Community Microgrid Assistance Partnership Direct Funding Opportunity
General information
The Community Microgrid Assistance Partnership (C-MAP) is an effort through the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) to expand American’s access to affordable energy, strengthen grid reliability, and bolster national security. The program supports the implementation of innovative OE-funded research to improve energy delivery to Americans living and working in rural and remote areas that have less reliable energy systems and some of the highest energy costs in the nation. Through this effort, DOE-OE provides direct funding, access to technical experts, and educational resources to energy providers and partners to build, operate, and enhance microgrid systems that improve the affordability, reliability, and security of electricity in rural and remote areas of the U.S.
The 2026 C-MAP solicitation aims to support rural and remote communities to:
• Develop and implement multi-community support efforts to better support or develop advanced microgrid energy systems
• Develop detailed engineering designs and financial assessments in support of developing advanced microgrid systems
• Expand collaboration between energy providers and large load energy users, with a goal to expand industrial development in rural areas
• Assess and improve the operation of existing microgrid energy systems.
This call for proposals will support energy providers, local governments and U.S. industry in remote areas to improve the operational efficiency of existing or development of new microgrid energy systems. This solicitation uses the U.S. Department of Energy definition of a microgrid: “a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources within clearly defined electrical boundaries that acts as a single controllable entity.”
This solicitation targets existing or proposed microgrids which experience challenges with cost, reliability, resilience, and/or power quality. The microgrids may be electrically islanded (not connected to an external electricity infrastructure) or, if connected to external electrical infrastructure, such as electric transmission or distribution feeders, must at times operate independently of that external energy system.
The 2026 Community Microgrid Development Partnership Awards consist of five (5) topic areas:
1. Regional Microgrid Coordination
To help energy service providers from multiple communities collaborate to improve the operations of, or development opportunities for, separate microgrid power systems for their independent communities.
2. Microgrid Integration with Large Load Energy Consumers
To support collaboration between utilities operating community microgrids and adjacent large load energy consumers which operate, or plan to operate, independent power systems.
3. Microgrid Development
To assist individual communities with completing detailed design efforts for a new, or major retrofit of an existing, microgrid power system.
4. Microgrid Transformation
To equip individual communities to assess, design, and implement innovative microgrid improvements to operational microgrid systems.
5. Microgrid Assessment for Industrial or other Large Load Energy Consumers
To assist individual large energy consumers to develop or advance microgrid systems, expanding energy availability while lowering costs.
Funding details
Funding application timeline
Grant eligibility
The following types of U.S.-based entities are eligible to participate as a prime offeror:
- Non-profit entities, including energy cooperatives.
- State and local governmental entities.
- Any federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and villages, inclusive of any Alaska Native village or regional corporation as defined in or established pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
The following types of U.S.-based entities are not eligible to participate:
- Entities and individuals publicly banned from doing business with the U.S. government, such as entities and individuals debarred, suspended, or otherwise excluded from or ineligible for participating in Federal programs.
- Entities owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a government of a country of risk.
- Entity of Concern (as defined in section 10114 of Public Law 117-167 [42 U.S.C 18912])1 .
- Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC’s) (though technical support from FFRDC’s may be requested as described in section 10.n.)