARVIS will provide awards of approximately $1M each and is making $35 million currently available.
The electric power sector is experiencing an unprecedented increase in the frequency, severity, and unpredictability of extreme weather events. These events, once rare, are now more common, leading to frequent and prolonged power outages severely impacting communities and the economy. These increasingly frequent and intense events strain aging grid infrastructure, demanding immediate action.
Simultaneously, the energy sector faces the challenge of integrating diverse energy sources and accommodating the surging demand from electric vehicle adoption and broader electrification. This confluence of factors—aging infrastructure, non-stationary extreme weather patterns, and increasing energy demands—creates a critical vulnerability in the nation's power grid.
The JARVIS initiative directly addresses this challenge by providing support to modernize and harden grid infrastructure to enhance reliability, resilience, and security, thereby preparing the nation's energy system for future demands.
The JARVIS program will support electric utilities and their selected partner technical assistance (TA) providers. This enables utility providers to fund specialized analysis and advisory services needed to enhance reliability, resilience and sustainability of the nation’s grid infrastructure.
DOE is seeking applications from electric utilities, in collaboration with TA providers, including research institutions, consulting firms, technology companies, for-profit and non-profit organizations capable of providing TA for the electric utility (applicant). The TA provider is directed to work closely with the applicant (participating electric utility) to define their specific technical assistance requirements, ensuring each utility receives tailored support to enhance the resilience and reliability of their grid infrastructure. DOE is particularly interested in smaller electric utilities (defined as those selling less than 4,000,000 megawatts) as these utilities often serve geographically dispersed, vulnerable populations and may lack the resources for significant grid modernization projects.
The estimated award size is up to $1M (plus 20% cost share if the application includes R&D elements). Applications should present a plan of 6-24 months to provide technical assistance to utilities on topics listed in the below three key themes to enhance grid resilience.
Note, applicants can develop applications that cover one or multiple TA topics. Applications that cover multiple TA topics may only include TA topics in Theme 1 or TA topics across Themes 2 and 3 but cannot cover multiple TA topics across Themes 1 and 2 or across Themes 1 and 3.
This theme focuses on leveraging data-driven approaches to gain a deeper understanding of grid performance and predict its behavior under various operating conditions, including extreme weather scenarios. This involves sophisticated analytics, advanced modeling, and the incorporation of climate data to create highly accurate simulations. The technical assistance topics for Theme 1 are:
This theme focuses on identifying and evaluating risks and vulnerabilities within the grid system to develop and implement effective resilience strategies. It emphasizes a proactive approach to risk management, enabling utilities to proactively strengthen grid infrastructure and mitigate potential failures. The technical assistance topics for Theme 2 are:
This theme is focused on the strategic planning and practical implementation of resilience measures, ensuring compliance with all relevant environmental and sustainability standards. The technical assistance topics for Theme 3 are:
This project involves a collaborative team comprised of two key entities:
Recipients of Technical Assistance: All electric utilities are eligible to receive comprehensive technical assistance through the JARVIS program.
A wide range of organizations can serve as Technical Assistance providers, including research institutions, consulting firms, technology companies, and both for-profit and non-profit organizations. All providers must demonstrate the ability to immediately provide the necessary support.
January 8, 2025
Posted January 8, 2025
March 12, 2025 at 2:00 PM ET and April 9, 2025
April 18, 2025 by 5:00 PM ET
Phase 1) Submissions Open from January 8, 2025 - April 18, 2025
Phase 2) DOE Selection is expected in May/June 2025: DOE will review submissions based on relevance to the program objectives and review criteria and notify selected entities for next steps. Note that DOE may choose to meet with submitters or ask additional clarifying questions prior to selection.
Phase 3) Negotiations will occur for approximately two months after selections have been made: Selected organizations will meet with TechWerx to negotiate work, budget, timing and impact.
Applicants will be reviewed by the following Criteria:
To be eligible:
Ineligible entities for this solicitation are:
DOE retains the prerogative to require additional information from the applicants to verify the applicant meets the eligibility requirements. Further, DOE retains the prerogative to decide whether to fund the proposed project entirely, partially, or not at all.
1 To qualify as a domestic entity, the entity must be organized, chartered or incorporated (or otherwise formed) under the laws of a particular state or territory of the United States; have majority domestic ownership and control; and have a physical place of business in the United States.
2 DOE defines Country of Risk to include China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. This list is subject to change.
3 Foreign Government-Sponsored Talent Recruitment Program is defined as an effort directly or indirectly organized, managed, or funded by a foreign government, or a foreign government instrumentality or entity, to recruit science and technology professionals or students (regardless of citizenship or national origin, or whether having a full-time or part-time position). Some foreign government-sponsored talent recruitment programs operate with the intent to import or otherwise acquire from abroad, sometimes through illicit means, proprietary technology or software, unpublished data and methods, and intellectual property to further the military modernization goals and/or economic goals of a foreign government. Many, but not all, programs aim to incentivize the targeted individual to relocate physically to the foreign state for the above purpose. Some programs allow for or encourage continued employment at United States research facilities or receipt of federal research funds while concurrently working at and/or receiving compensation from a foreign institution, and some direct participants not to disclose their participation to U.S. entities. Compensation could take many forms including cash, research funding, complimentary foreign travel, honorific titles, career advancement opportunities, promised future compensation, or other types of remuneration or consideration, including in-kind compensation.
Questions? Contact us at info@techwerx.org.