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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF APRIL 29, 2009 FBO #2711
SOLICITATION NOTICE

R -- Interim Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability

Notice Date

4/27/2009
 

Notice Type

Justification and Approval (J&A)
 

NAICS

813920 — Professional Organizations
 

Contracting Office

Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899-1640
 

ZIP Code

20899-1640
 

Solicitation Number

SB1341-09-RP-0033
 

Archive Date

5/11/2009
 

Point of Contact

Joseph L. Widdup,, Phone: (301) 975-6324
 

E-Mail Address

joseph.widdup@nist.gov
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

SB1341-09-CN-0031
 

Award Date

3/31/2009
 

Description

NOTE: This justification references, in part, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA); however, ARRA funds have not yet been made available for obligation purposes. Therefore, non-ARRA funds have been obligated for the base period of this contract. This justification is being posted in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.305. ----- (1) Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Justification for other than full and open competition.” / U. S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, Gaithersburg, Maryland. (2) Nature and/or description of the action being approved. / This is a justification for a limited competition between as many potential sources as practicable under the circumstances under the authority cited in section (4) below for the services described in (3) below. This acquisition involves requesting offers from the seven potential sources listed in (10) below. (3) A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value). / Under Title XIII, Section 1305 of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, the U. S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has “primary responsibility to coordinate development of a framework that includes protocols and model standards for information management to achieve interoperability of smart grid devices and systems…” The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“ARRA”) (signed February 17, 2009) provided funding to support the implementation of Section 1305 of EISA (through the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE)); this contract represents a portion of that effort. NIST requires the rapid development of an Interim Roadmap with the maximum amount of consensus as practicable and possible among Smart Grid stakeholders, including those identified in EISA, to be delivered no later than May 28, 2009 to allow review, approval and transmittal by June 2009 to appropriate parties such as the U. S. Congress, the DOE including the Secretary of Energy, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. An accelerated deadline for the interim roadmap, which will be developed under this contract, is intended to minimize the risk to the Federal Government and private sector stakeholders utilizing the Smart Grid matching grants funds from the DOE. This program requires that standards resulting from the NIST-coordinated interoperability framework be used as criteria for award of grants by the DOE. The earlier those standards are adopted, the less risk to investments made by the Government and the private sector for the grants program. This roadmap is important to the interoperability framework required by EISA 2007, which also requires coordination with DOE and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Interim Roadmap provided under this contract shall be a document that describes the high-level Smart Grid architecture, principles and interface design; describes the current status, issues and priorities for interoperability standards development and harmonization; and includes an action plan that addresses these issues. The contract will also include an option period of approximately forty-five days for the delivery of a consensus agreement document by August 15, 2009 identifying responsible (private-sector) entities for standards development and harmonization with a summary of unresolved issues. The Government’s estimated value of the required services is approximately $1,200,000 ($800,000 Base Period and $400,000 Option Period). (4) An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition. / 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(2) (FAR Subpart 6.302-2). (5) A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited. / The ARRA was enacted February 17, 2009 to address urgent national needs; a critical component supported by significant ARRA funding (over $4.5 billion) is to upgrade our Nation’s electric grid to produce the “Smart Grid” as described in EISA. There is joint Obama Administration/Presidential and Congressional agreement on the urgency of this need to build the Smart Grid, and that as a critical part of this effort NIST must now accelerate the development of a framework to achieve interoperability of Smart Grid devices and systems. Standards create stability that mitigates the risk of having equipment purchased and implemented that is not able to interoperate and unable to be upgradeable to remedy its shortcomings, with the result that it must be entirely replaced to be compatible with other equipment as the Smart Grid is developed (i.e., “stranded investment”). The standards roadmap will identify existing standards and those that need to be developed or harmonized to establish the stable basis for Smart Grid devices and systems. This action is required to reduce the risk of wasting substantial investment using ARRA funding and an equal or greater investment by the private sector in the Smart Grid. The Secretary of the DOE and the Deputy Director of NIST, as well as many other government and industry leaders, have spoken directly on the urgent need to greatly accelerate the development of Smart Grid interoperability standards and roadmaps, with required timescales on the order of weeks to months instead of months to years. At a March 3, 2009 hearing, the members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources urged that rapid progress be made to address interoperability standards issues; the Deputy Director of NIST affirmed NIST’s commitment to provide an interim standards roadmap by summer (June 2009). The urgency and short timeline exceed NIST’s ability to produce this interim roadmap with existing staff, requiring that this short-term contract be awarded by the beginning of April to provide sufficient time and resources to produce the Interim Roadmap to meet this urgent national need. Included in this contract