I put this information together in reply to a question from a producer. Bear in mind that this relates best to a Montana farm energy project.
NRCS EQIP Program synopsis from the perspective of a Montana Technical Service Provider (TSP)
This is a brief description of the EQIP cost-share process as I understand it. The District Conservationist in your local district office should be the main point of contact. You can find the District Conservationist for your office in this list: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/PA_NRCSConsumption/download?cid=nrcseprd1378446&ext=pdf
The NRCS description of the EQIP process can be found here: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/financial/eqip/
You can find a link on that page to the Energy Initiative, or it can be found here:
As you can see on this page, there is a link to About Technical Service Providers, which leads you here:
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/technical/tsp/
After you read about Technical Service Providers, you will find a link close to the bottom of the page that says “find a TSP”. Click on that link https://techreg.sc.egov.usda.gov/CustLocateTSP.aspx , and you will see a map of the US, and you will want to click on Montana. When the Montana map comes up, you can click on your County and the list of Technical Service Providers will come up. It turns out that I am the only TSP showing up on this list. You don’t have to hire me, you can hire other TSPs that are qualified to perform energy audits in Montana, they are just not located in Montana. For help finding these other TSPs, contact your District Conservationist.
I stumbled across a presentation you might be interested in, it tells the story from the NRCS perspective – Paul Smidansky is a NRCS engineer who has helped me on a number of projects.
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcseprd1322501.pdf
There is a list of possible NRCS cost-share for energy conservation measures, copied from https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/programs/financial/?cid=nrcseprd1328248
- (sorry, you have to click on a link Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) payment schedules (PDF) to get there. Give me a call and we can discuss.
Balance Engineering 