Why smart-grid, broadband stimulus applicants need each other

This week the Department of Energy awarded $3.4 billion in stimulus funding to one-fourth of the 400 smart grid stimulus applicants spanning 49 states. The funding was the biggest single grant the DOE has given out in one day, but it's not the end of its awards. There is still $7.2 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding set aside for broadband grant hopefuls. According to Craig Settles, a consultant and founder of Successful.com, it's time to strike while the iron's hot. The two industries including those that won grants and those that want to proceed anyways ­ are ripe for partnership. The community broadband projects that survive round one of broadband stimulus funding will be asked to go into a due diligence phase to refine their proposals to the National Telecommunications Industry Association (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). Settles' advice is for those applicants to quickly get with smart-grid grant winners in their area and determine a way to work that project into their broadband proposal. And with the NTIA and RUS announcing today they will delay naming the recipients of broadband stimulus grants for at least one month, companies have time to get a head start. Securing a utility, an established customer, could be the difference between a broadband proposal with reasonable expectations of sustainability and one that is reliable and financially viable, he said.