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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRFP - 8433 COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL ENERGY PROGRAMS THIRD PARTY CONSULTANT (2)ADDENDUM NO. 2 SPECIFICATIONS AND CONTRACT DOCUMENTS Description of RFP 8433: Commercial & Residential Energy Programs Third Party Consultant OPENING DATE: 3:00 PM (Our Clock) January 6, 2017 To all prospective bidders under the specifications and contract documents described above, the following changes/additions are hereby made and detailed in the following sections of this addendum: Exhibit 1 – Questions & Answers Attachment 1 – Participation Data for 2014 Please contact Gerry Paul, Purchasing Director at (970) 221-6779 with any questions regarding this addendum. RECEIPT OF THIS ADDENDUM MUST BE ACKNOWLEDGED BY A WRITTEN STATEMENT ENCLOSED WITH THE BID/QUOTE STATING THAT THIS ADDENDUM HAS BEEN RECEIVED. Financial Services Purchasing Division 215 N. Mason St. 2nd Floor PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6775 970.221.6707 fcgov.com/purchasing EXHIBIT 1 – QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 1. Can you provide a budget range for this evaluation? a. Fort Collins Utilities has identified a budget internally, but would prefer vendors to provide program-by-program cost estimates based on their expertise in program evaluation. Utilities plans to optimize the program evaluation spend after reviewing the pricing chart identified in Table 3. 2. Do you need separate results for each program year (2014, 2015, 2016), or only for the three year period? a. Fort Collins Utilities is requesting a single evaluation to be completed that incorporates results across all three years. 3. Do you need estimates of demand savings (kW) only for the Demand Response program or is this required for all programs? a. Demand savings will be required for all programs. More data will be available for the evaluation contractor once the Scope of Work is agreed upon and finalized. 4. Should we evaluate the water savings claimed by some of your programs? a. Yes, the (4) programs identified in table 2 with water savings should include an impact evaluation of water savings. For reference, water savings from these programs have typically resulted from installation of high efficiency equipment from direct installation (faucet aerators, showerheads, etc.) or other appliances that saves both energy and water. 5. For the Platte River Option, do you want separate savings estimated for each participating utility service area or should all of them be combined? For those programs, can Fort Collins be combined with the other utilities into a single evaluation that meets 90/10? a. For the Platte River option, all 3 other municipalities can be combined into a single evaluation that meets 90/10. Please note, regardless of if Platte River intends to move forward with a program evaluation for the other municipalities, Fort Collins Utilities will require a program evaluations specific only to City of Fort Collins electric and water participants. Fort Collins participant data can be included in the Platte River option for sampling purposes. 6. No savings are claimed for Home Energy Loan program. Should we still estimate savings or just conduct a process evaluation for this program? a. Yes, only a process evaluation should be completed for the Home Efficiency Loan program, as it is mostly a driver for participation in some other programs. 7. Please describe the measure installation verification performed by each program? Who does it? Is it done for all installations or for a sample? a. Efficiency Works Homes program require third party quality assurance sampling with on-site inspections and measurement testing performed by a contractor on behalf of Utilities. For example, home air sealing/insulation projects (which require a % reduction to calculate the rebate), the installing contractor will complete the actual test, and Utilities staff or third party representative will individually review results to determine incentive. Efficiency Works Business programs complete a sampling of post on-site installation inspections for more than 10% of projects. The inspections are generally completed and documented by Platt River Power Authority, FCU staff or a third party on behalf of Utilities. 8. Is 15-minute interval data available for all customers, both gas and electric? a. 15-minute interval data is available for Fort Collins electric and water customers, but not gas. Please note that early AMI data may be less reliable in the identified evaluation period since the AMI infrastructure project was mostly finished near the end of 2013. 