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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCORRESPONDENCE - RFP - 7384 TRANSFORT CNG SITE MAINTENANCE CONTRACTOR (3)OWARD ALTERNATIVE ENERGY Clean Transportation Fuels'" August 21, 2012 Mr. Doug Clapp City of Fort Collins Purchasing Division 215 N. Mason Street, 2nd Floor Fort Collins, CO 80522 Re: Answers to August 141h Questions Presented by the City of Ft. Collins for RFP # 7384 SENT VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL TO: dclappPfcaov.com Dear Mr. Clapp: Thank you for selecting the Ward Group as your target company for negotiating the contract regarding the RFP referenced above. We have prepared answers to your questions as shown below. Question 1: Emergency fueling service - How much fuel could be transferred and is there an additional charge for this roadside service? Answer: The CNG fuel tanks mounted in our service trucks hold 20-22 gasoline gallons equivalent of CNG when full. Therefore we can off-load approximately half of that amount, about 10 GGE, to a Transfort bus per event. This service is part of our emergency response and all charges would covered by the Repair Work labor rates listed in our proposal. Question 2: How much are weekly inspections as a part of the contract? What if there were bi- weekly instead and what would be the cost savings? Answer: Routine maintenance is about one -quarter of the pricing for the routine and scheduled maintenance for 20 or fewer buses. The portion for routine maintenance costs is somewhat less for the pricing for more than 20 buses. Bi-weekly routine maintenance would reduce the routine maintenance cost by about one-third. The Ward Group strongly recommends that we provide routine maintenance and on a weekly basis as part of the contract in order to (1) maintain the fueling station in good working order, (2) develop a real-time understanding of the compressor and fueling system condition, (3) maximize the benefits of preventative maintenance for Transfort (avoiding many unnecessary and expensive repairs and emergency conditions), and (4) have enough data points to develop trend analysis. We will likely visit this station more often than weekly just to ensure it is operating well, especially when all 30 CNG buses are in revenue service. This routine maintenance visit frequency is typical for stations of this size at Denver International Airport, Western Disposal, etc. 215 W. Oak Street, Suite 1000 • Fort Collins, CO 80521 • (970) 449-4632 (t) (970) 449-4637 (f) OWARD ALTERNATIVE ENERGY Clean Transportation Fuels'" Please let us know if you would like formal bids for either the Dialog call -out system (based on wired -in contacts or the Micro Design monitoring system) and/or alternative monitoring systems. Question 5: Would the existing Micro Design systems stay in place? Answer: See our answer to Question 5, above. In short, the Micro Design monitoring system could be used as the fail conditions data source for a call -out system and/or provide operational data for remote monitoring of the Ariel and Gemini compressors if we and Transfort are allowed access to the software by Micro Design. Question 6: What would your service look like? Can you give us a time line of what would happen and when? How would you implement the service? Answer: A Dialog call -out system could be designed, equipment purchased, integrated into the compressors and operational within 90 days of Transfort's approval of our bid. We need to research the Micro Design and other monitoring systems to determine the time - frame in which remote monitoring could be operational for the CNG station. Please let me know if you would like any clarifications, which can be addressed in writing or by phone or in -person meeting. Best regards, /�� & xelz Paul A. Nelson Senior Advisor Cc: Kris Kielty, FuelTek Beau Ward, Ward Alternative Energy enclosure 215 W. Oak Street, Suite 1000 • Fort Collins, CO 80521 • (970) 449-4632 (t) (970) 449-4637 (f)