Through the Department of Energy’s Energy to Communities (E2C) program, PNNL provides technical expertise to guide communities in developing abundant, affordable, reliable, and secure energy systems.

Interested communities that form partnerships across local governments, community-based organizations, electric utilities, and other stakeholders can apply to receive technical assistance from PNNL or other national laboratories. The partnership teams collaborate with national laboratory staff to apply robust modeling and analysis tools. Results inform solutions that are adapted to the community's specific conditions and contexts. Each project lasts approximately three years and aims to allow local decision-makers to evaluate scenarios and strategies before moving to technology deployment.

Projects 

Lane County, Oregon (Started in 2024)

Wildfires, ice storms, heat waves, flooding, and more environmental factors have damaged the electric grid in Lane County, Oregon, over the last few years, causing extended customer power outages. Lane County, the Springfield Utility Board, the Emerald People's Utility District, and the Center for Rural Livelihoods are working with experts at PNNL to develop distributed energy resources and grid modernization technologies to improve the reliability and resilience of electricity services.

To learn more about this partnership, check out the story on the DOE website. 
 

Sitka, Alaska (Started in 2023)

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory supports Sitka, Alaska, as part of a community team formed by the City and Bureau of Sitka’s planning department and municipal utility, the Sitka Conservation Society, and the Sitka Sound Science Center. The goal of this effort is to optimize hydropower infrastructure, assess reliability and risks to their microgrid, and support the development of the electric utility workforce.

To learn more about this partnership, check out the story on the PNNL website.