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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity today announced the relaunch of the Digitizing Utilities Prize Round 3: Resilient Grid Innovation. After the successful conclusion of Round 1 in 2023 and Round 2 in 2025, Round 3 of this prize offers a total prize pool of more than $2.4 million in cash prizes and vouchers to work with a DOE national laboratory.
Electric sector stakeholders are facing an emerging need to capitalize on large datasets, including both internally and externally generated grid data, to improve reliability. This prize aims to incentivize technology development partnerships among interdisciplinary teams of software developers and data experts to transform digital systems, data analytics, and grid resource integration for the electric sector. The solutions developed during this prize process will ultimately help make energy more affordable by giving utilities improved situational awareness of grid conditions and a better understanding of risks for cost effective decision making.
In Phase 1, competitor teams will identify an energy sector partner and demonstrate a thorough understanding of their partner’s presented opportunity or challenge, as well as the team’s ability to access the partner’s relevant data and resources that can be leveraged for this prize. Up to 16 teams will be awarded a cash prize of $75,000 and invited to participate in the next phase.
In Phase 2, teams will work with the energy sector partner identified in Phase 1 to implement their solution with a virtual demonstration. Up to five winners will be awarded $150,000 in cash prizes and a $75,000 voucher which allows teams to collaborate with DOE national laboratories to access specialized expertise, facilities, and technologies to advance research, development, and innovation.
Phase 2 teams may also compete for two bonus prizes, the Federated Grid Data Security Prize and the Impact with Public Research Data Bonus Prize, each worth $50,000.
The Digitizing Utilities Prize Round 3 submission deadline is April 9, 2026. Learn more about this competition, including key dates and submission details on HeroX, the official prize platform.
The American-Made program is your fast track to energy innovation. Powered by the U.S. Department of Energy and administered by the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), American-Made transforms innovative ideas into real energy solutions through prizes, collegiate competitions, technical assistance vouchers, and opportunities to work with a network of experts.
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