Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program - Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) for Grid Reliability RFP

Description: The California Energy Commission (CEC) announces the availability of up to $46,144,000, less any amounts allocated for state cost sharing for water utility projects, pursuant to Senate Bill 105 (Weiner, Chapter 104, Statutes of 2025) and Assembly Bill 113 (Gabriel, Chapter 248, Statutes of 2026), for a competitive grant solicitation through the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets (DEBA) Program. The intent of this solicitation is to support the deployment of new distributed energy resources (DERs) that can increase supply or reduce (or shift) load to improve the reliability of the state’s electrical grid and help avoid blackouts during extreme events. Funded projects are expected to deploy new, commercially available, zero-emission DERs that provide capacity in the form of supply, load shifting, or load reduction that is incremental to the state’s Resource Adequacy (RA) supplies and existing Strategic Reliability Reserves