9. Can we assume that you will provide documentation of the data sources and estimation methods used in developing the deemed unit savings used by each program? a. Yes. 10. Can we assume that for custom projects that you will provide the actual models and data used in estimating savings for sampled projects? a. Yes. 11. Do the Comverge DLC units have a self-verify capability? a. Fort Collins Utilities has deployed 2-way Wi-Fi Thermostats and cellular- based switches for electric water heaters. The DRMS collects telemetry (15- min) for thermostats including: Mode (Off/Heat/Cool), furnace/compressor runtime, setpoint, indoor temperature and In-Control status (i.e., yes/no for utility-initiated events). For electric water heaters it collects telemetry (15- min) including: Power availability (to distinguish from power outages), heating elements runtime and In-Control status. b. Can all of the process evaluations be conducted at one time to minimize the interview burden on program staff and management? Yes. 12. Can you advise on the degree of program overlap so we can tell how many of which customers are participating in more than one program? a. When reviewing Table 2, it should be noted that Efficiency Works programs often require an audit be completed prior to being eligible for rebates in program years 2014 and 2015. Therefore, it is likely that the number of the participants in the identified audit programs also were participants in the rebate programs. Also noted is the number of participants who received residential direct install equipment were provided this equipment at/around the time of the residential audit. With the exception of the Home Energy Reports program, there is not a significant amount of program overlap between programs. 13. Do you have reliable phone contact information for all participants and for all customers in your service area? a. Utilities has contact information available as provided by the customer on the participation application. 14. Do you maintain any kind of a non-participant database? a. In addition to our general CIS database, Fort Collins Utilities has historical information for residential and commercial assessments completed in the service territory 15. There is a wide variation in the budgets and associated savings from each of the programs. This indicates to us that it makes sense to prioritize the evaluation efforts (e.g., by program budget, savings achieved, plans to expand). Does Fort Collins Utilities need impact evaluation results for each program or for the portfolio as a whole? a. Utilities would consider the suggestion to prioritize evaluations based on budgets, savings or any other factors suggested by evaluation contractors. Please note we still need information contained within Table 3 to evaluate all bids. 16. What guidance are you able to share regarding the budget for this project? There are several options for achieving the stated goals of the evaluation and a wide range of cost associated with those approaches. We would be able to better tailor our approach with a range of the budget that you are planning to allocate to this evaluation. Any clarification is appreciated. a. See answer to #1 17. What is Fort Collins Utilities' view of the relative priority of the impact evaluation compared to the process evaluation? a. As a municipal utility, Fort Collins Utilities is governed by the City Council, and a program evaluation is not a regulatory requirement of any local or state authority. Fort Collins Utilities seeks collaborative impact and process evaluations to incorporate program best practices as we pursue the Road to 2020 GHG reduction goals. Utilities, at this time, is prioritizing completing impact evaluations to assist with our analysis of energy savings documentation, but would consider the evaluation contractor's suggestions on evaluation types across programs. 18. Which entity maintains the program participation data for programs run by PRPA? To what extent is PRPA willing to participate in a process evaluation of the base SOW (e.g., interview, resource for answering questions about program data if appropriate)? a. Fort Collins Utilities maintains participation data for all electric and water customers within the City of Fort Collins. If completing a program evaluation, Platt River Power Authority staff would provide participation data for other municipal utilities, and would act as the primary contact. Regardless of including other municipalities within the program evaluation, Platte River Power Authority is a collaborative partner in the administration and implementation of Efficiency Works with the city of Fort Collins, and will have an active role in both the impact and process evaluations of those programs. 19. Has Fort Collins Utilities conducted a program evaluation in the past? What is the driving request for evaluation services? a. Utilities has not conducted a program evaluation in the past. See answer to #18. 