Request for Proposals for ESIF-HPC-2
Introduction:
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL develops renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies and practices, advances related science and engineering, and transfers knowledge and innovations to address the nation's energy and environment goals.
The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, on behalf of NREL, located in Golden, Colorado intends to release a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the next-generation high performance computing (HPC) system to be installed at NREL's Energy System Integration Facility (ESIF). The primary objective of the ESIF-HPC-2 procurement is to provide a computational system that will support the technical and scientific computing needs of the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
Synopsis:
NREL aims to procure a highly productive, robust system that will handle a diverse workload and has the ability to handle new workloads associated with energy efficiency and renewable energy research and development. To meet these needs, NREL intends to procure a computational resource that comprises two different types of compute nodes plus data analysis and visualization nodes, data transfer nodes as well as a storage system that provides shared file systems, all connected with a single high-performance interconnect fabric.
RFP Solicitation and Selection:
This solicitation has been released publicly, encouraging fair and open competition. This solicitation has not been set aside for small business concerns, however NREL encourages participation from businesses of all sizes.
NREL is interested in considering offers for the HPC system, the Data Storage System (DSS) and offers for both the HPC and Data Storage systems, or ‘Full System'. The selection of proposal(s) for award(s) shall be conducted using Best Value Selection that results in award(s) deemed most advantageous to NREL based on the best value combination of (a) evaluated qualitative merit and (b) evaluated price of the offers submitted.
Best Value Selection is based on the premise that, if all offers are of approximately equal qualitative merit, award will be made to the Offerors with the lowest evaluated price (cost). However, NREL will consider awarding to an Offeror with a higher evaluated price (cost) if the offer demonstrates the difference in price (cost) is commensurate with the higher qualitative merit. Conversely, NREL will consider awarding to Offerors with a lower evaluated qualitative merit if the price (cost) differential between it and other offers warrant doing so.
Brittany Decker, Senior Subcontract Administrator, Phone 3033847387, Email brittany.decker@nrel.gov
