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Department of Energy Hanford Site

Richland, Washington

MSA Engineering

Request for Information

RFI #: MDMS0412

Issued by:

Mission Support Alliance, LLC

Contracts and Procurement

P.O. Box 650, MSIN H7-08

Richland, Washington 99352

March 2018

Mission Support Alliance RFI #: MDMS0412Electrical Utilities EngineeringHanford Site Support Services

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction........................................................................................................................1

2.0 RFI Objective.......................................................................................................................2

3.0 Scope.................................................................................................................................. 2

4.0 Information Requested.......................................................................................................4

5.0 Instructions for Responding to this RFI...............................................................................6

ii


1.0 Introduction

Mission Support Alliance, LLC (MSA) is the U. S. Department of Energy Richland Operations Office’s (DOE-RL) prime contractor performing the Hanford Site’s Mission Support Contract (MSC).

MSA provides direct support to DOE and its prime contractors with cost-effective infrastructure and site services that are integral to the Hanford Site’s mission of completing the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy brought about from five decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. The Hanford Site comprises 586 square miles located in south-eastern Washington, as shown in Figure 1.

MSA’s scope includes the following functions: safety, security and environment; site infrastructure and utilities; site business management; portfolio management; and information management.

As a function within MSA Engineering, Electrical Utilities Engineering (EU) is implementing a system for advanced metering of electrical energy, in accordance with applicable federal regulations and standards. The resultant system is referred to as the EU Meter Data Management System (MDMS). MSA EU is in the planning stages of developing a Request for Proposal (RFP) to replace or upgrade existing elements of the EU MDMS. Specifically, MSA EU plans to replace all devices that are not Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) devices, improve/replace the existing Manual Metering Collection System, improve/replace the existing Meter Data Manager, and upgrade the Meter Reading and Billing System (MRBS) with a program that will support the billing needs of the Hanford Site.

The purpose of this MSA Engineering Request for Information (RFI) is threefold:

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Figure 1. Hanford Site.


• Provide information to the meter data management and billing system industry regarding MSA EU’s existing MDMS and to solicit and confirm companies that could submit a proposal on this opportunity to provide an industry standard system solution.

• Seek comments from the meter data management and billing system industry about MSA EU’s existing MDMS and replacement strategy.

• Obtain information from the meter data management and billing system industry for an industry standard MDMS.

This RFI is limited to the specific topics covered. MSA does not intend to award a contract based on this RFI, and responses to this RFI are not offers, therefore, MSA cannot accept responses as such to form a binding contract. Submission of responses to this RFI, or from MSA’s use of the information submitted, provides no entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs.

2.0 RFI Objective

This RFI’s objective is to request information from the meter data management and billing system industry for an industry standard MDMS and to ascertain the information based on MSA EU’s existing and aging systems. A primary objective of the RFI assessment is to determine the industry’s ability to meet and exceed MDMS functionality at Hanford.

To accomplish this objective, MSA EU is seeking RFP solicitations in the third quarter of calendar year 2018 for a commercial off the shelf (COTS) MDMS replacement system (consisting of integrated hardware and accompanying software platform) for the entire Hanford Site. Figure 2 provides a high level summary of the meters that comprise Hanford’s current electrical metering system. The active meters are summarize the total

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Figure 2. Meter Base.


number of automatic meters covered in this scope, the manual meters are the subset of the active meters that are read manually. The other category are meters that support special billing purposes but are not a part of the active total.

