Renew America’s Schools: Affordability + Strategic Energy Pathways for Schools (A+STEPS) - Regional Hubs

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of State and Community Energy Program’s (SCEP) Renew America’s Schools: Affordability + Strategic Energy Pathways for Schools (A+STEPS) Opportunity will award up to $100 million in project funding to continue supporting energy improvements at K-12 schools across the country.  

First, A+STEPS will establish a nationally coordinated network of Regional Hubs that help school districts reduce operating costs, improve the reliability of essential building systems, and prepare practical facility projects for financing and implementation. The selected hubs will coordinate local education agencies (LEAs), schools, non-profits, for-profits, and community partners to deliver actionable strategic energy plans, limited early facility catalytic improvements of up to $250,000 per participating LEA, technical assistance, and training.  

The first phase of the funding Opportunity solicits applications for the Regional Hubs, awarding up to​​ $5 million per Hub. After Regional Hubs are selected and onboarded, DOE and EnergyWerx expect to announce a separate process for LEAs and eligible partners to seek support through the hubs, awarding the balance of A+STEPS funding, to support LEA improvements (anticipated Summer 2027). LEAs and schools interested in receiving assistance from Regional Hubs can sign up to be notified when the full details about the school/LEA application are available.

DOE has identified seven regions of interest for the hubs, outlined in Table 1:

Interested organizations can express interest in being part of a Regional Hub and join the Teaming Partner List^[1] to connect with potential partners. Regional Hub applicants should be able to demonstrate regional reach, proven engineering and project-development capabilities, sound financial and risk controls, and the capacity to serve school districts across diverse technical and socioeconomic backgrounds.

• Sign up for the Teaming Partner List: Click Here to Sign Up
• The Teaming Partner List can be viewed HERE (Password is case sensitive: APLHUB) and will be updated regularly to reflect new teaming partners who provide their organization's information.

‍[1] DISCLAIMER: By submitting a request to be included on the Teaming Partner List, the requesting organization consents to the publication of the referenced information. By facilitating the Teaming Partner List, DOE is not endorsing, sponsoring, or otherwise evaluating the qualifications of the individuals and organizations that are identifying themselves for placement on this Teaming Partner List. DOE will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any applicants or requesting organizations for the development of such information.

A+STEPS will increase the number and geographic diversity of LEAs able to move from facility need identification to technically sound, financeable, and implementable energy saving projects. The program will establish Regional Hubs that build regional delivery capacity, provide facility energy assessments and strategic energy plans, identify funding or financing pathways, support limited catalytic efforts and improvements, strengthen facility-staff capability, and create standardized data on school energy and infrastructure needs.  

LEAs participating in A+STEPS will be supported by the Regional Hubs as the Hubs undertake efforts such as ​​energy assessments and ECM identification (and may also include supporting efforts such as benchmarking and load studies), develop strategic energy plans, and support identified workforce training needs. After these initial analyses, LEAs will be funded to undertake initial catalytic improvement projects at schools in their district. Catalytic improvements should serve to address key barriers and unlock deeper energy and energy cost savings through follow on efforts. Examples may include:

• controls modernization, to enable future ECMs such as HVAC fan speed control, supply temperature controls, modulating dampers, and central plant equipment management;  
• monitoring/analytics installation, to enable facility or portfolio energy analysis, ECM prioritization, and improve operations;
• electrical infrastructure upgrades, to enable future ECMs such as HVAC equipment, VFDs, and water heaters;
• ventilation and envelope improvements, to enable future ECMs such as HVAC outside air economizers;
• other energy conservation measures, to the extent they are enabling, and do not preclude future planned funding or financing pathways (e.g. lighting retrofits are often a key measure included in Energy Service Performance Contracts (ESPCs)).  

Enabled by the capacity building gained through the support of the Regional Hubs and these initial catalyzing steps, schools will be empowered to implement larger energy saving retrofits (retrofits that are expected to be supported include HVAC, ventilation and building controls, building envelope retrofits, and electrical infrastructure upgrades as examples).  

