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Maryland Offers $4M in Combined Heat and Power Grants

Nov. 10, 2015

The Maryland Energy Administration is offering more than $4 million in combined heat and power grants for industrial and critical infrastructure facilities.

Elisa Wood

Credit: Maryland Energy Administration

The Maryland Energy Administration is now accepting applications for combined heat and power grants to be used by industrial and critical infrastructure facilities.

The state plans to make $4.025 million available for CHP installations. Of that $1.525 million will go toward industrial CHP, $1.5 million for critical facilities and $1 million for CHP that uses biomass or biogas.

Grants will range from $425/kW to $575/kW, based on the size of the CHP system, with a maximum per project cap of $500,000.

To be eligible, projects also must be located in Maryland and be ready for an official groundbreaking by January 1, 2017. The CHP system efficiency must be at least 60 percent on a Higher Heating Value (HHV) basis.

The state will disperse up to 30 percent of the grant award after it verifies that the project broke ground. After the system is commissioned, the state will release the remainder.

Maryland is encouraging the use of biogas and biomass fuels, but will consider CHP systems that generate power with natural gas or other fossil fuels. A range of technologies are eligible, including reciprocating engines, turbines, microturbines, fuel cells, and back-pressure steam turbines. The waste heat must be captured for on-site use.

Grants are available only to facility owners, not CHP developers. However, facility owners may choose to partner with developers.

The rolling application process will run through Feb. 1, 2016. The state expects to begin announcing winners in January and execute grants in May. Projects must be in operation by Jan. 1, 2018.

Michael Leslie, MEA clean energy CHP and C&I program manager, noted that CHP systems offer the advantage of driving down operational costs and enhancing resiliency.

“Additionally, by insourcing our electric supply instead of importing it, all Marylanders have the opportunity to benefit from this technology as commissioning new CHP systems provides economic development, job creation, and significant environmental benefits,” he said.

See the MEA website for more information. Or contact [email protected]. Leslie also will also provide details about the CHP grant program in a webinar from 1:30 to 2:30 PM ET, Wednesday, November 11.

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About the Author

Elisa Wood | Editor-in-Chief

Elisa Wood is an award-winning writer and editor who specializes in the energy industry. She is chief editor and co-founder of Microgrid Knowledge and serves as co-host of the publication’s popular conference series. She also co-founded RealEnergyWriters.com, where she continues to lead a team of energy writers who produce content for energy companies and advocacy organizations.

She has been writing about energy for more than two decades and is published widely. Her work can be found in prominent energy business journals as well as mainstream publications. She has been quoted by NPR, the Wall Street Journal and other notable media outlets.

“For an especially readable voice in the industry, the most consistent interpreter across these years has been the energy journalist Elisa Wood, whose Microgrid Knowledge (and conference) has aggregated more stories better than any other feed of its time,” wrote Malcolm McCullough, in the book, Downtime on the Microgrid, published by MIT Press in 2020.

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