Municipal Energy Manager Grant

The MEM Grant provides three years of funding for municipalities or regional planning authorities to create up to a full-time Energy Manager role including:

Full Time

Up to $120,000 a year from Eversource or National Grid, as Sponsors of Mass Save, toward salary and benefits for a full-time Municipal Energy Manager role with salary to be set by the municipality.

Part-time

Up to $60,000 a year from Eversource or National Grid toward salary and benefits for a part-time Municipal Energy Manager role with salary to be set by the municipality.

Contractor Part-time

Up to $60,000 a year from Eversource or National Grid toward a part-time Municipal Energy Manager role working as an external contractor.

Mass Save Municipal Energy Manager Grant applications will be accepted through January 31, 2025.

To take full advantage of all three years of funding in the Municipal Energy Manager Grant, the Energy Manager must start within 90 days of execution of Municipal Energy Manager Funding Agreement. 

Year two and three funding is contingent on the grantee meeting year one and two program requirements. 

The Sponsors aim to award MEM Grants to municipalities representing a variety of counties or districts across Massachusetts, with the goal of providing funding to multiple regions across the Commonwealth.

The MEM Grant is being offered by Eversource and National Grid and is open to communities served by either or both Sponsors. This grant supplements the salary of a new or existing municipal employee identified to serve as the Municipal Energy Manager for communities that do not yet have a full-time energy or sustainability manager. Applicants may review the Municipal Energy Manager Guidebook and sample Municipal Energy Manager Job Description to understand the grant program and eligibility criteria.

• Municipal Energy Manager Guidebook
• Sample Municipal Energy Management Job Description

Submit an online application prior to January 31, 2025.

Municipal Energy Manager Grant Application

The link will take you to a "How to Apply" page that will explain setting up a user account with an email address and password. The email will be the username for the account and will be needed for access to the grant application and to upload supporting materials, reports, and invoices. Please contact Shannon Donovan at [email protected] if you have any questions or need assistance with your application.

For the application, you will be asked to supply the following information:

• A complete grant application
• A completed W9

You may save progress on your application and return to it before you submit it. We recommend writing longer text responses in a program outside of the application before entering them into your application draft, in the event that you experience any technical issues. Download the Municipal Energy Manager Grant - Application Reference Guide for assistance with your application.

Upon saving your application, you will be able to see its status. Directions for submitting your application will be on the application portal. You must work through the submit button process to submit your application. This will change your application status to submitted.

Municipal Energy Manager Grant - Frequently Asked Questions

Is this program available to municipalities that have Eversource or National Grid or Eversource as the natural gas provider but the electricity is primarily provided by a municipal light plant? Yes.

We are a group of municipalities applying for a joint application. We are all National Grid customers but there are some municipal buildings in our partner district that receive gas and electricity from a different provider. Are we still eligible? Yes. If you are a customer of Eversource or National Grid, you are eligible. Any municipality in your proposed group that is not a customer of either Eversource or National Grid is not eligible. For example, a municipality that has a municipal light plant and has no gas service is not eligible.

What type of experience will the Energy Manager need to have? 
We provide a sample job description on the website that has recommendations for the level of education, skills and experience, however, it is not mandatory for recipients of the grant to use this sample job description. Participating municipalities can edit this sample job description however they need to align with their own goals and policies. All candidate screening, interviewing, and hiring decisions are the responsibility of the participating municipality. 

Is there a resource to help us find Energy Managers that are available and meet the qualifications?

Eversource and National Grid will do our best to amplify the job postings of awarded applicants for the Municipal Energy Manager Grant.

Several resources where we recommend advertising job postings include but are not limited to:

• Mass Municipal Association job board
• The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center job board
• The New England Women in Energy and Environment job board
• Mass Hire’s Mass Talent job board
• Local colleges and universities with energy manager associates or bachelor’s degrees, such as but not limited to:

• Mass Maritime Academy
• Franklin Cummings Tech
• Fitchburg State University

If your community is looking to hire a contracted energy manager, we recommend issuing a request for proposals (RFP) to solicit this kind of service. Some of the same links above would be places to advertise the RFP, and you can also contact your Eversource and National Grid points of contact and we can work with you to get the word out to additional networks.

We already have an energy manager. Can we apply?

Municipalities that already have funding for or have already hired a full-time Energy or Sustainability Director/Manager/Coordinator are not eligible for this grant.

If you have a part-time Energy or Sustainability Manager you are eligible to apply to make that a full-time role.

Can we apply for this grant and combine it with other sources of funding to fund the Energy Manager position?

Yes, you can use multiple sources of funding to support an energy manager role. We encourage the use of other funding sources when they are available.

Would joint applications from more than one town be considered?

Absolutely, we encourage municipalities to come together and apply jointly. Read more about regional collaboration in our Municipal Energy Manager Grant Guidebook.

We are a small municipality and only need an energy manager for about 10 hours per week. Can we apply?

If you only need an energy manager for less than 20 hours a week then we encourage you to coordinate with other communities and file a joint application. While we will accept an application for a 10 hour a week role, we recommend including details in your application of how you would find qualified applicants to work for a role that is 10 hours a week, or if it would be a contracted position.

Is there a minimum population to be served or a minimum number of municipal buildings?

There is no minimum population served or number of municipal buildings to apply for the grant. However, Small municipalities with a population of fewer than 20,000 and/or with fewer than five (5) school buildings are encouraged to partner with neighboring municipalities and share a Municipal Energy Manager or to apply for a part-time or contracted Municipal Energy Manager.

We have a regional school district. Can you apply just for the town/municipal buildings?

This is part of our school decarbonization offer, so we would like to see holistic applications that will address both school and municipal buildings. In this case we encourage you to get buy in from the other town in your regional school district and apply jointly. If you are unable to do so by the application deadline, you may submit an application as a single community and should include in your application details on the outreach that you have done to engage the other communities in your district.

Can the energy manager work to address energy concerns of buildings other than schools?

Yes, Energy Managers should and are encouraged to work to address energy concerns for all municipal buildings in the participating municipalities.

If the municipality is the applicant, do you need a letter from the municipal leader?

Yes, we would like to see a signed letter of support from the municipal and school district leadership. You can find a template letter of support on the resource links page of the Municipal Energy Manager grant application platform.

Are there marketing materials for this grant that I can share with my clients?

The Municipal Energy Manager Grant webpage is the best resource to share with clients.

How long it will take to hear back on whether or not we are awarded the grant after the submission deadline?

Applicants will be notified of the status of their applications in March, 2025.

If awarded a grant, when would hiring begin?

If awarded a grant, municipalities will be issued a memorandum of understanding that will act as a funding agreement. We expect hiring to be done within 90 days of the municipality signing the memorandum of understanding.

Could a town include an objective in the plan to roll work from an Energy Management Plan into a Municipal Decarbonization Plan? Yes.