On August 7, 2012, the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center in Huntsville, Alabama issued its much-anticipated final solicitation for renewable and alternative energy utilizing power purchase agreements (PPAs) or other contractual equivalents (Solicitation Number W912DY-11-R-0036, the "Final RFP").  The draft RFP was issued on Friday February 24, 2012 and the Army has been in active discussion with industry ever since, engaging in meetings with industry representatives and responding to comments and questions at conferences across the country.  The package released today includes the Final RFP, a "frequently asked questions" form, an attachment regarding maximum unit price rates, and an amendment to the Final RFP which (1) corrected the effective date to August 7, 2012 and (2) extended the closing date and time for receipt of proposals to October 5, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. CST.  All solicitation materials can be found here.

As was the case in the draft RFP, it is the intent of the government to purchase only the energy produced by the projects and not to acquire any generation assets.  Each contractor will be responsible for developing, financing, designing, building, operating, owning and maintaining its project.  Generation facilities may be located on private land or on installations under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense.  The government will contract to purchase the energy for up to 30 years under the procurement authority set out in 10 U.S.C. 2922a. 

This solicitation will result in multiple Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity ("ID/IQ") contracts awarded "to all qualified and responsible offerors, both large and small businesses, whose offers receive the required minimum acceptable evaluation ratings and whose price is reasonable and realistic."  Individual Task Orders will then be awarded against the ID/IQ contracts using fair opportunity and competitive source selection procedures set out in the federal acquisition regulations and the defense federal acquisition regulations.  The sum of all Task Orders awarded over the 10-year period for contracting authorized under the Final RFP cannot exceed $7 billion.  Task Orders will be reserved for small businesses in accordance with the same ordering procedures proposed in the draft RFP and reproduced in our original blog back in February.

The Final RFP states that a pre-proposal conference will be held prior to the October 5, 2012 submission deadline, but details are forthcoming.  The conference is tentatively scheduled to be held in Chicago, IL.  Comments on the Final RFP may be submitted through the ProjNet website and must be received no later than August 24, 2012.  The Army will not accept questions via email or telephone and individual meetings with firms will not be scheduled.

We are reviewing the Final RFP and will continue to provide updates as may be appropriate.