POWER ON Act of 2021

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1432 To require the Secretary of Energy to establish an electric grid resilience grant program and an electric grid resilience research and development program. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 28, 2021 Mr. CORNYN (for himself and Mr. PADILLA) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Nat- ural Resources A BILL To require the Secretary of Energy to establish an electric grid resilience grant program and an electric grid resil- ience research and development program. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing Outages 4 With Enhanced Resilience and Operations Nationwide Act 5 of 2021’’ or the ‘‘POWER ON Act of 2021’’. 6 SEC. 2. ELECTRIC GRID RESILIENCE GRANTS. 7 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1432 IS (1) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti- 1 ty’’ means— 2 (A) an electric grid operator; 3 (B) an electricity generator; 4 (C) a transmission owner or operator; 5 (D) a distribution provider; 6 (E) a fuel supplier; and 7 (F) any other relevant entity, as deter- 8 mined by the Secretary. 9 (2) EXTREME WEATHER.— 10 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘extreme 11 weather’’ means a weather phenomenon that— 12 (i) occurs outside of the historical fre- 13 quency prior to 1990; or 14 (ii) is unexpected, unusual, severe, or 15 unseasonal. 16 (B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘extreme 17 weather’’ includes— 18 (i) a tornado; 19 (ii) a thunderstorm; 20 (iii) an ice storm; 21 (iv) a heat wave; 22 (v) flooding; 23 (vi) drought; 24 (vii) high winds; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1432 IS (viii) mudslides. 1 (3) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 2 has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the 3 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 4 Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 5 (4) RESILIENCE EVENT.—The term ‘‘resilience 6 event’’ means an event in which, due to extreme 7 weather, a wildfire, or any other natural disaster, 8 operations of the electric grid are disrupted, preven- 9 tively shut off, or cannot operate safely. 10 (5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 11 the Secretary of Energy. 12 (6) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means— 13 (A) a State; 14 (B) the District of Columbia; and 15 (C) any territory of the United States. 16 (b) ESTABLISHMENT.— 17 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 18 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec- 19 retary shall establish an electric grid resilience pro- 20 gram under which the Secretary shall provide grants 21 to States and Indian Tribes to award grants to eligi- 22 ble entities to carry out projects that enhance the 23 physical resilience of the electric grid. 24 (2) ANNUAL APPLICATION.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1432 IS (A) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive 1 a grant under this subsection for a fiscal year, 2 a State or Indian Tribe shall submit to the Sec- 3 retary an application for that fiscal year that 4 describes the criteria and methods that will be 5 used by the State or Indian Tribe to award 6 electric grid resilience grants to eligible entities. 7 (B) REQUIREMENT.—The Secretary shall 8 use amounts appropriated under subsection (f) 9 for a fiscal year to provide grants under this 10 subsection only to States and Indian Tribes 11 that have submitted an application under sub- 12 paragraph (A) for that fiscal year. 13 (3) DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.— 14 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 15 provide grants to States and Indian Tribes 16 under this subsection based on a formula deter- 17 mined by the Secretary, in accordance with sub- 18 paragraph (B). 19 (B) REQUIREMENT.—The formula referred 20 to in subparagraph (A) shall be based on the 21 following factors: 22 (i) The total population of the State 23 or Indian Tribe. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1432 IS (ii) The probability of resilience events 1 in the State or on the land of the Indian 2 Tribe during the previous 10 years, as de- 3 termined based on the number of federally 4 declared disasters or emergencies in the 5 State or on the land of the Indian Tribe, 6 as applicable, including— 7 (I) disasters for which Fire Man- 8 agement Assistance Grants are pro- 9 vided under section 420 of the Robert 10 T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer- 11 gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 12 5187); 13 (II) major disasters declared by 14 the President under section 401 of 15 that Act (42 U.S.C. 5170); 16 (III) emergencies declared by the 17 President under section 501 of that 18 Act (42 U.S.C. 5191); and 19 (IV) any other federally declared 20 disaster or emergency in the State or 21 on the land of the Indian Tribe. 22 (iii) The number and severity, meas- 23 ured by population and economic impacts, 24 of resilience events experienced by the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1432 IS State or Indian Tribe on or after January 1 1, 2011. 2 (iv) The total amount, on a per capita 3 basis, of public and private expenditures 4 during the previous 10 years to carry out 5 mitigation efforts to reduce the likelihood 6 and consequences of resilience events in 7 the State or on the land of the Indian 8 Tribe, with States or Indian Tribes with 9 higher per capita expenditures receiving 10 additional weight or consideration as com- 11 pared to States or Indian Tribes with 12 lower per capita expenditures. 13 (4) ANNUAL UPDATE OF DATA USED IN DIS- 14 TRIBUTION OF FUNDS.—Beginning 1 year after the 15 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall 16 annually update— 17 (A) all data relating to the factors de- 18 scribed in paragraph (3)(B); and 19 (B) all other data used in distributing 20 grants to States and Indian Tribes under this 21 subsection. 22 (5) MATCHING FUNDS.—A State or Indian 23 Tribe that receives a grant under this subsection 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 1432 IS shall be required to match not less than 15 percent 1 of the amount of the grant. 2 (6) PLAN REQUIRED.