20. What is Fort Collins Utilities' overall timeline for this work? Section 2.4 indicates that the Evaluation Plan is intended to be completed by June 30, 2017, but it does not indicate the overall target timeline for completion. Any clarification is appreciated. a. Utilities looks to work collaboratively with the selected evaluation contractor to establish a timeline that is appropriate for a thorough program evaluation. As discussed previously, the evaluation is not a regulatory requirement, and thus there is not a deadline for completion at this time. Section 2.4.1 of the RFP may be misleading, and is clarified here:  Development of a detailed Evaluation Plan beginning on/near February 1, 2017. The target completion of the Evaluation is on or before June 30, 2017. Proposals should include a draft schedule and highlight any differences with the intended completion date. 21. The Merged Attachments file includes information about the Green Building program, but that program is not listed in the SOW for the evaluation. Should our bid include an evaluation of the Green Building program? a. No, the bid should include only programs listed in the SOW. 22. Does Fort Collins Utilities have any customer contact protocols that would need to be followed for this evaluation? If so, please share those with us. They will enable us to better plan timelines and budgets. a. Fort Collins Utilities has contact protocols that will need to be discussed with the evaluation contractor in more depth than allowed here. We do not anticipate that the contact protocols will have a negative impact on timelines or budgets. 23. Should evaluation include the impact and process evaluation of reported water savings? a. See answer #4. 24. What is the source of the reported / Ex Ante deemed and calculated savings values for each program? a. Utilities uses a tracker tool that will be available to the evaluation contractor. Savings values have been developed internally based on studies completed in the past as well as incorporated from other industry white papers and program evaluations. 25. Is there a need to analyze savings leakage to areas not within the service territory? a. Yes, Utilities would like to quantify "savings leakage" to other territories. 26. What provisions for collection and analysis of data from utilities other than PRPA or the cities (NG in particular) need to be made? a. Pre-installation natural gas data is currently available for homes who have participated in the assessment. Fort Collins Utilities is establishing a new process to collect post installation natural gas data, however, this may not be available throughout the entire evaluation period identified. Current efforts are being made to make natural gas data more readily available. At this time, the evaluation contractor will not be required to obtain natural gas data from customers during the scope of the evaluation. 27. Do you have a ballpark budget estimate for the overall evaluation? a. See answer #1. 28. What is the overall budget for all programs, including incentives and program admin? a. See answer #1. 29. Is there a conflict of interest if one proposal team member is also a qualified provider for the IDAP program? a. Not likely, but please explain the role of the team member for transparency. 30. Please confirm that you are requesting one evaluation covering PY2014-2016, as opposed to evaluations for each program year separately (for sampling purposes). a. See answer #2. 31. Can you provide the number of participant units for each individual program for 2014 and 2016? a. At this time, complete 2016 data is not available. 2014 customer data is provided in Attachment 1 attached hereto. 32. For the impact evaluation, are you interested in first year (annual) savings, or lifecycle savings? a. First year savings. Please refer to section 2.1 of the evaluation for further information. 33. For DR program, is the response activity data from the device available for the evaluation? a. See answer #11 34. For the calculation of net savings, does Ft. Collins rely on deemed values for free ridership and spillover, or does Ft. Collins prefer for evaluators to collect program specific data to calculate a net-to-gross ratio? a. Fort Collins has not quantified free ridership or spillover for programs or measures, and would prefer evaluation contractors collect program specific data to determine a NTG ratio. Attachment 1 Incentive budget ($1,000) Projects (units) Electric Savings (MWh) Water Savings (Tgal) Natural Gas Savings (therms) 2014 Appliance Rebates $ 105 1,739 applicants 228 4,617 13,553 Appliance Recycling $ 29 505 applicants 823 Demand Response - Peak Partners devices Efficiency Works - Home Audits $ 366 662 homes 149 15,557 Efficiency Works - Home Direct Installs $ 14 250 homes 116 243 6,695 Efficiency Works - Home Rebates $ 184 454 applicants 173 31,274 Efficiency Works - Business Audits $ 454 280 businesses 361 Efficiency Works - Business Rebates $ 1,564 381 businesses 9,750 Efficiency Works - Busienss Tune-ups businesses Help Loan Program loans Home Energy Reports $ 532 44,379 enrolled accounts 8,952 IDAP - projects Larimer County Conservation Corps - Audits $ 67 471 homes 156 Midstream Retail Lighting $ 145 60,116 lamps purchased 2,017 Renewable Energy - Solar Rebates $ 357 79 PV systems 737 (prod) Annual (1st year) Customer Gross Savings (MWh) Program Results Fort Collins Utilities