The following guidance details best practices and suggestions for Grid Resilience applicants as they complete each worksheet within the budget template provided by the U.S. Department of Energy. All applications are required to use this budget template. The Instructions in the budget template are in red at the top of each tab, and are necessary to read before completing.
Instructions and Summary
This worksheet is the roll-up of all the other worksheets that the grantee/applicant will be completing for the budget that will be included in the application. An explanation section is available for both the initial worksheet and individual worksheets.
- At the top, complete sections: award recipient, date of submission, form submitted by.
- Complete Section A - Budget Summary: federal share, cost match, and proposed application period dates. The total project costs and cost match % of federal share will auto-populate.
- The Comments Section should be completed as needed for the applicable sections.
Personnel (and Fringe)
Personnel and fringe are allowable expenses, however, if the grantee/applicant chooses to include these costs in the budget, the applicant should first be aware of the following administrative requirements and reporting burdens that come along with including personnel and fringe:
- Davis Bacon adherence (DBA) requires a lot of additional reporting such as weekly payrolls submissions. Any laborers and mechanics personnel are subject to DBA.
- The State requires a lot of additional documentation in order to be reimbursed for this line item. Typically, the State does not allow existing employees to supplement their time with grant dollars - for DOLA contracts, they must be hired to do this exact grant work. All employees billing to the project will be required to submit quarterly time and effort reporting (including timecards, hours, and fringe), and up front documentation including the exact work description to show that the employee is not using their time (while under this grant) to supplement other daily work.
We recommend if the grantee/applicant is considering requesting funds for personnel and fringe, instead consider the following alternatives:
- For positions that are not laborers and mechanics - Use the personnel time spent as in-kind labor and part of grantee’s match contributions rather than using grant funds. This approach still requires quarterly time and effort reporting (project information, financial reports, employee time/hours), and up front documentation including the exact work description to show that the employee is not using their time (while under this grant) to supplement other daily work.
- Davis Bacon adherence/federal funds provisions flow down to the lowest level. If the State grant funds to A and A hires Z as a contractor, Z has to comply with DBA including weekly payroll and reporting. You can avoid DBA as the prime grantee by contracting it out.
Travel
Travel is an allowable expense, however, the following administrative requirements related to reporting on travel expenses should be considered when including travel in the budget:
- For this grant application, this section would mostly cover mileage to meetings for presentations. Review for lodging/hotels is more stringent.
- The grantee/applicant will be required to provide a significant amount of documentation for expenses in this category for a minimal amount ($1,000-2,000) of costs looking to recoup.
Given the effort of documentation needed for reimbursement, we do not recommend requesting funds for this section unless really necessary. Because of the nature of microgrid planning and construction grants, most grantees haven’t been requesting travel funding.
Equipment
- If the grantee/applicant is planning to purchase the equipment themselves, include equipment costs in this section. If the grantee/applicant is planning on purchasing the equipment and then hiring the contractor to do the work, please note that in the additional information cell.
- Please be as specific on the procurement plan as possible.
Supplies
- This section should include necessary supply items under $5,000 for short-term uses.
- Please don’t put other equipment (above $5,000) in this section.
Contractual
- Please list most of the items under the “vendor” section. This will be either consultants or contractors.
- Please note how many contractors (if more than one) will be employed.
- If the grantee/applicant has more details to add on what the contractors will be doing (e.g., contractor purchasing the battery on behalf of grantee), please add that in. The more details here the better.
- A competitive bidding process is required for any contracts over $50,000. If the grantee has a selected vendor for a previous project that has gone through a competitive bidding process, and the grantee plans to use that vendor again, the grantee will need to share the organization’s policy for bidding processes with the State.
Construction
- This section should include specific construction costs and information (if known).
Other Direct Costs
- This section is for any other items that don’t fall under the other worksheets.
Indirect Charges
- Indirect costs are challenging, thus are mostly discouraged based on the required documentation and compliance. Please refer to § 200.414 Indirect (F&A) costs for the Federal guidance. To recover indirect costs, there are three ways: Indirect Cost Rate Agreement, De Minimuus, and Cost Allocation Plan. This rate will need to be reviewed before the grant is awarded. If the grantee/applicant does not have a federally approved indirect rate, a de minimis rate of 10% is allowable. If the grantee/applicant meets the standard and is interested in trying to include in the budget, please list that in this worksheet. This budget item will reduce the amount of the grant award going toward direct expenses.
Cost Match (either ⅓ or 100% depending on entity)
- The grantee/applicant must input specific elements of the project where the applicant is providing a cost match.
- At least one-third local match is required. If the utility is over the threshold of selling 4 million MWh or more per year, the match increases from one-third to 100%. Local governments and anchor institutions must provide a 100% cost match; if local governments or anchor institutions manage any existing storage or generation (such as community solar) or own any distribution infrastructure, DOLA can work with the Department of Energy (DOE) to qualify the entity for one-third cost match, pending DOE approval.
- Grantees will have to document their electricity generation (via MW) per year, any electricity sales (if applicable), and show backup documentation (i.e., interconnection approval from utility, EIA data) via email to the Program Manager Julia Masters (julia.masters@state.co.us). She will share this information with DOE, and if given the green light, the grantee will complete the Secretarial Eligible Entity Designation Form that will be submitted in accordance with your application.
- Please note that until DOE approves that reduced cost match, grantees must assume they are responsible for the full 100% cost match, and that should be reflected in the submitted budget.
- Cost match is the amount that the local entity is putting into the project in relation to the grant amount. For example, if the grant is for $300,000, a one third cost match would be $100,000, for a $400,000 total project budget. For the same total project budget, a 100% cost match entity may apply for a $200,000 grant, with a $200,000 cost match.
Cost Match by Category
- This is a new worksheet and is meant to break out the cost match into each category.
- Type: Cash or in-kind
- Important for breaking apart the projections of cost match and spend down