Program success will be measured through outcomes that demonstrate movement toward implementation and sustained capacity, including: number and geographic distribution of LEAs and schools served; percentage of participating LEAs receiving complete facility assessments or audits and actionable strategic energy plans; time from intake to defined project scope; number and value of projects positioned to pursue utility incentives, performance contracting, bonds, state funding, private financing, or other non-DOE capital; completion and quality of performer milestones; technical assistance response times; training completion and designation of school energy champions; data completeness and quality; implementation barriers identified and resolved; and evidence that participating LEAs retain the capability to advance energy projects after DOE support ends.

The objectives of this Opportunity are to:

1. Deliver High Quality Energy Assessments: Provide energy assessments, leveraging existing information when available (e.g. facility condition assessments, recent audits, benchmarking data).   ‍
2. Develop Practical and Actionable Strategic Energy Plans: Provide each participating LEA with a sequenced, financially viable Strategic Energy Plan that consolidates technical findings, proposes prioritized energy conservation measures (ECMs), includes a strategic implementation funding or financing roadmap, proposes catalytic implementation scope, provides capacity building and hand-off documentation, and requires standardized program data. ‍
3. Support Implementation of Catalytic Early Improvements: Support implementation of up to $250,000 per LEA in enabling upgrades such as ventilation and envelope improvements, controls modernization, electrical infrastructure upgrades, and monitoring/analytics platforms. ‍
4. Establish Durable Regional Technical Assistance Ecosystems: Build regional networks that support LEAs with training, procurement, workforce engagement, project development, progress monitoring, and long-term capacity. ‍
5. Produce Standardized, High-Quality Facility and Project Data: Generate a consistent national dataset including baselines, IAQ, load profiles, energy readiness, ECM packages and costs, and measured implementation outcomes. ‍
6. Prioritize High-Need School Districts: Ensure that high-poverty, rural, and low-capacity LEAs receive early and meaningful access to program benefits. ‍
7. Ensure Quality, Independence, and Accountability: Maintain audit integrity, safeguard against conflicts of interest, and require robust Monitoring and Verification (M&V), commissioning, financial controls, cybersecurity, and risk management.

Regional Hubs will facilitate LEA data collection to support energy assessments and to set a program baseline of facility assessments across A+STEPS. DOE or the National Coordinator may require or recommend the usage of specific tools, depending on program goals or LEA needs. DOE-supported tools that may be of interest, but are not required, for inclusion in the applicant’s proposal, include:

• AuditBEM, a DOE-supported scalable building assessment capability and an AI-enabled, opportunity-finding engine for remote audits—not simply a simulation tool. It leverages building energy modeling, Artificial Intelligence, human expertise from energy managers, and cost databases to turn building data into actionable compliance and performance contracts as required by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA §432) and the Energy Act of 2020 (EA2020). ‍
• Asset Score and its Quick Building Assessment Tool (QBAT) module, are a free web-based software application that assesses building energy performance based on building and equipment details, generating actionable retrofit opportunity information, including estimated savings and health and safety benefits. Asset Score requires user-inputted details about building geometry, envelope, mechanical and lighting systems, and operations, while QBAT requires only building vintage, total floor area, building shape, number of floors, and type of HVAC system.
• The Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER) is a software toolkit that enables building operators to quickly and easily identify the most cost-saving energy efficiency measures in buildings and portfolios using readily available building and energy data. With minimal data entry (building type, location, square footage, 12 months of utility data), BETTER benchmarks a building’s or portfolio’s energy use against peers and quantifies potential energy and cost savings. ‍
• ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, for benchmarking, baselining and measurement and verification analysis, using building type, square footage, and uploaded utility bills or data.  
• DOE-developed content and resources (e.g., Energy CLASS Trainings) may also be leveraged by the Regional Hubs to support training and capacity building for LEAs.

Through A+STEPS, DOE will create a national school facilities dataset that will convert local project deliverables into a program-wide asset. Standardized data on facility conditions, energy use, indoor air quality, project costs, energy conservation measures, financing pathways, implementation status, and verified outcomes will allow DOE to identify recurring barriers, compare regional performance, improve future technical assistance and program design, support policy and budget analysis, and better characterize the scale and distribution of school infrastructure needs. To inform the national school facilities dataset, Regional Hubs will facilitate LEA data collection and coordinate with the National Coordinator, leveraging the information collected for the energy assessments.

