Energy Design Assistance Project Tracker Technical Service Provider Qualification
Background:
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, under contract to the U.S. Department of Energy, solicits interest from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market technologies developed at NREL. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. NREL may also be available to licensee(s) to assist in further research and development of the technology under a sponsored research or CRADA program. Information on technologies available for licensing is available on the NREL web site at http://www.nrel.gov/technologytransfer/license.html
THIS IS NOT A PROCUREMENT. Organizations interested in commercializing NREL technologies will provide their own financial resources to commercialize the technology. A business or product commercialization plan may be required from the potential licensee prior to negotiation. Questions and expressions of interest may be addressed to Luigi Gentile Polese, luigi.gentile.polese@nrel.gov, National Renewable Energy Laboratory 15013 Denver West Parkway MS RSF202 Golden, CO 80401.
EDAPT:
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed and hosts the Energy Design Assistance Project Tracker (EDAPT) web service (http://eda-pt.org) for use by utility new construction incentive programs[1]. EDAPT is presently being used by two utilities (one investor and one publicly owned) and has achieved the intended goals. NREL has now decided to proceed to the next phase to achieve broader market impact by transitioning NREL's role to an enhanced public-private partnership. NREL is seeking proposals from qualified organizations to provide:
•1. Administrative and technical support for utility clients currently using the NREL-hosted EDAPT web service including:
•a. Administrative and technical support for program managers and stakeholders;
•b. Training and onboarding for program stakeholders;
•c. OpenStudio technical support, including workflow automation, Measure development, quality assurance, and reporting;
•d. Integration of third-party energy modeling tools in program workflows utilizing EDAPT's open interoperability data formats, as may be required; and
•e. Integration of EDAPT data with existing utility enterprise systems, as may be required.
•2. Administrative and technical support for utility clients not currently utilizing EDAPT including:
•a. Business development and education for prospective utilities;
•b. Tailoring of EDAPT workflows and reporting templates to meet utility program requirements;
•c. Administrative and technical support for program managers and stakeholders;
•d. Training and onboarding for program managers and stakeholders;
•e. OpenStudio technical support, including workflow automation, Measure development, quality assurance, and reporting;
•f. Integration of third-party energy modeling tools in program workflows utilizing EDAPT's open interoperability data formats as may be required.
•g. Integration of EDAPT data with existing utility enterprise systems as may be required.
NREL plans to continue to host EDAPT on an as-is basis, and provide the following support to qualified applicants:
•1. Appropriate EDAPT access credentials,
•2. EDAPT administrator user's documentation,
•3. In-person or webinar-based training for general EDAPT use and administration, and
•4. Security updates and critical bug-fix support for EDAPT.
Access credentials, documentation, and training materials will be provided under a license agreement. NREL intends to award license agreements resulting from this solicitation to the most qualified proposals based on the criteria stated herein. Organizations will be required to pay a one-time upfront licensing fee of US $5,000.
NREL's hosting costs for EDAPT are presently shared equally by current utility program clients. Organizations wishing to onboard additional utility programs will be required to contribute a share of the hosting costs based on NREL's total annual hosting costs divided by the number of utility programs that are utilizing the web service.
Qualified EDAPT service providers will be selected pursuant to the process described in this Announcement and will have access to documentation and training curriculums developed by NREL under the terms of the license agreement. Materials provided include written documentation and presentation materials broken into three major topic areas including:
•1. Program setup and customization including:
•a. An overview of EDAPT functionality and the extent to which it may be customized;
•b. Workflow specification;
•c. Calculation customization;
•d. Template documentation creation;
•e. Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QAQC) automation via OpenStudio Measures;
•f. Data exchange and third-party tool interoperability; and
•g. Account creation, access control, and permission management.
•2. Utility program management workflows and best practice for new construction program management.
•3. Modeling firm workflows and best practice including:
•a. An overview of EDAPT and program workflows and approval processes;
•b. Energy modeling workflows with OpenStudio's Parametric Analysis Tool;
•c. Model quality checking;
•d. EDAPT data upload;
•e. Report generation and editing;
•f. A worked example project; and
•g. An overview of EDAPT's open data exchange format enabling third-party modeling tool integration.
Topic area 1 materials are intended for direct use by the applicant organization. Topic area 2 and 3 materials are provided for new and existing users, including utility program managers. These may be used as part of "refresher" training for existing users, or adapted as required when onboarding new program clients.
