Maryland Energy Administration Announces the Data Center Energy Efficiency Grant Program for FY22

The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) is pleased to announce the opening of the Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) Data Center Energy Efficiency Grant Program (DCEEG) on Monday, August 9, 2021. This program will provide grants on a first-come, first-served basis to encourage innovative and cost-effective energy efficiency technologies in Maryland-based data centers. Data centers use an enormous amount of energy, consuming 100 to 200 times the electricity of a standard office. Additionally, data centers run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are no holidays for data centers. Maryland generally has higher energy costs when compared to surrounding states, and the program aims to increase Maryland’s cost competitiveness by reducing facility operating and maintenance costs through energy savings.

The DCEEG program is open to all commercial, industrial, state/local government, or non-profit data centers in Maryland with an overall data facility floor size of 1,000 square feet or greater. For the purpose of this program, a data center is defined as a facility used to house only computers, servers, networking systems, IT components, and supporting infrastructure. It may also be a specifically designed and equipped facility to meet the needs of high-density computing equipment or server racks used for data storage and processing. The data center space includes sophisticated computing and server functions; it excludes server closets and computing training rooms.  

In FY22, $600,000 is available on a first-come first-serve basis. Grants are designed to support up to 50% of the net customer cost — up to $300,000 per project after other incentives have been applied — for innovative and cost-effective energy efficiency solutions. Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM EST, January 21, 2022 or when funds are exhausted, whichever comes first. Projects must meet all eligibility requirements to be considered for award funding. Full program information and application materials can be found in the program’s Funding Opportunity Announcement. 

Please contact David Giusti, DCEEG Program Manager, at David.Giusti1@maryland.gov or via phone at (410) 913-2387 with any questions or concerns regarding program eligibility or application requirements.