Anticipated Applicants and Consortia

DOE anticipates selecting Regional Hubs for the seven regions listed in Table 1 - A+STEPS Regions and is seeking applications from both individual organizations and teams of organizations. Regional Hub applications made up of multiple organizations (consortia) are strongly encouraged to ensure that hubs span the required capabilities and skills needed to deliver all outlined hub responsibilities.  Applications made up of multiple organizations must identify a hub lead that will be expected to coordinate and oversee the consortium and its technical providers and to manage regional outreach, partnership development, funding and/or financing support strategy, technical assistance support strategy, audit and strategic energy plan development, and reporting and invoicing to EnergyWerx. Consortia may draw on partners such as:

• Architecture/engineering firms, facility management consultants, commissioning specialists, controls modernization companies, infrastructure planning firms, and energy and sustainability consultants
• Energy Services Companies (ESCOs), utilities, municipal financial consultants, firms specializing in school funding and financing, legal counsel, underwriters, banks, and other financial institutions
• Community colleges, trade unions, universities, workforce development boards, apprenticeship programs, training centers, and professional and national organizations  
• Community groups, education and energy nonprofits
• Associations of school facility managers, state departments of education, state energy offices, and state commerce departments

Hubs may target and develop different financing pathways to support school retrofits, such as energy savings performance contracting, integration with state agency capital upgrade programs, development of revolving energy funds, bonds, low-interest loans, stacked funding, public-private partnerships, levies, internal revolving loan funds, pooled district resourcing and/or other non-DOE funding approaches. Applicants are not expected to cover every pathway but should select pathways suited to their region, and demonstrate the flexibility of responding to regional school needs.

Regional Hub Responsibilities

Each Regional Hub will be required to provide effective management, administration, strategic program planning and development, including the following duties:  

• Consortia Management and Reporting
• Development of LEA Support Strategy
• Workforce Development Planning
• Long-Term Program Continuation Planning
• LEA Outreach  
• Ramp-Up and Wind-Down Planning
• Financial Management & Internal Controls
• Risk Management
• Conflict of Interest Safeguards

Additionally, the Regional Hubs will be responsible for onboarding and serving an identified target number of LEAs (see Table 2 - Regional Funding Structure) and delivering the following LEA support activities:

• Strategic Energy Plan Development
• ECM Implementation Support
• Monitoring and Verification Support
• Regional Technical Assistance
• Regional Workforce Development Support
• Data Collection & Reporting

The Regional Hub responsibilities are summarized at a high level above. Download and review the full list of Regional Hub Responsibilities.

National Coordinator Role

Regional Hubs will be required to coordinate closely with DOE and National Laboratory partners for the duration of the program. DOE anticipates that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) will serve in a National Coordinator role across the awarded hubs. Regional Hubs will be required to collaborate with and take direction from the National Coordinator, as directed by SCEP. The National Coordinator may provide strategic support for the Regional Hubs in a variety of ways, including:

• Developing and implementing a collaboration platform for Regional Hubs, national partners, LEAs, etc.
• Identifying, developing, and delivering training, resources, and tools useful for Regional Hubs and LEAs to build capacity and execute on the awarded scope.
• Providing oversight to augment Regional Hub capacity and ensure uniform, high-quality delivery of training and assistance to LEAs.
• Developing a national schools performance database, including defining data parameters and streamlined methods for data submission as well as analysis of program impacts.
• Conducting nationwide schools research and coordination to expand and sustain program impacts beyond awarded hubs.

Regional Hub Management

Selected performers (Regional Hub leads) will establish a business-to-business (B2B) agreement with EnergyWerx and define project activities (e.g., tasks, milestones, deliverables) in a concise Statement of Effort (SOE) document. DOE also expects awardees to provide updates on progress through regular calls and concise reports, and to participate in peer-to-peer learning opportunities/workshops a few times per year.  

After reviewing applications and selecting Regional Hubs, DOE will evaluate the qualifications of selected hubs holistically to determine the final SOE documents for each Regional Hub, and may request changes to the proposed scope and approach during the negotiation of the B2B agreement between EnergyWerx and the Regional Hubs.

