ETIPP Annual Report 2025

"REAP's involvement with ETIPP in 2025 helped rural Alaska communities navigate their energy challenges by facilitating opportunities for community input and turning energy data into actionable, community-driven plans. By offering hands-on learning opportunities in weatherization and energy efficiency, creating spaces for communities to learn from one another at an in-person annual meeting, and identifying funding, programs, and localized support, REAP contributed to existing community efforts to advance short- and long-term impacts."

"This year, our work with ETIPP allowed us to support communities that continue to face the impacts of hurricanes, prolonged outages, and a historically fragile electric system. Together with the communities in Las Margaritas, Toro Negro, and Playa de Ponce, we advanced the conversation around energy reliability, safety, and affordability by analyzing their microgrids, facilitating participatory processes, and gathering essential data to develop strategies grounded in their realities. We have also accompanied communities in developing energy projects that help reduce costs and improve service stability for families living with unreliable energy. Above all, it has been an honor to accompany communities that, despite so many challenges, continue organizing, learning, and leading the way toward a more reliable energy future."

"Our work with ETIPP advanced energy security in the Great Lakes region by supporting Beaver Island's efforts to explore energy generation and funding resources, reducing future reliance on mainland power. In Gary, Indiana, we partnered with local community and city stakeholders to complete a strategic energy planning assessment focused on critical facility resilience and energy generation development potential. We identified opportunities for energy generation installations at key facilities and resilience hubs, modeled cost-optimized systems, and outlined pathways to improve energy affordability and reliability for the community."

"SSDN works with communities across the Gulf Coast of the United States to address the challenges associated with hurricanes, flooding, high temperatures, and other weather hazards that tend to affect the region. Through ETIPP, and in partnership with NLR and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, SSDN has been able to help the city of Key West, Florida, put together a community-specific plan to reduce energy costs and improve energy reliability. Additionally, SSDN supported a record number of Gulf Coast communities to apply for ETIPP Cohort Five, showing that the program is filling a critical need by helping communities advance energy security, affordability, and reliability."

"STEM NOLA coordinated with six communities to apply for ETIPP technical assistance in the Gulf Coast region in 2025, including those in the immediate New Orleans area in Louisiana, as well as communities in the states of Mississippi and Texas. Through community outreach, we raised awareness among these communities about ETIPP initiatives for technical support and guided them through the ETIPP program application. Of the communities that applied, St. Vincent's House in Galveston, Texas, was selected and is committed to moving forward in the ETIPP process, creating a more secure, affordable, and reliable energy plan for their community in this region."

*STEM NOLA served as an ETIPP regional partner through April 2026.

"HSEO's work with ETIPP as regional partner, which began in April 2025, strengthened energy reliability planning in the off-grid community of Kahikinui, Maui, through analysis of power options for a resilience hub. In Waianae, Oahu, ETIPP strategic energy planning helped identify priorities that can strengthen energy security, affordability, and reliability."

"By supporting island and coastal communities in the Northeast, Island Institute has been able to support ETIPP communities in engaging with the complex challenges associated with living on the fringes of the grid. Island Institute often serves as a bridge between communities and utilities, supporting the development and growth of relationships that amplify community energy needs and build opportunity for energy projects to come to fruition. Through this bridging work, as well as energy education, supporting technical analyses and the development of strategic energy plans by national lab scientists, and building local capacity, Island Institute has supported end-of-the-line communities in advancing energy security, affordability, and reliability."

"Through our work within the ETIPP program, we have supported communities in hiring dedicated energy staff and training existing personnel to turn long-term visions into actionable projects that reduce energy use, strengthen local energy systems, and support greater energy independence. By hosting multiple hands-on educational workshops across the region, we have built local capacity, empowering communities to make their own informed decisions. The program has also enabled our communities to build strong partnerships with local utilities, balancing authorities, and funding organizations."

"Our work with ETIPP advanced energy resilience in two key communities. On Tangier Island, Virginia, we facilitated the development of the community's first strategic energy plan, which led to local utility-driven energy savings programs, improving affordability and reducing energy consumption and energy peaks. And in Brunswick, Georgia, we delivered an Energy 101 training in the fall of 2024 that empowered residents with knowledge and resources. This engagement positioned Brunswick to apply for technical assistance through ETIPP's Deep Dive track with a goal of strengthening long-term energy reliability."