·         Smart Grid Data Access -- Last week the Department of Energy announced awards totaling nearly $3.2 million that will be used to encourage utilities, local governments, and communities to create programs that "empower consumers to better manage their electricity use through improved access to their own electricity consumption data." There are a number of familiar names among the seven recipients – from Austin's Pecan Street project to San Diego Gas & Electric. (Click to page 2 for a list of all the recipients and how they plan to spend the money.)

·         University of Vermont IGERT grant – The university will use its Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) grant from the National Science Foundation to create a multi-disciplinary graduate program supporting 22 doctoral students who will be trained to analyze and develop smart grid systems. UVM will also hire two faculty members as part of the $3 million, 5-year grant, according to vermontbiz.com. Click to learn about upcoming IGERT grant opportunities.

·         Energy efficiency grants for farmers – Kentucky is distributing $700,000 in energy efficiency grants to farmers; the money comes from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund. According to the Associated Press, the projects eligible for the incentive program include energy audits, energy upgrades and energy efficient farm building components.

·         Small Business Innovative Research grants – Nearly 70 businesses around the U.S. will share part of $11 million in innovative research and technology grants awarded by the DOE. These grants to small businesses of up to $150,000 are for developing new energy technologies. The research projects range from designing better wind turbines to fuel cell technologies and more.

·         Distributed energy project in Hawaii – More than $400,000 in DOE funding will go to develop and deploy distributed energy systems at the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park, which is run by the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory is project manager at the park, where the award will be used to develop a small microgrid and related activities.

New funding opportunities

·         Advanced computational and modeling research for the electric power system – The objective of this new funding opportunity from the DOE is to leverage scientific advancements in mathematics and computation for application to power system models and software tools, with the long-term goal of enabling real-time protection and control based on wide-area sensor measurements.