Federal Government Carbon Pollution-Free Electricity Technical and Strategy Support Solicitation

General Services Administration Public Buildings Service Office of Facilities Management Sources Sought Statement of Work (SOW) for Federal Government Carbon Pollution-Free Electricity Technical and Strategy Support Solicitation 7/12/2022 DISCLAIMER: This Sources Sought is issued solely or information and planning purposes and does not constitute a request for Proposal (RFP). In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) section 15.209(c), responses to this Sources Sought are not offers and will not be accepted by the Government to farm an agreement or binding contract of any nature. GSA will not award a contract based on this Sources Sought, but information received may be used to assist GSA in creating an RFP All information solicited and received in response to this Sources Sought will be treated as information only and will not be returned. Respondents are advised not to include any confidential business information with a response as the Government does not guarantee confidentiality of the information received. Although GSA asks that no confidential business information be submitted, it is our practice to keep all responses confidential and available for in-house Government personnel only. Introduction 1.1 Purpose The General Services Administration's (GSA) provides centralized procurement for the Federal Government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of more than 370 million rentable square feet and overseeing approximately $84 billion in annual contracts. GSA's mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. Executive Order 14057 (EO 14057) on Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability (December 8, 2021), lays out a - whole-of-government approach and directs the United States Government Executive agencies (USG) to - lead by example in order to achieve a carbon pollution-free electricity (CFE) sector by 2035 and net-zero emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050. Relevant to the tasks outlined in the solicitation, EO 14057 Sec. 203, Transitioning to 100 CFE, further provides that [e]ach agency shall increase its percentage use of carbon pollution-free electricity, so that it constitutes 100 percent of facility electrical energy use on an annual basis, and seek to match use on an hourly basis to achieve 50 percent 24/7 carbon pollution-free electricity, by fiscal year 2030. EO 14057 defines - carbon pollution-free electricity as - electrical energy produced from resources that generate no carbon emissions, including marine energy, solar, wind, hydrokinetic (including tidal, wave, current, and thermal), geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear, renewably sourced hydrogen, and electrical energy generation from fossil resources to the extent there is active capture and storage of carbon dioxide emissions that meets [Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] requirements. EO 14057 also defines - 24/7 carbon pollution-free electricity as - carbon pollution-free electricity procured to match actual electricity consumption on an hourly basis and produced within the same regional grid where the energy is consumed. In furtherance of EO 14057, the USG intends to use its scale to meet these goals within the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in both the retail choice and vertically integrated markets. Within the USG, few agencies have the procurement authority to enter into contracts that will move the USG towards these goals. GSA is one of those agencies, and is authorized by 40 U.S.C. 501 to provide utility services to the USG. In response to EO 14057, GSA has committed to exercising this authority to assist the USG's Executive Branch agencies, along with the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program (DOE-FEMP), in reaching these CFE goals. Within the GSA's Public Buildings Service (PBS), the Office of Facilities Management (OFM) has a team of contracting officers (CO) and subject matter experts that will assist the USG in reaching these goals. This team will be referred to the CFE program office for purposes of this solicitation. The CFE program office also works with the DoD's Defense Logistics Agency (DLA-Energy) and Office of the Secretary of Defense (DoD/OSD), and DOE-FEMP in furtherance of these CFE goals. Although DoD assets are outside of the scope of work of this solicitation, except for the load profile analysis and CFE generation modeling tasks, there may be areas of opportunity to aggregate DoD assets with other Executive Branch agency assets. Furthermore, the scope of work of this solicitation does include partnering with the DLA-Energy, DoD/OSD, and DOE-FEMP on USG CFE strategies. Due to the scale of the USG, the CFE program office is seeking to obtain technical expertise and advisory, consulting, and program management services to assist the USG in the planning and execution of reaching the CFE goals outlined in EO 14057 within the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands in both the retail choice and vertically integrated markets. 