Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced approximately $10 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development (R&D) projects under funding opportunity announcement (FOA) 2519, Natural Gas Demand Response Pilot Program.

The Natural Gas Demand Response Program’s (NGDR) goal is to reduce supply constraints and optimize energy consumption by promoting more transparency with respect to the costs of energy. Demand response programs aim to shift consumption by end-users away from peak demand periods (or periods of system strain), which can improve an energy system’s reliability and achieve overall reductions to meet energy efficiency goals.

Based on the success of electricity demand response programs, the government, regulators and the industry at large are exploring similar programs for natural gas systems. Advances in NGDR-related technology pathways can improve the performance, reliability, and flexibility of the existing natural gas supply and delivery infrastructure. These advances will enable the United States to continue to mitigate emissions across the natural gas value chain, extract maximum economic value from our existing resource base and lower energy consumption.

This FOA seeks to support the development of up to four NGDR pilot programs to expand on previously completed NGDR pilot programs.

More information on this FOA can be found here. FECM’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will manage the selected projects.

FECM funds R&D projects to reduce the cost to decarbonize power generation and industrial sources and to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, furthering the sustainable use of the nation’s energy resources. To learn more, visit the FECM website, sign up for FECM news announcements and visit the NETL website.