DOE Just Released Two Years of Grid Resilience Formula Money at Once — $967M, Due February 17, 2027. It Is the Last IIJA Tranche, and Most of It Will Reach Utilities Through State Subawards.

On October 20, 2026, the Department of Energy issued Amendment 10 to DE-FOA-0002736 and made about $967 million available through the Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grant program. The money comes from Section 40101(d) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. DOE's Office of Electricity runs the program and the National Energy Technology Laboratory administers it. Applications are due February 17, 2027, at 11:59 PM Eastern, which gives a 120-day window.

The press release presented the round as a cost-and-reliability measure. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that "lowering costs and unleashing prosperity are top priorities for President Trump," and that the funds go "directly to states, territories, and tribes." The release said less about the structure of the round, and three features of that structure matter to anyone who wants a share:

1. It covers two fiscal years. Amendment 10 releases the FY2025 and FY2026 allocations together, which are Years Four and Five of the program's five-year run. A December 2024 Federal Register notice had said DOE expected to release the FY2025 allocation in early 2025. That money arrived about twenty months late and was combined with the next year's.
2. It is the last tranche. The IIJA appropriated 40101(d) funding for FY2022 through FY2026. Absent new appropriations, no Year Six is coming. A state that fails to apply, or applies without a pipeline of projects, has no later round to make up for it.
3. DOE is not the real competition for utilities. States and tribes apply to DOE. Utilities, electric cooperatives, municipal systems, and grid-technology vendors apply to their state or tribe for subawards, under rules each recipient sets. For most readers, the deadline that matters is the state's subaward solicitation in 2027, not February 17.

Who applies, and for how much

Under Amendment 10, DOE takes applications directly from four kinds of entities:

• States, including the District of Columbia and U.S. territories
• Federally recognized Indian tribes
• Alaska Native Regional Corporations
• Alaska Native Village Corporations

Both existing recipients and new applicants may apply. That matters for the many tribes that never claimed earlier allocations. Each eligible entity's FY25–FY26 allocation appears in a PDF table linked from NETL's program page. The allocations are not competitive: the statutory formula weighs population, land area, the probability and severity of disruptive events, and the entity's historical spending on mitigation.

Secondary reporting on the allocation table puts California at $69.8 million, Texas at $50.3 million, and the State of Alaska at $32.8 million, with Alaska Native corporations listed separately. Confirm your own figure in DOE's table before planning around it.

Applications go through FedConnect under DE-FOA-0002736. New applicants need an active SAM.gov registration, a UEI, and a FedConnect account, and SAM registration alone can take weeks. A state or tribe that has never received 40101(d) funds and starts registering in January is cutting it close.

Existing recipients generally do not need a new program narrative unless their project plans have changed or their original narrative did not cover later-year projects. New applicants must meet Amendment 10's full requirements.

The money math: three layers of match

Most first-time participants misread 40101(d) because they treat it as a grant to the state. It works more like a pass-through program with matches at two levels:

The statute adds two constraints that shape how states allocate:

• Small-utility floor. Each state must direct to small utilities a share of its funds at least equal to the share of the state's customers that small utilities serve. In rural states with many cooperatives and municipal systems, that floor can take most of the allocation.
• Spending-history cap. A subrecipient's award generally cannot exceed what the utility itself spent on resilience over the previous three years. A cooperative that has deferred vegetation management or pole replacement for a decade has a lower cap than one that kept spending.

Section 40101 also excludes some uses. Funds cannot go to new electric generating facilities, to large-scale battery storage that does not serve resilience, or to cybersecurity, which has its own IIJA programs. Eligible work includes weatherization, fire-resistant components, monitoring and control technology, undergrounding, utility pole management, relocating or reconductoring lines, vegetation and fuel-load management, hardening substations, adaptive protection, and microgrids and storage that improve resilience. DOE's October 20 description also stresses preparing for rising electricity demand and deploying technologies that lower long-term delivery costs. A narrative written for the current DOE should lead with avoided outage costs and load-growth readiness, not climate adaptation.

What changed since the earlier rounds

Amendment 10 is the first allocation under the current administration, so applicants should read it against the earlier amendments rather than reusing a 2023 narrative.