Funding Structure

Each selected Regional Hub will receive up to $1.4M for Year 1, to perform management and strategic planning duties. Two additional one-year options (total duration of up to three years) will be available with written agreement of SCEP and EnergyWerx. Management and operational funding of up to $3M across the potential three year funding period.

Each hub will receive additional funding for LEA support, scaled to the number of participating LEAs in the region, up to approximately $200K per LEA served (see Table 2 for anticipated number of LEAs served by region). After the first year, selected Regional Hubs will have the ability to add up two 1-year options with additional funding (total duration of up to three years) with written agreement of DOE and EnergyWerx.

Specific Regional Hub duties or objectives for management and operations, or LEA support may be updated in Years 2 and 3 to ensure alignment with LEA needs and program goals, including ability to sustain long-term capacity beyond the duration of the award, and will be negotiated between DOE, EnergyWerx, and the Regional Hub.  

Applicants may propose to serve more LEAs than the estimated regional allocation shown in Table 2; however, regional funding levels are not expected to increase. The ability to successfully support additional LEAs while maintaining high-quality services will be considered a strength during application review.

The number of LEAs supported in Years 2 and 3 will be determined through future applications, and may be revised lower or higher than shown for Year 1.

Submission Window: November 18, 2026 - January 21, 2027

• Start the A+STEPS Regional Hubs Application

Submissions are due January 21, 2027 at 3:00 PM ET

The Department of Energy’s State and Community Energy Programs office announced  the Affordability + Strategic Energy Pathways for Schools (A+STEPS) Opportunity on November 18, 2026. Please click here for the full announcement article for more information.

DOE will present and summarize the details of A+STEPS Regional Hub Opportunity. Potential applicants will gain a better understanding of the Opportunity's scope, scale, and intent and have the opportunity to ask questions of DOE staff.

• Register for the first Informational Webinar on November 23, 2026 from 2:00-3:00 PM ET
  
  • Focuses predominantly on explaining the Voucher Opportunity with some time for questions at the end.
• Register for the second Informational Webinar on December 15, 2026 from 3:00-4:00 PM ET
  
  • Focuses predominantly on answering questions from potential applicants.
• Register for the third Informational Webinar on January 7, 2027 from 2:00-3:00 PM ET
  
  • Focuses predominantly on answering questions from potential applicants.

For an optimal experience, we recommend downloading the Microsoft Teams software to your computer, smartphone, or tablet.

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Submission Window: November 18, 2026 - January 21, 2027

• Start the A+STEPS Regional Hubs Application

Submissions are due January 21, 2027 at 3:00 PM ET

• Review details on eligibility, evaluation criteria, and how to apply
• Download and review Regional Hub Responsibilities document
• Download Suggested Project Narrative Template
• Complete the application and Upload Project Narrative, Summary Slide, Letters of Commitment (if applicable), Letters of Support (optional), and Resumes

Eligibility Criteria

EnergyWerx conducts a noncompetitive administrative screen of all applications. Applications must meet all of the following to be forwarded for competitive review:

• The application is complete and submitted on time.
• The applicant and all participating hub team organizations are domestic entities and have submitted the required Foreign Country of Concern certification and Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program attestation.
• The application identifies the DOE-defined region it proposes to serve.
• Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), including national laboratories, are ineligible to serve as Regional Hub leads, but may participate as project partners or subrecipients. DOE will not directly fund FFRDCs, and their combined effort may not exceed 10% of the project's total federal share.

Review Criteria

Applications that pass the eligibility review will be evaluated against the criteria below.

Criterion 1: Technical Approach and Delivery Quality (25%)

Plans for Development and Oversight of Strategic Energy Plans and Audits

• Degree to which the approach, including the division of work among the hub, partners, and technical providers, moves LEAs from identifying facility needs to project plans, including the plan for delivering Strategic Energy Plans, their contents , and how they help LEAs prioritize capital investments.
• Quality of the approach to engaging key stakeholders.
• Soundness of the approach to collecting existing facility data and scoping and delivering additional assessments and/or audits, including where provider capacity is limited.

