1. Request for Information
Net Zero Energy Fort Bliss: Microgrids to Support Efficient Energy Usage
and the Integration of Renewable Energy
BACKGROUND:
The Army Energy Program is expanding to meet the requirements of Congressional legislation
and Executive Orders which mandate change in our nation’s energy consumption and
production. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT05) requires Federal agencies to purchase
7.5% of their energy from renewable sources by 2013; Executive Order 13423 requires that half
of this renewable energy come from new sources; and the National Defense Authorization Act of
2007 (NDAA07) requires that 25% of DoD’s total electricity come from renewable sources by
2025. Currently, the Army derives approximately 2.1% of its energy from renewable energy
sources and must increase the amount of renewable energy utilized to support its operations.
The energy conservation and renewable energy projects proposed for Fort Bliss will help to
establish a model installation-based energy security approach for implementing the Army Energy
Security Implementation Strategy (AESIS) and overall reduction of energy use and cost. AESIS
is a coordinated Army-wide response to the growing importance of improved energy efficiency,
greater alternative energy use and heightened energy security for the Army and the nation. The
Army energy security mission is to make energy a consideration for all Army activities to reduce
demand, increase efficiency, seek alternative sources, and create a culture of energy
accountability while sustaining or enhancing operational capabilities. Fort Bliss has positioned
itself to lead the Army in these aspects and continues to lead with aggressive pursuit of energy
security. In its role as an Army energy leader, Fort Bliss has established the goal of becoming a
Net Zero Energy Installation (NZEI) by 2015. To do this, Fort Bliss must aggressively conserve
energy and also generate as much renewable energy as it consumes, measured over the course of
a year.
The legislated energy mandates and changes to the cultural initiatives support Army-wide goals
of improving its resiliency and endurance as a military force. These include: 1) Surety:
Preventing loss of access to power and fuel sources. 2) Supply: Accessing alternative and
renewable energy sources available to the installation. 3) Sustainability: Promoting support for
the Army’s mission, its community, and the environment. 4) Sufficiency: Providing adequate
power for critical missions. 5) Survivability: Ensuring resilience in energy systems.
The Army is interested in developing this program through industry partnerships where private
firms will design, build, own and operate large scale renewable energy or energy management
facilities on Army land, with a Power Purchase Agreement, or similar instrument, as
compensation to the owner.
The Army has established a framework for analysis to help meet these goals. Initial feasibility
studies have evaluated several renewable energy technologies for their potential contribution
toward a NZEI strategy. Microgrids offer many attractive aspects with regard to the efficient
management of power, power islands, integration of renewable energy, energy storage, power
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2. conditioning, energy surety and security, and backup power. Fort Bliss is looking for viable and
affordable approaches to achieve the beneficial features of microgrids and integrate them into a
comprehensive acquisition strategy for the Net Zero Energy program. To augment our market
research for viable technology and economic approaches, Fort Bliss is looking for information on
microgrids and associated microgrid technology that is focused at the individual building level,
building cluster level, and linking building clusters.
El Paso Electric (EPE) is the serving regulated utility for Fort Bliss with service in both New
Mexico and Texas. Under current regulations, any Power Purchase Agreement for power in this
region of Texas will need to involve EPE.
PURPOSE AND NEED FOR INFORMATION
The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit input from industry to be
considered by the U.S. Army in determining a course of future action. The Army seeks industry
input regarding technology capabilities, project financing capabilities, risk factors and legal or
administrative processes which should be expected while developing this project. The Army is
interested in information that will help to understand the true opportunities to be found and
challenges to be faced if this concept is further developed. This is solely a request for
information and not a Request for Proposal (RFP).
1. Technology:
a. Technologies desired are those that have the smallest environmental impact, i.e. the
smallest carbon footprint.
b. Describe any potential impacts of your technology that could be limiting for
environmental or safety reasons. For example, issues associated with hazardous
chemicals and other materials, potential for catastrophic failure of high energy density
systems, radio frequency or other electronic noise generation, acoustic noise, etc.
c. Describe a technical approach to achieve measurable efficiency gains for a building or
building cluster that consumes 1 MW average power with 2MW peak loads that would
incorporate grid connected energy as well as distributed renewable energy generation
from sources such as solar photovoltaic, wind, fuel cells, etc.
d. Describe the features / capability of your technical approach to incorporate power
conditioning, management of the grid connection, islanding, “black start” capability in
case of a wide spread loss of grid power backup power sources, and energy storage from
intermittent renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic panels, concentrated solar
thermal, and wind.
e. The Army is in the process of conducting programmatic National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA) analyses for renewable energy generation. It will be the responsibility of the
developer to fund and coordinate any additional site-specific NEPA actions for the
proposed facility that may be required.