• Framing. DOE's release talks about affordability, reliability, and energy security. NETL's landing page still lists "projects with the greatest community benefit, providing clean, affordable, and reliable energy" as a priority. Read Amendment 10's own language to see whether it still requires the community-benefit and Justice40-era reporting attached to the FY2022–FY2024 allocations, and do not include sections the amendment no longer asks for.
• Timing pressure. Combining two years doubles the dollars, but the spending timeline does not double. States that received FY2022–FY2024 funds and are still working through subaward solicitations will now hold about five years of allocations at once. Expect DOE to examine draw-down history, and expect states to move quickly on subaward rounds in 2027.
• Context. Amendment 10 arrived a month after DOE's $1.9 billion SPARK selections (31 reconductoring and grid-enhancing-technology projects, announced September 24). Those competitive awards went to large transmission owners. The formula program is where smaller distribution utilities and cooperatives have a realistic chance.

Strategy for states and tribes (deadline February 17)

Count your match before your projects. Every 40101(d) dollar requires 15 cents of state or tribal money. Some legislatures appropriated match for earlier years but not for Years Four and Five. Confirm the 15% is budgeted, or identify an eligible in-kind source, before the application goes in.

Refresh the needs assessment. Previous narratives described hazards and objectives. Update them with the latest outage data (SAIDI and SAIFI by utility, if you collect it), the wildfire and severe-weather events since your last application, and any load-growth forecasts from data centers or industrial projects. Load growth now carries more weight with DOE.

Tribes: claim the allocation even if it is small. Many tribal allocations are modest. They are still non-competitive money for microgrids, backup power at critical facilities, and line hardening. The 5% administrative allowance can pay for a technical consultant. DOE offers free technical assistance through a request form on the NETL program page.

Plan the subaward process now. The application should describe how the state will select subrecipients, after public notice and comment, and when. A state that can show a subaward solicitation ready to post in spring 2027 is a lower-risk recipient than one that cannot.

Strategy for utilities and cooperatives (deadline: your state's 2027 solicitation)

• Find your state's administering agency today. It is usually the state energy office, the public utility commission, or an emergency management agency. Get on its distribution list.
• Document three years of resilience spending. The spending-history cap means your capital records set the maximum award. Pull vegetation-management, pole-replacement, undergrounding, and hardening costs for 2024 through 2026 now.
• Line up the match. Large utilities need dollar-for-dollar match. Cooperatives and municipal systems under the 4 million MWh threshold need one-third. For a co-op, a $3 million subaward means about $1 million of its own capital. Many will finance that through USDA Rural Utilities Service loans, so plan with your lender early.
• Pick projects that fit both framings. Feeder hardening in a high-fire-risk area, a microgrid at a hospital or water plant, and reconductoring a constrained line that also serves new load all satisfy the statute and DOE's current emphasis.
• Vendors: sell through utilities, not around them. Grid-technology firms cannot apply to DOE or, in most states, to the state directly. The route is a utility customer whose subaward application names your equipment.

The calendar

• Now through December: States and tribes confirm match and registrations, and new applicants begin SAM and FedConnect setup. Utilities compile three years of resilience spending and contact their state administering agency.
• January 2027: States finalize narratives and subaward plans. Tribes request DOE technical assistance if needed.
• February 17, 2027, 11:59 PM ET: Applications due to DOE through FedConnect.
• Spring–summer 2027 (expected): DOE awards, then state subaward solicitations. This is when utilities compete.

The short version

Amendment 10 to DE-FOA-0002736 releases about $967 million in FY2025 and FY2026 Grid Resilience formula funds to states, territories, tribes, and Alaska Native corporations, with applications due February 17, 2027. Recipients put up a 15% match. Utility subrecipients match their subawards 100%, or one-third if they qualify as small utilities, and an award generally cannot exceed what the utility spent on resilience over the prior three years. This is the last formula tranche the IIJA funded. States and tribes need to apply on time, and utilities need their spending records and match ready before their state's 2027 solicitation opens.

Sources: DOE's October 20, 2026 announcement, NETL's Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grant page, DOE's program page, and the FedConnect listing for DE-FOA-0002736. See also our coverage of DOE's $1.9 billion SPARK selections and current DOE funding opportunities.

If you are a state energy office, a tribe, or a utility preparing a 40101(d) narrative or subaward application, Granted can help you organize the needs assessment, match documentation, and project justification before the deadline.