POWER Initiative

Welcome to the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) 2020 POWER Initiative Application Portal

ARC is carefully and continually monitoring the COVID-19 situation as it is impacting our work in the Appalachian Region.

To that end, we are extending the application deadline for full applications, and revisions to current applications, to Friday, April 24, 2020 at 5:00 PM (ET).

We will also be posting updates on www.arc.gov and via our weekly newsletter, In The Region.

This portal accepts proposals for both implementation funding and technical assistance funding available through the POWER Initiative.

Notable Dates and Submission Deadlines

Application Portal opens	January 13, 2020 at 12:01 AM (ET)
Letter of Intent due	February 28, 2020 at 5:00 PM (ET)
Full application due	Friday, April 24, 2020 at 5:00 PM (ET)

Before submitting an application:

Read and complete the Letter of Intent form available at www.arc.gov/power. You must complete this form by the letter of intent deadline (February 28th), or you will not be permitted to submit a POWER application. You may also access the form directly by clicking this link here.
Review the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative: FY 2020– Request for Proposals (RFP) available at www.arc.gov/power to confirm the proposal reflects the intent, priorities, and mission of the POWER Initiative.
Contact the ARC State Program in the state(s) included in the proposal to review project ideas and confirm they are in alignment with relevant state(s) Appalachian economic development priorities. Contact information available at www.arc.gov/power
Note: Notification of relevant state program managers is required for all applicants.

Completed Applications:

Must answer all required questions, including the Executive Summary form.
Should be focused, concise, and relevant. Application narratives are limited to 15 pages.
Should not include unnecessary documents, attachments, or materials. The overall length of the application (including all attachments) will be limited to 125 pages.

Additional Notes:

There is a hard cap on the size of POWER grants: $2.5 million for broadband deployment projects, $1.5 million for implementation projects, and $50,000 for technical assistance projects.
To qualify for broadband deployment funding, at least 65% of the project’s budget must be directed to the actual deployment of broadband infrastructure. Projects whose budgets direct more than 35% of their funds toward activities not directly associated with deployment of broadband infrastructure will follow the same guidelines as implementation projects.
If applying for broadband deployment funding, please indicate so within the application portal when prompted. Applicants will have to answer additional, unique questions relevant to these proposals.
Current POWER grantees must have closed out their outstanding POWER implementation project within six (6) months of the application deadline (April 24th). Funds will not be released until the existing project has been successfully closed out.
RFP AMENDMENT, February 19, 2020: Though fiscal sponsors/agents may be used to submit a POWER proposal, only local development districts (LDDs) are able to serve as the lead applicant on more than one POWER project at a time. Similarly, only LDDs can submit more than one POWER application in an application period. For all other entities, we will only consider the most recently received application that met the deadline. If the most recent application is disqualified for any reason, we will not replace it with an earlier application.

All Letter of Intent submissions must be received by 5:00 PM (ET) February 28, 2020.

All POWER Applications must be received by 5:00 PM (ET) Friday, April 24, 2020.

A log in account is necessary to use this portal. First time users can click Go to Log In Page to register a new account. An email will be sent to verify your email address. Please click the link in the email to verify your user login. If the email is not in your Inbox, please check your junk or clutter email folders. Returning users can click on Go to Log In Page to log in. Once logged in, users can submit a new POWER application, work on an ongoing application, or check the status of a submitted application.

Need help with POWER Portal login or other technical issues? Email powersupport@arc.gov.
For all other POWER Initiative questions, email power@arc.gov.

Thank you for your interest in the 2020 POWER Initiative!