2. Technology Maturity
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3. a. Describe the features of your microgrid concept.
b. With respect to the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 1scale, what is the maturity of
your microgrid technologies and controls?
c. What is the impact to retrofitting your microgrid components into new and legacy
facilities?
d. What are the control methods / processes that you use for automation and/or control of
your system?
e. What is the operation and maintenance requirement for your system?
f. What is the expected availability of your system?
g. What is the expected lifetime of your system? This may be described in the lifetime and
replacement frequency for specific system components.
h. What is the commercial history of your technology?
3. Financing / Economic Feasibility
a. Although microgrid applications are strongly dependent on specific applications, what is
the Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost range per square foot for administrative
office space that can be expected for your technology? The Army is seeking an
understanding of the cost drivers and relative costs associated with microgrids in order to
establish an acquisition strategy that is economically viable.
b. Given the willingness of the Army to consider public-private ventures to finance energy
projects, what ideas do you have with regard to private financing of microgrid projects
through contracting instruments such as Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), Enhanced
Use Leases (EUL), Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC), etc. where the Army
provides land and will pay the investment over time via energy savings or purchase of the
commodity?
RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS
Responses are limited to nine (9) pages total (12 point font, 1 inch margins). Include a brief,
one (1) page summary of company background and relevant experience in renewable energy
project development with your responses. The remaining eight (8) pages shall be used to
respond to the RFI questions. Respondents may submit responses to all or a portion of the RFI
questions. A copy of a representative project development plan can be provided for illustrative
purposes and will not count against the page limitation. The email submittal should have the title
of the Request for Information (for example, “Solar Photovoltaic or Concentrating Solar Power
(CSP) Generation Facilities”) in the subject line of the email to ensure proper review.
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Technology Readiness Level (TRL) is a method to assess the maturity of new technologies through
experimentation, refinement, and increasingly realistic testing. Once the technology is sufficiently proven, it can be
incorporated into a system/subsystem. The scale is from 1 to 9 with 1 being basic technology research and 9 being
system test launch & operations.
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4. Submittals to this Request for Information or questions posed for clarification should be emailed
to the following email addresses:
Melissa Garcia
Mission & Installation Contracting Command Fort Bliss, TX
melissa.garcia5.civ@mail.mil
and
BJ Tomlinson
Fort Bliss Garrison
Directorate of Public Works
Renewable Energy and Sustainability Program Manager
benny.j.tomlinson.civ@mail.mil
The maximum file size email plus attachment that can be received is 20Mb.
DUE DATE
Responses are required to be submitted no later than 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time,
October 7, 2011 via email to Ms Melissa Garcia (melissa.garcia5.civ@mail.mil) and Mr BJ
Tomlinson (benny.j.tomlinson.civ@mail.mil).
BUSINESS SENSITIVE, PROPRIETARY, OR OTHERWISE CONFIDENTIAL
INFORMATION
Because information received in response to this RFI may be used to structure future solicitations
and/or otherwise be made available to the public, respondents are strongly advised NOT to
include any information in their responses, which may be considered business sensitive,
proprietary, or otherwise confidential. However, if your company chooses to submit any
business sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information, it must be marked as
proprietary or restricted data in the response. Should Fort Bliss receive FOIA (Freedom of
Information Act) requests for responses, all Responders will be contacted for approval prior to
release.
Questions and Answers
Questions regarding this Request for Information shall be submitted through email to Ms Melissa
Garcia (melissa.garcia5.civ@mail.mil) and Mr BJ Tomlinson (benny.j.tomlinson.civ@mail.mil)
as soon as possible, but not later than 1:00 PM Mountain Time on August 23, 2011. The email
with questions should have the title of the Request for Information (for example, “Solar
Photovoltaic or Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Generation Facilities”) in the subject line of
the email to ensure proper review. Answers will be posted no later than 5:00 PM Mountain
Time on September 12, 2011.
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