FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n
Contact:\u00a0Tim Zink<\/a>\u00a0| 443-758-7344<\/p>\n Major new effort aims to strengthen Maryland\u2019s grid against extreme weather and attacks<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n BALTIMORE \u2013 The Maryland Energy Administration today announced the launch of a major new program to make improvements to the electricity grid that improve reliability and energy resilience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the face of rising demand for electricity and the more frequent and severe storms triggered by climate change, we absolutely must have a reliable electric grid. Our grid is battered and getting worse, meaning that the new Maryland RISE program is essential to reducing power outages and keeping the state moving toward its clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction goals,\u201d <\/span>said Maryland Energy Administration Director Paul G. Pinsky<\/b>. \u201cThe agency looks forward to working with its federal and local community partners to make our grid more robust and resilient.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>Maryland Resilient Infrastructure for Sustainable Energy Program<\/span><\/a> (\u201cMaryland RISE\u201d) is currently open for applications. This program provides funds to Maryland\u2019s utilities, bulk power system operators and related power-industry stakeholders. Funds are provided through the <\/span>Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act<\/span><\/a>. The program has a total budget of $15 million, subject to funding availability.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The electricity grid faces a growing number of threats. Outages are increasing due to its age, along with the increasing frequency of severe weather events. The grid also can suffer physical damage caused by bad actors and cyberattacks, which have made investments in improving the grid\u2019s durability, reliability and power quality essential.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Maryland RISE Program is competitive. Program applications are due to the Maryland Energy Administration by <\/span>January 21, 2025.<\/b> Funds are offered under two areas of interest, based on the amount of an applicant\u2019s retail electricity sales. In addition to state requirements, grantees will need to meet federal requirements as a condition of funding. Eligible activities generally include grid infrastructure improvements such as fire suppression systems, reconductoring power lines, undergrounding and many others.<\/span><\/p>\n Full eligibility requirements are available in the Program\u2019s Funding Opportunity Announcement, which is available on the <\/span>Maryland RISE Program webpage<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Questions should be directed to the Maryland RISE Program Team via email at <\/span>GridResilience.MEA@Maryland.gov<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The mission of the Maryland Energy Administration is to promote clean, affordable, reliable energy and energy-related greenhouse gas emission reductions to benefit Marylanders in a just and equitable manner. For more information about the agency, visit us on our website at <\/span><\/i>Energy.Maryland.gov<\/span><\/i><\/a>, and follow us on social media: <\/span><\/i>LinkedIn<\/span><\/i><\/a> | <\/span><\/i>X<\/span><\/i><\/a> | <\/span><\/i>Facebook<\/span><\/i><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n -###-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:\u00a0Tim Zink\u00a0| 443-758-7344 Major new effort aims to strengthen Maryland\u2019s grid against extreme weather and attacks BALTIMORE \u2013 The Maryland Energy Administration today announced the launch of a major new program to make improvements to the electricity grid that improve reliability and energy resilience.\u00a0 \u201cIn the face …Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6296,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295\/revisions\/6296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}