Selected organizations will attend a "Train the Trainers" workshop (in person or via webinar) upon becoming an authorized EDAPT service provider. These organizations will have direct access to the EDAPT and OpenStudio development team for support (both for training and for technical support) and to provide feedback on features and workflows. Further improvements to EDAPT (excepting operating system and critical security patches) are not presently planned by NREL, and would require separate funding from current users.
This Announcement constitutes the only solicitation; electronic proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.
NREL reserves the right to issue more than one RFQ and to qualify more than one EDAPT service provider. The license agreement(s) will renew annually, pending NREL assessment and periodic review of qualified organization performance and qualifications. Such agreements may be terminated at any time by the EDAPT technical support organization or by NREL for failure to comply with negotiated performance obligations. In addition, NREL may solicit additional EDAPT technical support organizations at any time to replace or increase existing EDAPT support needs.
Eligibility
The following are eligible to submit proposals:
•1. Organizations that plan to add EDAPT training and technical support services to their service portfolio for new construction and custom utility program managers and modeling firms. Either non-profit or for-profit organizations are eligible. In the case of a private entity, the entity shall be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the US. Proposals submitted by individuals are not eligible and will not be considered.
Proposal Content and Evaluation Criteria
Respondents are required to submit:
•1. Name and contact information, including mailing and street address, telephone number, and email address.
•2. Brief capabilities statement, not to exceed 10 pages in 11 point font and include:
•a. A description of the organization's qualifications and experience with regard to providing technical support for utility new construction or custom incentive programs. This should include a current list of utility clients along with descriptions and durations of these relationships.
•b. A description of the organization's qualifications and experience with regard to building energy modeling in general, specific experience modeling with OpenStudio and EnergyPlus, and expertise with customized analysis workflows using OpenStudio Measures.
•c. A business plan addressing the strategy the organization will employ to market EDAPT technical support services to additional utilities shall also be included. The marketing strategy shall include: the elements of the marketing plan, a description of the methods that shall be used to advertise services, and an estimate of the business development budget for such activities. The business plan should also include a description of the organization's plans to offer expanded services to existing EDAPT clients.
•3. References from at least 2 utility customers with whom the company has had a technical program support relationship.
•4. Supporting documentation for any certifications described in the capabilities statement.
The entire proposal, including statement of capabilities, references and any other attachments shall not exceed 15 pages in length. Respondents should address capabilities as it relates to the evaluation factors in the capabilities statement.
NREL shall use the following criteria to evaluate offers received from applicants:
•1. Ability to provide quality, customer-centric administrative and technical support to existing EDAPT program managers and their stakeholders.
•2. Expertise in quickly understanding and resolving software or configuration issues.
•3. Practical experience implementing complex building energy modeling, analysis, reporting, and tool interoperability workflows via OpenStudio Measures.
•4. Ability to deal with difficult users, address software change requests, alternative workflow identification, and issue follow-through.
•5. Ability to provide effective training to a range of stakeholders of varying skill levels.
•6. Credibility of business plan to identify and onboard additional EDAPT utility clients.
It is expected that qualified applicants would provide both training and technical support to existing and new EDAPT stakeholders. Place of delivery will vary and may be at the user/customer location, at the applicant's location, or via web, webconference, teleconference, telephone, or webinar.
Submissions Deadline:
Unless communicated otherwise, proposals are accepted on a rolling basis and shall be submitted electronically to: Luigi Gentile Polese at Luigi.Gentile.Polese@nrel.gov. Respondents will be notified as to whether their proposal was selected within 20 business days after submission.
This solicitation shall not be construed as a commitment of any kind. Incomplete submissions may not be considered. NREL will not provide reimbursement for costs incurred in responding to or performing obligations pursuant to this RFQ. Respondents are expected to bear the full cost of responding to this RFQ and providing any EDAPT technical support services. Respondents are advised that NREL is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this RFQ. Reponses to this RFQ do not bind NREL to any further actions related to this topic.
Contracting Office Address:
15013 Denver W. Parkway
Golden, Colorado 80401
Place of Performance: United States
Primary Point of Contact.:
Luigi Gentile Polese,
Research Scientist
luigi.gentile.polese@nrel.gov
Phone: 303-275-4362
[1] https://aceee.org/files/proceedings/2014/data/papers/5-603.pdf
Luigi Gentile Polese, Research Scientist, Phone 303-275-4362, Email luigi.gentile.polese@nrel.gov
