Infrastructure Planning Grant

General Information

In order to provide assistance to distressed communities and those with financially distressed utility systems, TNECD has developed a grant program to help communities understand their utility needs and plan for future work.

The Infrastructure Planning grant is open to utility systems that serve distressed counties and rural communities on the financially distressed utility system referral list for any of the last 3 years. This list is provided by the Comptroller and is linked below. These systems have been referred to the Board of Utility Regulation (formerly the Utility Management Review Board or the Water and Wastewater Financing Board) because of their net position, non-revenue water, or high levels of debt. The Board has determined that these systems are not financially self-supporting; TNECD believes that studying the system can help the utility better serve their customers, develop capital improvement plans and develop better applications for funding to assist with improvements. If your utility has recently received communication from the Comptroller or the Board of Utility Regulation putting your system under its review, you can submit that with your application to show eligibility.

Funds can be used for up to three of the following program categories:  water system mapping and modeling, water system analysis, sewer system mapping and modeling, sewer system analysis, asset management related activities, and regionalization studies.  Each of these categories has a maximum project amount of $200,000 with a grant award maximum of $500,000.  The chart below further breaks down eligible activities under the program categories.  A 5% match is required and up to 5% of the grant amount can be used for project administration. Guidelines for the asset management plans  can be found here: Tennessee Asset Management Plan Guidance. The development of asset management plans is intended for communities with recent information on their water loss and/or I/I.  

Projects should be completed in less than 24 months. Procurement of professional services guidelines will be followed to determine who will conduct the studies and provide the reports. The information gathered as a result of this grant funding is intended to be used to help the utility plan for future improvements to their system and to develop CDBG, SRF and USDA applications for funding.  FY23-24 IPG Timeline:

· Application Launch: August 1, 2024
· Application Deadline: October 1, 2024
· Award Announcements: December 2024

Questions about the grant program can be directed to Lynn Tutor, p.lynn.tutor@tn.gov.

The FY24-25 IPG application will be completed through the SmartSimple system.  Follow the link below to proceed with IPG application submission.

If you do not have a current SmartSimple account or are not affiliated with a corresponding account, please reach out to Lynn Tutor (p.lynn.tutor@tn.gov) for assistance.