II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2380 

To direct the Secretary of Energy to establish a grant program for the 

transformation of the electric grid, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 31, 2019 

Ms. HIRONO introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of Energy to establish a grant program for the transformation of the electric grid, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Next Generation Elec5 tric Systems Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 

8 (1) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti9 ty’’ means a partnership consisting of 2 or more en10 tities— 


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1 (A) 1 or more of which shall be— 

2 (i) an electric utility (as defined in 

3 section 3(22)(A) of the Federal Power Act 

4 (16 U.S.C. 796(22)(A))); 

5 (ii) a Regional Transmission Organi6 zation (as defined in section 3 of the Fed7 eral Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796)); or 

8 (iii) an Independent System Operator 

9 (as defined in that section); and 

10 (B) 1 or more of which may be— 

11 (i) an institution of higher education 

12 (as defined in section 101(a) of the Higher 

13 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

14 1001(a))); 

15 (ii) a National Laboratory (as defined 

16 in section 2 of the Energy Policy Act of 

17 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801)); 

18 (iii) a State or local government or 

19 other public body created by or pursuant 

20 to State law; 

21 (iv) an Indian tribe (as defined in sec22 tion 4 of the Indian Self-Determination 

23 and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 

24 5304)) or tribal organization (as defined in 


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1 section 3765 of title 38, United States 

2 Code); 

3 (v) a Federal power marketing admin4 istration; 

5 (vi) an entity that develops and pro6 vides technology; or 

7 (vii) an organization described in sec8 tion 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue 

9 Code of 1986. 

10 (2) FEDERAL POWER MARKETING ADMINISTRA11 TION.—The term ‘‘Federal power marketing admin12 istration’’ means— 

13 (A) the Bonneville Power Administration; 

14 (B) the Southeastern Power Administra15 tion; 

16 (C) the Southwestern Power Administra17 tion; and 

18 (D) the Western Area Power Administra19 tion. 

20 (3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

21 the Secretary of Energy. 

22 SEC. 3. GRID MODERNIZATION TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRA23 TION PROJECTS. 

24 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish a 

25 grant program under which the Secretary shall award 


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1 grants to eligible entities to carry out eligible projects de2 scribed in subsection (b) relating to the modernization of 

3 the electric grid, including— 

4 (1) projects for the application of technologies 

5 to improve observability, stability, advanced controls, 

6 and prediction of system performance on the dis7 tribution system; and 

8 (2) projects relating to transmission system 

9 interconnections. 

10 (b) ELIGIBLE PROJECTS.—An eligible project re11 ferred to in subsection (a) is a demonstration project 

12 that— 

13 (1) is designed to improve the resiliency, per14 formance, and efficiency of the future electric grid, 

15 while ensuring the continued provision of safe, se16 cure, reliable, and affordable power; 

17 (2) demonstrates secure integration and man18 agement of 2 or more energy resources, including 

19 distributed energy generation, combined heat and 

20 power, microgrids, energy storage, electric vehicles, 

21 energy efficiency, demand response, intelligent loads, 

22 and which may include resources behind the cus23 tomer meter; 


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1 (3) demonstrates secure integration and inter2 operability of communications and information tech3 nologies relating to the electric grid; 

4 (4) includes the development of a cybersecurity 

5 plan written in accordance with guidelines developed 

6 by the Secretary; 

7 (5) includes a privacy effects analysis that eval8 uates the project in accordance with the Voluntary 

9 Code of Conduct of the Department of Energy, com10 monly known as the ‘‘DataGuard Energy Data Pri11 vacy Program’’, or the most recent revisions to the 

12 privacy program of the Department of Energy; and 

13 (6) satisfies the eligibility requirements de14 scribed in section 545(a) of the Energy Security and 

15 Independence Act of 2007 (42 U.S.C. 17155(a)). 

16 (c) COMMUNITY OUTREACH.—An eligible project car17 ried out using a grant awarded under subsection (a) may 

18 include education and outreach with community-based or19 ganizations and other private sector entities to help inform 

20 the objectives of the project and communicate the results 

21 of the project. 


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1 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

2 There is authorized to be appropriated to the Sec3 retary $50,000,000 to carry out this Act for each of fiscal 

4 years 2020 through 2028. 

Æ 


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