Clean Energy: New DOE Office Should Take Steps to Improve Performance Management and Workforce Planning

What GAO Found

In December 2021, the Department of Energy (DOE) established a new office—the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED)—to manage a historic amount of appropriated funding for clean energy demonstration projects. These projects are intended to help lower the investment risk of new technologies and allow for additional large-scale private investment and the commercialization of such technologies.

Appropriated Funding for the Department of Energy's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations by Portfolio Area, as of October 2024

OCED has developed programs across its portfolio areas. As of October 2024, OCED issued at least one funding opportunity announcement for all of its portfolios. OCED has also selected some projects for negotiation and finalized some awards in most of its portfolios.

GAO found that OCED has been responsive to some of GAO’s prior relevant recommendations to DOE in areas such as program design and award negotiations. For example, in 2021, GAO reported that DOE used expedited time frames to negotiate some projects—fewer than 3 months as opposed to up to a year—based on DOE’s desire to begin spending funds quickly. GAO found that these actions reduced DOE’s ability to identify and mitigate technical and financial risks. GAO recommended that DOE allow adequate time for negotiations prior to entering into cooperative agreements. For the awards as of October 2024 for the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs and carbon capture projects, the time from project selection to award was from about 7 months to 13 months, according to OCED’s selection and award announcements.

GAO also found that OCED’s efforts varied in the extent to which they aligned with leading practices related to coordination with other DOE offices, performance management, and workforce planning:

• Coordination. OCED’s activities generally follow six of eight leading practices that GAO had previously identified as effective in enhancing and sustaining federal agency coordination, such as bridging organizational cultures, including relevant participants, and leveraging resources and information. OCED’s activities partially aligned with the two remaining practices—defining common outcomes and ensuring accountability.
• Performance management. OCED activities partially align with two leading practices, and do not align with the third leading practice for performance management. Specifically, OCED has defined some goals and collected some performance information, but not for all of its activities—including related to its coordination with other DOE offices. Further, OCED has not developed a process to use performance information to inform decisions. OCED officials said their initial planning efforts were designed to introduce OCED’s role and vision and are not goal oriented because OCED had not finalized the details of its announcements soliciting proposals.
• Workforce planning. GAO found that OCED has taken actions to define its workforce needs, but has not followed all leading practices for workforce planning. As of August 2024, OCED had 250 employees and identified that it needed to fill 101 more positions to be fully staffed at 351 employees. GAO found that the office had defined its workforce needs but had not fully met leading practices of monitoring and evaluating its progress or developing a strategic workforce plan.

Fully implementing leading practices for performance management, including related to OCED’s coordination with other DOE offices, and workforce planning would help OCED ensure its performance management activities are effective and that it has the appropriate workforce in place to help manage its about $27 billion portfolio of demonstrations, some of which are expected to be implemented into the next decade.

Why GAO Did This Study

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act contain provisions appropriating about $27 billion to DOE to fund clean energy demonstration projects. These projects relate to technologies in various areas including carbon capture, hydrogen, and advanced nuclear energy. Within DOE, OCED supports such demonstration projects through grant or financial assistance awards. OCED also supports other DOE offices that are managing their own large-scale demonstration projects. Overall, the office seeks to provide oversight excellence to the project management of demonstration projects, according to OCED documents.

The DOE Office of Inspector General and GAO have previously reported on risks related to DOE’s management of demonstration projects including how the agency selects projects and human capital issues.

The IIJA includes a provision for GAO to review OCED. This report examines OCED’s establishment and its program development and proposal review process.

GAO analyzed DOE and OCED policies, guidance, and documentation and compared OCED’s activities with leading practices related to coordination, performance management, and workforce planning. GAO also interviewed DOE and OCED officials, and a nongeneralizable sample of seven applicants.