—The Secretary shall en- 3 sure that each grant provided to a State or Indian 4 Tribe under this subsection will— 5 (A) be allocated in accordance with a pub- 6 lished State or Indian Tribe plan that— 7 (i) is adopted by the State or Indian 8 Tribe after notice and a public hearing; 9 and 10 (ii) describes the proposed funding 11 distributions and recipients of the electric 12 grid resilience grants to be provided by the 13 State or Indian Tribe; and 14 (B) be allocated, pursuant to the applicable 15 State or Indian Tribe plan, to eligible entities 16 for projects within the State or on the land of 17 the Indian Tribe, as applicable. 18 (7) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.— 19 (A) IN GENERAL.—Of any amounts made 20 available to the Secretary to carry out the pro- 21 gram established under paragraph (1) for a fis- 22 cal year, the Secretary may use not more than 23 10 percent for the administrative expenses of 24 carrying out that program. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 1432 IS (B) GRANT AMOUNTS.—Not more than 10 1 percent of the amount of a grant provided by 2 the Secretary to a State or Indian Tribe under 3 this subsection may be used for administrative 4 expenses. 5 (c) USE OF GRANTS.— 6 (1) IN GENERAL.—A grant awarded to an eligi- 7 ble entity under the electric grid resilience program 8 established under subsection (b)(1) may be used for 9 activities, technologies, equipment, and hardening 10 measures to enable the electric grid to better with- 11 stand the effects of extreme weather, a wildfire, or 12 any other natural disaster, including— 13 (A) weatherization technologies and equip- 14 ment; 15 (B) fire-resistant technologies and fire pre- 16 vention systems; 17 (C) monitoring technologies; 18 (D) the undergrounding of electrical equip- 19 ment; 20 (E) utility pole management; 21 (F) the relocation of power lines; 22 (G) vegetation and fuel-load management; 23 (H) the use or construction of distributed 24 energy resources for enhancing system adaptive 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •S 1432 IS capacity during extreme weather events, includ- 1 ing— 2 (i) microgrids; and 3 (ii) battery-storage subcomponents; 4 (I) adaptive protection technologies; and 5 (J) advanced modeling technologies. 6 (2) PROHIBITED USES.— 7 (A) IN GENERAL.—A grant awarded to an 8 eligible entity under the electric grid resilience 9 program established under subsection (b)(1) 10 may not be used for— 11 (i) construction of a new— 12 (I) electric generating facility; or 13 (II) large-scale battery-storage 14 facility that is not used for enhancing 15 system adaptive capacity during ex- 16 treme weather events; or 17 (ii) cybersecurity. 18 (B) CERTAIN INVESTMENTS ELIGIBLE FOR 19 RECOVERY.— 20 (i) IN GENERAL.—An eligible entity 21 may not seek cost recovery for the portion 22 of the cost of any system, technology, or 23 equipment that is funded through a grant 24 awarded under the electric grid resilience 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •S 1432 IS program established under subsection 1 (b)(1). 2 (ii) SAVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in 3 this subparagraph prohibits an eligible en- 4 tity from recovering through traditional or 5 incentive-based ratemaking any portion of 6 an investment in a system, technology, or 7 equipment that is not funded by a grant 8 awarded under the electric grid resilience 9 program established under subsection 10 (b)(1). 11 (d) EVALUATION OF FUNDED PROJECTS.—The Sec- 12 retary shall carry out periodic evaluations of— 13 (1) the electric grid resilience program estab- 14 lished under subsection (b)(1); and 15 (2) the projects carried out by eligible entities 16 receiving grants under that program. 17 (e) ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS.— 18 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 19 the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 20 thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a 21 report describing the electric grid resilience program 22 established under subsection (b)(1), including the re- 23 sults of the periodic evaluations carried out under 24 subsection (d). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •S 1432 IS (2) REQUIREMENTS.—The report under para- 1 graph (1) shall include information and data pro- 2 vided by each State or Indian Tribe receiving a 3 grant from the Secretary under subsection (b) on— 4 (A) the costs of the projects for which 5 grants are awarded to eligible entities by States 6 or Indian Tribes under that subsection; and 7 (B) the types of activities, technologies, 8 equipment, and hardening measures funded by 9 those grants. 10 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 11 authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 12 out this section $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 13 through 2026. 14 SEC. 3. ELECTRIC GRID RESILIENCE RESEARCH AND DE- 15 VELOPMENT. 16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 17 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy 18 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall estab- 19 lish a research, development, demonstration, and commer- 20 cial application program to enhance resilience and 21 strengthen emergency response and management of the 22 electric grid. 23 (b) GRANTS.—Under the program established under 24 subsection (a), the Secretary shall award competitive 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 12 •S 1432 IS grants to eligible entities described in subsection (c) to 1 conduct research, development, demonstration, and com- 2 mercial application activities to improve the resilience of 3 the electric grid by developing technologies and capabili- 4 ties to withstand and address the current and projected 5 impact on electric grid infrastructure of— 6 (1) extreme weather (as defined in section 7 2(a)); 8 (2) wildfires; and 9 (3) other natural disasters. 10 (c) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—An entity eligible to re- 11 ceive a grant under subsection (b) is— 12 (1) an institution of higher education, including 13 a historically Black college or university and a mi- 14 nority-serving institution; 15 (2) a nonprofit organization; 16 (3) a National Laboratory; 17 (4) a unit of State, local, or Tribal government; 18 (5) an electric utility or electric cooperative; 19 (6) a retail service provider of electricity; 20 (7) a private commercial entity; 21 (8) a partnership or consortium of 2 or more 22 entities described in any of paragraphs (1) through 23 (7); and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 13 •S 1432 IS (9) any other entity the Secretary determines to 1 be appropriate. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:25 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1432.IS S1432 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS