Ensuring the resilience and security of the energy sector will require strong leadership from the Department of Energy, according to a letter sent to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm last month by leaders of the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE), and the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA).

In the letter, NASEO Executive Director David Terry, BCSE President Lisa Jacobson and NEMA Executive Director Trina Sheets cite February’s mass outages in Texas — in which millions of ERCOT customers lost power in the midst of extreme cold temperatures — as evidence that ensuring grid resilience is “one of the most urgent tasks in the energy sector.” (See ERCOT was ‘Seconds and Minutes’ from Total Collapse.) The writers urge Granholm to “[prioritize] coordination among [DOE], the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and our state and private-sector members … on energy-sector resilience and security.”

Of particular interest to the organizations is the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, established by the 2018 Disaster Recovery and Reform Act (DRRA). Administered by FEMA, BRIC is intended to help governments absorb the cost of projects to reduce the risks of disasters and natural hazards. Any state, territory or tribe that has had a major disaster declaration in the past seven years can apply; in practice this means all states, territories, tribes and the District of Columbia are currently eligible.

Writers Urge Full Funding for BRIC

The DRRA provides for BRIC to be funded by a set-aside of up to 6% of the federal Disaster Relief Fund following declarations of major disasters. In light of last year’s declarations from Hurricane Laura, the California wildfires, the earthquakes in Puerto Rico and the COVID-19 pandemic, FEMA estimated last month that up to $3.7 billion could be available for BRIC in fiscal year 2021.

The Trump administration capped funding for the program at $500 million per year, but the letter urges the Biden administration to scrap this limit and fund BRIC to the congressionally approved maximum. NASEO, BCSE and NEMA see BRIC funds as well-suited to a range of energy resilience projects such as microgrids, energy efficiency for mission critical facilities, grid hardening and on-site renewable power and storage facilities.

Beyond releasing the funds, however, the writers urge federal officials to take an active role in spurring the project ecosystem, since “this type of assistance is an enormous task that would benefit from well-coordinated, federal-state energy resilience actions.” The letter suggests a number of actions that DOE could take to ensure the BRIC funds are used effectively:

• work with FEMA and other federal agencies on energy-related actions that could help states implement the BRIC program and other DRRA energy sector directives;
• collaborate with the letter writers on technical assistance to states for public-private energy projects leveraging BRIC funds;
• assign a “coordinated cross-cutting DOE role” to ensure DOE efforts are not siloed within a particular office or field;
• improve the dissemination of DOE’s research on resilient energy technologies across the department and to state energy departments;
• identify additional energy resilience actions that could be taken by DOE and the states, as well as the Biden administration;
• engage with the private sector on best practices related to their project development and application experience.

“Climate change is leading to more frequent and intense natural disasters, and states can target and leverage these federal funds with private sector resources,” Terry said in a press release. “These actions will save lives and livelihoods, while reducing the long-term cost of taxpayer-funded reconstruction following disasters.”