Funding and Financing Pathways

• Degree to which the pathways the hub will emphasize, and the rationale for them, address LEA needs and regional conditions (e.g., limited rural bonding capacity, variation in utility incentives, state funding programs), and position LEA projects to pursue non-DOE capital.

Catalytic Measures, M&V, and Data

• Soundness of the approach to supporting the selection, procurement, and implementation of enabling measures.
• Strength of the plan to support commissioning and M&V of installed measures, including collecting, quality-checking, and submitting standardized data (e.g. energy, IAQ, and comfort data).

Criterion 2: Regional Reach, Technical Assistance, and Sustained Capacity (30%)

Regional Coverage

• Degree to which the applicant demonstrates market knowledge of the region and experience delivering similar support to LEAs and stakeholders there.
• Degree to which the hub is equipped to serve LEAs across the full region, including remote, rural, and noncontiguous areas (e.g., Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. territories, where included).

Outreach and Application Support

• Quality of the outreach strategy to reach small, rural, high-need, and under-resourced LEAs and eligible partners before and during LEA application periods, coordinated with DOE, EnergyWerx, and the National Coordinator.

Technical Assistance and Workforce

• Quality of the strategy for providing technical assistance, training, and peer learning support for LEA facility staff, including developing school energy champions.
• Quality of the approach to working with regional workforce partners (e.g., workforce development boards, community colleges, apprenticeship programs) to address skill gaps, including incorporating existing DOE-supported training resources.

Long-Term Continuation

• Strength of the strategy for supporting LEAs after the award ends, including how participating LEAs will retain the capability to advance projects on their own, and a plan to support sustained ongoing program operations.

Criterion 3: Work Plan, Budget, Milestones, and Risk Management (20%)

Work Plan

• Degree to which the work plan is clearly described and realistic, including the critical path for launch and year 1, task dependencies, and roles of the hub lead and partners.
• Quality of the plan for activities before and after LEAs are selected, and at the close of the first annual cohort, including building partnerships and infrastructure and preparing LEAs for application.
• Credibility of the plan to serve the anticipated number of LEAs within the proposed budget.

Tasks and Budget

• Quality of the Tasks and Budget Table, including clearly defined tasks that cover the full scope and have reasonable durations.
• Reasonableness of the allocation of funds among tasks and partners.
• Reasonableness of the plan for using the allotted funding to support program management, administration and strategic program development funding for staffing, strategic program development, outreach, partnership development, travel, reporting, and program management.
• Reasonableness and cost-effectiveness of the plan for using the LEA support funding in strategic energy plan development, ECM development support, M&V support, regional technical assistance, workforce development, and data collection and reporting.

Milestones

• Quality of the milestones, including whether they demonstrate an achievement rather than simply completing a task, are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely), and are spread across project tasks, with measurable targets tied to program outcomes (e.g., LEAs served, plans completed, time from intake to defined project scope, non-DOE funding and/or financing positioned).

Risk Management

• Quality of risk management planning, including identification of regionally relevant risks (e.g., LEA readiness, funding and financing barriers, implementation barriers, contractor availability, time constraint, cost escalation, regional logistics, data quality) and mitigation strategies.

Criterion 4: Consortium Composition and Experience (25%)

• Degree to which the lead and each partner have the qualifications and expertise to fulfill the scope, with clear and appropriate responsibilities.
• Adequacy of the staffing plan, including key staff capabilities and time commitment.
• Extent to which the consortium collectively demonstrates expertise in energy-saving retrofits and planning; retrofit technical assistance with LEAs or schools; workforce training; and school funding and financing, with additional credit for each type represented.
• Demonstrated experience managing multi-partner programs.
• Strength of the consortium's existing relationships with LEAs, state agencies, utilities, and workforce organizations in the region.

Other Selection Factors

Program Policy Factors

In addition to the above criteria, the following unweighted program policy factors may be considered in selecting applications for award negotiations:

• The degree to which the set of selected hubs provides coverage across all seven regions, including rural, remote, and territorial areas.
• The degree to which the proposal positions LEA projects to attract non-DOE capital.
• The degree to which the proposal strengthens local workforce and contractor capacity.
• The degree to which the proposal's strategies are durable and scalable beyond participating LEAs.