1.2 Objective The CFE program office, located at GSA's Headquarters Office, 1800 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20405, requires technical expertise and advisory, consulting, and program management services to help the USG meet 100% CFE by 2030, including 50% 24/7 CFE, and 100% 24/7 CFE by 2035. There are challenges to be addressed, and new technology that will be required in the transformation to a 100% 24/7 CFE U.S. electricity grid by 2035, and Federal agencies consumption of 100% CFE by 2030, including 50% 24/7 CFE. The current U.S. electric grid requires substantial infrastructure investments and a huge paradigm shift in the transition to a 100% CFE sector from today's predominantly fossil fuel dominant generation mix. There is a need for coordination, planning, modeling, and structuring of new projects with various utility operators, regulatory bodies, Independent System Operators (ISO), Regional Transmission Organization (RTO), State legislatures, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and many other stakeholders. As GSA adds new CFE resources to the grid as part of this energy transition, supporting the USG, there are very complicated technical considerations that GSA will need to look at in order to develop projects that will support the grid transition. The CFE program office's current priorities and objectives are to: Consider a whole-of-government approach when assisting the USG reach the CFE goals in EO 14057; Work closely with its Federal partners, DLA-Energy, DoD/OSD, and DOE-FEMP, on all activities involved in reaching the CFE goals from strategy development to implementation; Develop clean electricity policies, strategies, implementation plan, and interim targets to reach 100% CFE by 2030 and 100% 24/7 CFE by 2035, in both the retail choice and vertically integrated markets; Identify, and work with, agencies to aggregate procurements; Identify opportunities for special contracts in the vertically integrated markets; Identify offsite and onsite locations for CFE generation facilities and projects to meet the USG's goals; Initiate and execute procurements for offsite and onsite CFE generation facilities and projects; Conduct in depth financial and life cycle cost analysis on all options; and Monitor and track CFE produced, used, and facilitated through the procurements for GSA's inventory of assets. 1.3 Background The CFE program office was developed to assist Executive Branch agencies to reach the CFE goals in EO 14057. This includes, but is not limited to, regular interface with its Federal partners, DLA-Energy, DoD/OSD, and DOE-FEMP on all activities associated with assisting the USG in reaching the CFE goals; analysis of the Executive Branch agencies real property inventory electric consumption in the electric markets; assisting Executive Branch agencies, including GSA, with developing and executing strategies to reach the CFE goals; procuring energy in the vertically integrated and retail choice markets; clean energy project development and procurement; oversight of the onsite and offsite renewable energy generation systems; and developing and issuing internal policies, guidance, metrics, and training in procurement of energy and CFE. 2.0 Scope The CFE program office requires contract support to help the USG meet the EO 14057 goals of 100% CFE by 2030, including 50% 24/7 CFE, and 100% 24/7 CFE by 2035. The CFE program office will require technical expertise and advisory, consulting, and program management services to formulate and execute new strategies and projects to reach the CFE goals in EO 14057. The specific tasks are described below in Section 3.0. The Vendor shall support the CFE program office's priorities and objectives listed in section 1.2 above by providing: Technical expertise and advisory services in the following areas: Load profile analysis for all USG building types, taking into account its function and typical hours of operation Energy Sector Market Analysis CFE Generation Modeling Grid operations and engineering aspects of the power sector Interconnection and transmission Energy Storage Consulting and program management services in the following areas: Development of clean electricity policies, strategies, implementation plan, and interim targets to reach 100% CFE by 2030 and 100% 24/7 CFE by 2035, in both the vertically integrated and retail choice markets, to include, but not limited to: Aggregating USG procurements; Identification of opportunities for special contracts in the vertically integrated markets; Identification of offsite and onsite locations for CFE generation facilities and projects to meet the USG's goals; Identify, initiate and execute procurements for offsite and onsite CFE generation facilities and projects; Conduct in depth financial and life cycle cost analysis on all CFE options; Monitor and track CFE produced, used, and facilitated through the procurements for GSA's inventory of assets; Strategy development focused on overcoming existing technological, organizational, and market barriers that may prohibit the USG from reaching the interim CFE targets; Regulatory Economics and Tariff Structure and Rate making analysis; and Finance and Regulatory Accounting