3.0 Scope

MSA EU plans to fully replace or upgrade the Hanford Site’s existing MDMS. This RFI seeks to determine to what extent the meter data management and billing system industry can provide an integrated hardware and software platform to meet and exceed the functionality described below:

Acquire and deploy a COTS MDMS that provides the required level of advanced metering infrastructure, acquisition, reporting, and billing capabilities required to upgrade Hanford's existing electrical utility infrastructure and fulfill the key DOE standards and guidance found in:

DOE O 436.1, Departmental Sustainability Implementing Instructions for Executive Order 13693 Planning for Federal

Sustainability in the Next Decade DOE Federal Building Metering Guidance

The existing Hanford MDMS description and requirements are based on the current MSA EU Electrical Management System portfolio. The current portfolio is made up of separate and custom developed systems. Because the systems are antiquated, the systems lack integration and do not support the Hanford Site’s current IT systems or networking standards. Additionally, meter management, meter data acquisition, and electrical utility billing has been predominately a manual operation. The functionality below is being sought in the industry as a standard Meter Data Acquisition System (MDAS).

The MDMS will have the capability to integrate or replace all Hanford meters that are non-AMI devices (See the summary locations in Figure 2). Additionally, the system must have the capacity to provide two-way meter communications in an automated, safe, and secure manner from the locations throughout Hanford. Currently, existing MDMS communications are primarily manual because buildings are located throughout the vast area of Hanford and there is currently a lack of cost-effective and approved wireless and/or wired network capability from the meters to their respective meter collection systems. The MDMS meters will integrate with all elements of Hanford’s MDMS to allow for the capture, storage, and archival of meter data, as well as to provide for managed and secure commutations with meters. A COTS MDMS should provide robust billing and reporting capabilities that can generate a suite of reports pertaining to billing, management, inventory, and various data trends. The billing and reporting capabilities will be customizable to support the

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unique billing needs and reporting requirements of a DOE site that supports the electrical utility needs of government contractors, the DOE, cities, and the Bonneville Power Administration.

MSA EU intends to upgrade existing and antiquated instruments, systems, software, and hardware with current and relevant product(s) that are integrated, meet the needs defined by the government for electrical management, are safe and secure, and adhere to all relevant government standards for software, systems, and networking.

This work scope is scheduled to start by October 2018, and be completed on or before the end of September 2020. However, all work is ultimately confirmed through government approval and full funding.

4.0 Information Requested

In addition to completing the response to the questions below, please include information for the following:

Could you tell us a little about your company? How long have you been in business? Where are you located? Do you have other contracts with the Department of Energy and/or Federal

Government?

Information requested concerning the meter data management and billing system industry are provided below:

1) What kind of metering hardware does your system support? (Manufactures, models, etc.)

2) What protocols are used to communicate between the hardware and software?3) Does your system support a web portal type interface?4) How does your system collect information from the meters? (drive-by system, cell

network, etc.)5) Can communications between the meters and the collection software be

encrypted?6) What kind of information about individual meters can be tracked by your software?7) How many meters can your system support at a maximum?8) Does the system interface with or include an industry standard billing application?

If so which one?9) Can the software import/export data from csv/excel formats?10) Can the hardware cache meter data?11) How long is all metering information retained?

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12) If a meter cannot be read through the normal collection method, then how is it read?

13) Can the billing portion of the system create multiple billing groups and sub-groups?14) Can the billing software create and combine multiple rates. Such as, periodic billing

rates, Heavy Load Hours (HLH), and Light Load Hours (LLH)?15) What kind of heuristics does your software have in ensuring billing accuracy?16) Can the billing software create custom bills? 17) Are the creation or custom bills changes performed by the customer or service

provider?18) What capability does your system have to look up/search, view/print and customize

meter data for reporting and analysis?19) Does your system provide time-phased reporting in text and graphical formats? 20) What mechanisms are available to preserve a customer’s historical data that may

not conform to currently defined data?21) Is the software written and maintained in a widely used language and are system

changes typically performed by the customer or system provider? 22) Is there a client side application/a standard user interface program?23) What is an overview of the systems security, including meter physical security

(tampering)? 24) Can the system restrict access to authorize only valid users? 25) Does the system integrate with Active Directory, Lightweight Directory Access

Protocol (LDAP) and/or Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)?26) Can the system assign user access levels, allow group profiles for specific access

levels and allow users to be restricted to read only?27) Can our in-house developers use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or

modules that can be integrated into or with the product?28) Can the software be run locally on physical or virtual servers?29) Is the software cloud based? If so, where is the data hosted?30) If the data/system is cloud based, is the cloud service Fedramp certified?31) How many users does your system support (how many people can use the software

portion)? How many users can use the system concurrently?32) How is your system configured to provide a customer’s production environment

while continuing to support new development, testing, training, device testing, security and system patching?

