Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0003048
The GRID OVERHAUL WITH PROACTIVE, HIGH-SPEED UNDERGROUNDING FOR RELIABILITY, RESILIENCE, AND SECURITY SBIR/STTR opportunity (GOPHURRS SBIR/STTR), Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0003048, is a Department of Energy ARPA-E solicitation aimed squarely at small businesses proposing high-risk, high-reward technologies that could dramatically change how medium-voltage electric distribution lines are placed underground. The program centers on urban and suburban medium-voltage distribution networks in roughly the 5 to 46 kV range (think primary feeders and laterals), where outages are costly and where overhead lines are vulnerable to storms, vegetation, accidents, and other disruptions. ARPA-E is looking for ideas that are not just incremental improvements to today’s construction methods, but technologies that could create a new cost and performance trajectory for undergrounding and make it broadly feasible at scale.
The core problem GOPHURRS is trying to solve is that undergrounding distribution lines is widely recognized as a strong reliability and resilience measure, but the price tag is typically the deal-breaker. The FOA highlights common reliability metrics like SAIDI (duration of interruptions) and SAIFI (frequency of interruptions), noting typical U.S. values on the order of about 5 to 8 hours of outage duration and roughly 1.5 interruptions per customer, contributing to an estimated economic burden of about $79 billion per year. Underground systems can substantially reduce outage exposure compared with overhead systems, but burying distribution lines can cost five to ten times more than overhead construction, which keeps undergrounding from being adopted at the pace and scale that reliability goals would suggest. On top of cost, current undergrounding practices can bring safety and community impacts, including accidental strikes on other buried utilities, hazards associated with manhole work, and long periods of road closures, detours, and surface disruption.
GOPHURRS sets an aggressive target: reduce the cost of undergrounding electric power distribution grids by at least 50 percent, while also cutting the time and cost of underground installation by a factor of two relative to traditional trenching approaches. A major theme is shifting the default construction paradigm from “digging” (open trenching) to “drilling,” with the goal of leaving the surface nearly untouched. In practice, that means ARPA-E is interested in trenchless, highly automated approaches that can rapidly create underground pathways and install conduit with minimal excavation, minimal traffic disruption, and fewer opportunities for human error.
Technically, the FOA points to several areas where breakthroughs are needed. One is autonomous or highly automated subsurface drilling and installation systems that can move quickly along the intended route while simultaneously installing conduit. Another is the ability to avoid underground obstacles and uncertainties in real time. Because dense urban and suburban corridors contain a maze of legacy infrastructure and unpredictable subsurface conditions, the program emphasizes advanced “look-ahead” sensing and situational awareness to detect existing utilities, buried structures, and geological anomalies before they become failures, delays, or safety incidents. The overall intent is to reduce damage to existing infrastructure and to make undergrounding more repeatable, faster, and safer for both workers and nearby communities.
The program also addresses long-term operational performance, not just construction speed. It specifically calls out cable joints as a frequent weak point in underground distribution systems, since joints are often among the first components to fail in service. As a result, GOPHURRS is interested in improved cable joint designs and installation systems that can reduce lifecycle cost and improve reliability over time. That focus reflects a broader ARPA-E view that a lower upfront construction cost is not enough if the resulting system is expensive to maintain or prone to premature failures; the technology needs to support dependable, long-lived underground networks.
From an administrative and eligibility standpoint, this is an SBIR/STTR opportunity run by ARPA-E within DOE. Eligible applicants are small businesses, and ARPA-E anticipates making a portfolio of awards rather than backing only one approach. The public listing indicates an expected 14 awards and an award ceiling of $4,241,580 (noting that actual award size can vary by project scope and ARPA-E negotiation). The funding instruments referenced include cooperative agreements, grants, and other mechanisms typical of ARPA-E, and awards are governed by federal assistance rules under 2 CFR Part 200 (as supplemented by 2 CFR Part 910).
For anyone intending to apply, the process is tightly tied to ARPA-E’s submission portal. Applicants must retrieve the full FOA from the ARPA-E website and submit required materials through ARPA-E eXCHANGE; concept papers or application components submitted by other channels are not reviewed. The opportunity listing also provides support routes for technical portal issues (ExchangeHelp@hq.doe.gov, with the FOA name and number in the subject line) and a separate path for FOA questions (ARPA-E-CO@hq.doe.gov), plus an ARPA-E FAQ page. The timeline information in the listing shows a creation date of March 30, 2023, and an original closing date of May 9, 2023.
Taken together, DE-FOA-0003048 is essentially a push to make underground medium-voltage distribution buildouts faster, cheaper, less disruptive, and more reliable by combining trenchless construction, automation, obstacle-avoidance sensing, and more dependable cable interconnection solutions. The end state ARPA-E is aiming for is undergrounding that is no longer a niche, high-cost option used only in special corridors, but a practical, scalable approach that materially improves reliability, resilience, and security for everyday urban and suburban electric service.Apply for DE FOA 0003048
- The Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "GRID OVERHAUL WITH PROACTIVE, HIGH-SPEED UNDERGROUNDING FOR RELIABILITY, RESILIENCE, AND SECURITY SBIR/STTR (GOPHURRS SBIR/STTR)" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.135.
- This funding opportunity was created on Mar 30, 2023.
- Applicants must submit their applications by May 09, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $4,241,580.00 in funding.
- The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 14 candidate(s).
- Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.
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