is an option period to produce the required consensus agreement document by August 15, 2009 to accelerate standards development and harmonization by identifying responsible (private-sector) entities and a summary of unresolved issues. If normal, unrestricted full and open competitive procedures that involve publicizing and response times set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 5 for negotiated acquisitions were used, the award timeline of this contract would be at two to three months (fifteen days to advertise an acquisition in FedBizOpps, at least thirty days for potential offerors to submit a proposal, an appropriate time for the Government to evaluate proposals, and an appropriate time for internal agency reviews before an award decision is made) and would prevent the Interim Roadmap from being delivered in time to meet NIST’s deadlines and commitments to Congress. With respect to qualifications to deliver an Interoperability Roadmap by the required date, it is critical that the contractor possess the required technical expertise, capabilities and associated experience in roadmap and Smart Grid standards development and harmonization to be able to develop, describe and implement a solid technical approach and plan. The contractor must also demonstrate experience providing similar services including interacting with broad stakeholder communities, to produce deliverables by required times. (6) A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies. / Due to the urgent requirement to complete the Interim Roadmap no later than May 28, 2009, the entire acquisition milestones process, including market research, has been significantly accelerated. Using the qualification criteria described in section (5) above, NIST searched the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) Dynamic Small Business Search Database and found no small businesses that met these criteria. NIST engaged in additional market research effort that included (a) identifying potential qualified sources based on input from experts at NIST, DOE and others, and (b) calling those sources to verify that they potentially met the criteria described in section (5). From this, a list of seven potential sources was developed, and a solicitation notice was sent to these sources. (7) A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. / The Contracting Officer performed price analysis and cost realism analysis before award and determined that the price for the selected Contractor is fair and reasonable. (8) A description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted. / For a description of the market research conducted, see (6) above. (9) Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition. / Prior to ARRA (signed February 17, 2009), no designated funding had been appropriated to implement Title XIII, section 1305 of EISA such that the NIST effort initiated in January 2008 was limited to reassignment of existing internal staff, utilizing volunteer support from outside industry experts, and obtaining support from the DOE to attempt to meet expectations consistent with EISA’s 5 year authorization profile. NIST also redirected FY2008 and FY 2009 base funding to a contract with RJ Beck/Plexus to support EISA activities. The urgency of this project was established by the Obama Administration and facilitated by the availability of ARRA funding considerably larger than authorized by EISA 2007, intended to accelerate the project. NIST became aware of this urgent need at the end of February into the first week of March, and did not have sufficient time to utilize the normal publicizing and response time requirements as set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 5 for negotiated non-commercial acquisitions. Advertising this acquisition for fifteen days as normally required and leaving the solicitation out for at least thirty days would have a significant adverse impact on NIST being able to acquire the deliverables by the required timeframes Specifically, there exists the following factors: the need for the contract deliverables to be in place in order to mitigate the significant risk of stranded investment under the DOE’s administration of over $4.5 billion of its ARRA funds, and the need for NIST to disperse in a timely manner the ARRA funds allocated for this contract, as required under that statute. Failure for NIST to receive the contract deliverables by the May 28, 2009 deadline would result in NIST being unable to meet the requirements of EISA under the urgent timeframe as indicated by both the U. S. Congress and the Obama Administration, and ARRA. (10) A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition. / No sources expressed in writing an interest in the acquisition prior to the solicitation. The following sources participated in a preproposal conference call held on March 17, 2009: American National Standards Institute 25 West 43rd St 4th Floor New York, NY 10036 Energetics, Inc. 7067 Columbia Gateway Drive, Suite 200 Columbia, MD 21046 IEEE 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway, NJ 08854 KEMA 4400 Fair Lakes Court Fairfax, VA, 22033-3801 OASIS Post Office Box 455 Billerica, MA 01821 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. 3420 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94304 Open Applications Group PO Box 4897 Marietta, Georgia 30061-4897 (11) A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required. The follow-on acquisition to this acquisition will involve appropriate market research to determine the applicable acquisition strategy, and the NIST Competition Advocate will review the acquisition strategy before NIST proceeds to solicit for the follow-on acquisition. After the appropriate acquisition strategy is determined, a presolicitation notice for the follow-on acquisition will be advertised in the Federal Business Opportunities website at www.fbo.gov at least fifteen days before the solicitation is posted on that website. (12) The contracting officer certificatiies that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the contracting officer’s knowledge and belief.
 

Web Link

FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=61ed200dbcb24d600f528aa25eaecbbc&tab=core&_cview=1)
 

Place of Performance

Address: Electric Power Research Institute, Inc., 3420 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, California, 94304, United States

Zip Code: 94304
 

Record

SN01802416-W 20090429/090427215426-61ed200dbcb24d600f528aa25eaecbbc (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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