124065 O5 Intent to Award Notice.pdf

This is a Notice of Intent to Award issued by the State of Nebraska Department of Water, Energy, and Environment (NDWEE) for Request for Proposal Number 124065 O5 to develop and implement a Carbon Intensity Data Bank and associated Grants Program supporting the Opportunity for Nebraska: Reducing Emissions and Decarbonization Program (ONE RED). The solicitation seeks vendor services to design, develop, and maintain secure digital platforms including a CI Data Bank system for uploading verified carbon intensity scores, a Precision Agriculture and Carbon Intensity Grants Program digital interface for farmer and vendor submissions, automated payment systems for incentive processing, and comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities. The electronic solicitation opened February 23, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Central Time, with a written question deadline of February 2, 2026. The Intent to Award was posted March 25, 2026, and the contract has been awarded to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. The contract term extends through September 30, 2029, with options to renew for two additional six-month periods, for a potential total contract duration of approximately four years.

The contractor must implement comprehensive cybersecurity and data privacy protections meeting GDPR, CCPA, and federal standards, maintain 99.5% system uptime, conduct annual cybersecurity audits by certified professionals, and provide user training and multi-channel customer support. The evaluation criteria allocated 25 points to Corporate Overview, 65 points to Technical Response, and 10 points to Cost, with optional 20 additional points for vendor demonstrations. Bidders were required to submit firm, fixed labor rates by category that remain constant throughout the contract term, with all costs presented as not-to-exceed amounts. The procurement is funded through EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Implementation Grant funds awarded to Nebraska in October 2024; specific budget values were not disclosed in the solicitation documents. Farmers will receive initial financial incentives averaging $0.03 per bushel or $6.00 per acre for Registry participation, and CI score vendors may receive enrollment fees not exceeding $500 for first-time enrollment. No incumbent vendor or current contractor was identified, indicating this is a new procurement. The contractor must utilize StreamLink Software Inc. (DBA AmpliFund) for data management protocols and host the grant management system on the State of Nebraska's single-tenant Microsoft Azure cloud environment with SOC 2 audit standard compliance.