RCEA board to consider executing $65.5 million federal tribal resilience award

The Redwood Coast Energy Authority board is scheduled to consider authorizing Executive Director Elizabeth Burks to execute a U.S. Department of Energy award for a tribal energy-resilience project at its Sept. 24 meeting.

The agenda item and staff report concern the Grid Resilience Innovation Partnership Program’s Tribal Energy Resilience and Sovereignty Project, identified as final award GD-0000967. The staff report says DOE notified RCEA that the award is expected to be executed by Sept. 30, and recommends authorizing Burks to sign the final award and associated terms and conditions.

The project, known as TERAS, proposes tribally owned and operated microgrids. The report says the project would support resilience on the Hoopa Valley Reservation and the upriver portion of the Yurok Reservation, while expanding the existing community microgrid at Blue Lake Rancheria. The federalized project would include battery energy-storage systems, a small hydroelectric generation facility, long-duration energy-storage batteries and emergency generators.

The report says the proposed federal award is $65,541,555, with a 1-to-1 cost-share requirement and total project costs of $132,092,000. RCEA’s share of the required match would be funded through a $6 million California Energy Commission grant, according to the report. The project budget would fund RCEA’s role as prime award recipient and compliance oversight, including staff positions for the six-year project.

The board is also being asked to unfreeze the vacant Contracts and Grants Manager position once the final award is executed. Staff said the project could eventually support up to 1.5 full-time-equivalent positions, although the immediate recommendation addresses the manager position.

The agenda packet does not record the outcome of the Sept. 24 item. The proposed award amount, project scope and participating partners remain subject to final federal award terms; the report also says the Karuk Tribe withdrew from the project and that solar and community-benefit-plan components were removed during rescoping.