Introduction
If your community received an email notification from NYSERDA indicating that your local government is eligible to apply for a grant under NYSERDA’s Clean Energy Communities Program, and you would like to initiate the process, complete the steps below.
Instructions
- Log into the Clean Energy Communities Program on the NYSERDA Portal. Directions to access this site can be found in COPY Accessing the NYSERDA Portal.
After logging into the NYSERDA Portal, click the Create a New Submission button.
If your community has previously submitted proposals, they will appear as a list above the Create a New Submission button. Unsubmitted proposals can be accessed and completed from this list.
On the first page of the online submittal form, click that Add a Contact button.
All proposal submittals require at least one contact to be added. This will be the point person that will work with NYSERDA throughout the submission, review, and approval process.
On the Add a Contact window, complete all required fields. Additional contacts can be added if necessary, though at least one contact must be designated as the Primary Contact and one contact must be designated as the Contract Signer. A single contact can be designated as both.
- After completing all the required fields for a contact, click the Save Changes button. The Add a Contact window will close, returning you to the first page of the online submittal form.
- After all contacts have been added, click the Continue button (shown on the screenshot in step 3 above) to advance to the second page of the online submittal form. You cannot advance to the next page of the online submittal form by clicking the Continue button if at least one contact has not been designated as a Primary Contact and a Contract Signer.
On the second page of the online submittal form, complete the Proposal Information section.
- Then complete the Checklist Questions section. All questions in the checklist are required and must be answered.
- Finally, complete the Disclosure of Prior Findings of Non-Responsibility disclosure. Respond to the two required disclosures before continuing.
When all three sections are complete, click the Continue button at the bottom of the page to advance to the next page.
If you cannot complete the proposal submittal in one sitting, click the Save button on any page in the online submittal form. The incomplete proposal can be accessed and completed after logging into the NYSERDA Portal and selecting the unsubmitted proposal from the list as referenced in Step 2 in this section of this training guide.
Read through the Vendor Assurance of No Conflict of Interest or Detrimental Effect disclosure and answer accordingly. Click the Save button when complete to advance to the next page.
On the Proposal Budget page, enter the grant amount specified by the Clean Energy Community team at NYSERDA in the Proposed NYSERDA Cost field. Grant amounts are only provided after a community has been designated as a Clean Energy Community. Click Continue to advance to the next page.
The Proposed Cost Share field is not required; however, a community can still choose to document the amount of proposal funds that will be supplied by the community which will then be noted in their contract.
On the Proposal Documents page, upload the Grant Application and Commitment Letter by clicking the Choose File button for each.
The documents outlined in the Required Documents section are standard for all High Impact Action submissions, regardless of the High Impact Action item selected earlier in this process.
Upload up to 10 additional optional documents in the Optional Documents section on the Proposal Documents page. The Grant Application outlines additional documents that will be required as part of the High Impact Action submission and vary based upon the High Impact Action item selected as part of the submission. If there are no Optional Documents to upload, click the Continue button to advance to the next page.
The Authorized Signature and Certification page details a summary of the proposal. Review each section for accuracy. If information is incorrect, use the Previous button to return to previous pages, otherwise, scroll to the bottom of the page and check the Certification checkbox. Click Continue to advance to the last page.
The Proposal Submission page is the final page in the online submittal form. Click the Submit button to submit the proposal.
If the proposal was successfully submitted, the following message will display:
Your submitted proposal will be reviewed by the Clean Energy Community team. If your proposal is approved, you will receive additional information regarding next steps. The proposal will also be converted into a Project in Salesforce.