33) How are system changes, bug fixes and system upgrades provided to the system?34) How are customer requests for software changes and/or bug reports handled?35) How does your system maintain system integrity from the point of acquiring

information from meters, from storage, to database integrity, to system backup and

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archival? If the system or network crashes, fails or has error, how is the information protected or restored to minimize/avoid impact.

36) Does the system require planned downtime due to: failures in data acquisition, processing, editing, correction, export, patching or change?

37) What is the licensing/cost structure for your system (is the cost based on cost per-meter, per-user, software license agreement(s), software maintenance agreements, bug/defect fixes, upgrades, technical support etc. or a combination of all of the above)?

38) What is the planning window to refresh meters, communications etc. to maintain the end to end digital elements of your system.

39) Is system documentation available?40) What types of training are available (on-line, on-site, travel to vendor location,

other)?41) What are the options for accessing help (Help files within the product, Vendor

documentation/manuals, Web site, Help Desk, Web Conferencing, Other)?42) What is a very high level view of work activity to deploy a meter reading and billing

system in a new environment?43) Do you provide professional services to provide some or all the support required for

project management, configuration planning, training, installation planning and system change?

5.0 Instructions for Responding to this RFI

Respondents are encouraged to be as specific as possible in addressing any and all sections of this RFI and provide suggestions for alternative approaches and solutions. Feedback of a general or non-specific nature is less useful and will have limited usefulness in consolidating an acquisition strategy.

Interested parties may respond to this RFI in accordance with the instructions provided in this section. Table 3 provides guidance for preparing responses.

Table3. RFI Response Guide.

Description Response Requirement

Due date for RFI responses

Thursday, April 26, 2018

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Response format Interested parties shall submit a response in .docx format in response to this RFI, accompanied by a signed copy of their response to the RFI in Portable Document Format (PDF).

The response shall include a cover letter that identifies your company, company address, point of contact, contact information, and the capacity of your interest in this opportunity.

The response shall address the “Request for Information Questions” in this RFI.

Excluding cover letter and table of contents, responses shall have a minimum font size of ten, not exceed ten 8½ inch by 11 inch pages and three 11 inch by 17 inch pages for graphics if needed. Double-sided printed pages will count as two pages.

How to respond? Submit your response electronically via email with digital signature

Where to respond? Matthew R. Parker, [email protected]

How to mark the response?

Indicate specifically whether the response includes proprietary information and which information should be considered proprietary. Requirements for marking proprietary information are in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subsection 3.104-4.

How proprietary information will be treated

See FAR Subsection 3.104-4 for how this information will be safeguarded, if properly labeled.

MSA reserves the right to publish any information provided by a respondent to the RFI if publishing such information is done without attribution (i.e., does not identify the party submitting the response materials), and would not reveal company trade secrets or other similar protected or proprietary information. For example, if a respondent were to ask when the RFP would be released, then such a question could be published without attribution and would not jeopardize any corporate or trade secrets of the respondent.

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What will be done with the responses?

MSA intends to utilize responses to this RFI to develop and refine the EU MDMS deployment plan. Utilizing the RFI, it is the goal that MSA EU be able to develop an RFP and associated documents as appropriate based on all sources of input received, especially responses to this RFI.

MSA does not intend to respond unilaterally to individual respondents unless clarification of information submitted is required. All contact will be through the designated MSA Contracting Specialist.

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