FY23 NGAP Solicitation 47PA0723R0001 Questions and Answers-Final.docx

47PA0723R0001 GSA NGAP Competitive Natural Gas Supply Questions and Answers Received in Writing as of 3:00 PM ET April 26th, 2023

NOTE: ALL CHANGES/UPDATES TO THE SOLICITATION ARE HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW IN THE

AMENDMENT 1 VERSION OF THE SOLICITATION

QUESTIONS RECEIVED IN WRITING

1. Section A.12 Service Interruption: Paragraphing 3 states that once notification of an LDC-issued interruption, LDC-issued supply curtailment, or LDC-issued operation flow order occurring has been made by Contractor to the GSA Contracting Officer, GSA Account Manager, and facility Point of Contact, that interruptible (IT) designated accounts are required to curtail usage to the greatest extent possible while restrictions are in place. If an LDC has issued only an operation flow order, which is allowing supplier gas to flow, but imposes penalties for imbalances between supplier deliveries and customer usage, will the GSA accounts reduce usage during this operation flow order? Does reduce usage mean a cap on a GSA account’s usage for that period/day)? Will the GSA account switch to an alternate fuel during an operation flow order? Ultimately, we need to understand what the process will be for a GSA account during an operation flow order that still allows for customers to use natural gas but is imposing penalties for daily imbalances. In this specific situation, will an account limit usage and/or switch off natural gas for that day?

Answer 1: 1A) Yes. 1B) Facilities may burn some gas during an LDC-issued Operational Flow Order (OFO) or may switch to their backup during the entire OFO. 1C) Facilities will reduce usage during an LDC-issued OFO by either switching to their backup during the entire OFO or burn less gas. It is ultimately the supplier’s responsibility to reach out to each customer affected by any interruption/OFO and discuss the daily strategy.

2. Section A.19 Material Change: This section anticipates that the Government will be notifying the Contractor of a material change for an account. What happens if the opposite is true, that the Contractor notes a substantial increase in baseload usage for an account that is independent of weather factors and notifies the Contracting Officer? Should this increase in baseload use exceed the 25% material change threshold, does the Contractor have to wait the full contract year for an equitable adjustment until the full annual year of usage is known for the Pricing Group? How are Equitable adjustments determined at that time? Is it based on the monthly amounts exceeding the 25% for that year, meaning Equitable Adjustments are based on monthly pricing? Or since it is done after the year, is it based on an average annual price?

Answer 2: 2A) In the event that the Contractor identifies the materials change, the GSA Contracting Officer and the end use facility should be notified immediately. The same methodology provided in Section A.19 will apply to material changes identified by the Contractor. 2B) Yes. 2C, 2D and 2E) See the methodology provided in Section A.19 regarding “costs owed by, or credits owed to the Government” including “Any costs owed by, or credits owed to the Government associated with liquidation of contracted natural gas positions by the Contractor for an account in the event of a Material Change shall be supported by proof of gas sales resulting from the liquidation.” The proof of gas sales provided by the Contractor will identify whether the gas was sold daily, monthly or some other timeframe.”

3. Will the monthly projected volumes be provided for the accounts in the RFP? Particularly we had questions about usages for the Albany VA, Northpoint VA Medical Center, and the Perry point VA. Hus were not available from their respective LDCs, so we will need monthly volumes in order to price.

Answer 3: Monthly volumes for all accounts will be in the updated Exhibit 1 files that include specific auction dates, terms, and pricing products, EnelX RFP#’s and monthly data. GSA plans to release the first Exhibit 1 in the mid-May timeframe for early June auctions and updated Exhibit 1s will be released as new auction events are scheduled.

4. We are experiencing some trouble confirming if we can serve the Atmos TX locations. Can you please provide the Meter number for each location in order to confirm serviceability?

Answer 4: Big Springs FCI, delivery point 720106 and 720107. No “Meter” number.

Seagoville FCI, delivery point 91232800. No “Meter” number.

Fort Worth Aviation, delivery point 91246100. No “Meter” number.

5. Can you please confirm the if the Rate Class for the Columbia Gas of Ohio location is LGTS, SGTS, or GTS?

Answer 5: Tariff/rate class information will be provided in the Exhibit 1 files.

6. Are the AGL IT locations full IT locations? If they’re not, can you please provide the MDQ values for them?

Answer 6: See answer to question 1.

7. AGL Firm locations require MDQ for pricing. Are we able to pull the MDQ and usage from their website and use that for pricing?

Answer 7: Offerors are welcome to collect whatever data they can access through AGL that does not require GSA to sign a Letter of Authorization. Per Section A.1 of the solicitation, “The monthly volumes provided in the Exhibit 1 file for each account are burnertip volumes and will be the contract volumes for any awarded contract(s)”

8. Do we include balancing and Line Loss in the WGL pricing?

Answer 8: Yes. See Sections A.3, A.11 and Attachment 2: Price Component Confirmation Table of the solicitation which clearly state all these items are to be included in bid prices.

9. Does GSA agree to CIL if we are including balancing?

Answer 9: Any Change in Law that occurs after a contract has been awarded will be handled under Section A1.4 Natural Gas Regulatory Changes. Note per that section that all costs that are in effect and applicable at the time of award are to be included in the bid price for the full term awarded. Also note that per this section, any additional charges associated with regulatory changes require GSA’s approval and a bilateral contract modification to be executed before the Contractor can bill for any of the charges.

10. Bladensburg Bus Garage CNG Fuel T05 -NG01, WGL-DC, Interruptible acct # 120000030003 (indicated on Bid as firm and is not), last bid we were told account was closing Dec23. Is it still closing? If so, why is it on this Bid which is to start Jan24?

Answer 10: The customer still expects this account to close in December 2023. This account was included in the Preliminary Exhibit 1 as a proxy for the new account that is expected to take its place and have similar requirements. Additional information on the new account will be provided in the Exhibit 1 files.

11. Can the GSA clarify if they intend to pay within 10 days as seen in FAR 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions (page 27) or 30 days as stated in the FAR 32.9 Prompt Payment Act (page 4).

Answer 11:The clause on Page 27 of the solicitation has been updated to reference the 30th day. This update has been highlighted in the updated solicitation document.

12. Can the GSA confirm that if an account is on Pricing Product I they do not qualify for the Material Change clause in A.19 (page 7)?

Answer 12: Confirmed. See Section A.19 which clearly states the section only applies to accounts under Pricing Product II. Usage changes for accounts under Pricing Product I will be handled in accordance with the variance percentage provided for the account in the Exhibit 1 files.

13. The NASA account on Monument Pipeline had a custom pricing product last solicitation, does the GSA expect to utilize similar customization this year?

Answer 13: GSA does not have an answer at this time as we are still working with NASA to determine the requirements that will be included in the FY23 auctions. Once determined, the specifics will be provided in the Exhibit 1 files.

14. Can the GSA expand upon what is considered a “proof of gas purchases” and “proofs of payment or settlement statements” for section A.12?

Answer 14: Documentation the clearly shows the volumes of gas purchased and/or sold as well as the price(s) the gas was purchased and/or sold at.

15. What will be the legal entity name on the accounts? Need for accurate invoicing.

Answer 15: The Exhibit 1 files will clearly identify the end-use agency who is responsible for paying the invoices for each included account. The NGAP account manager listed for each account in the Exhibit 1 file will assist the winning Contractor in coordinating with the end-use agency POC(s) to get billing and payment information for each account.

16. What “Code” and “Facility Code” is needed on line 17a of the first page of the solicitation?

Answer 16: Offerors should include their SAM Unique Entity ID Number in the Code box. Offerors should leave the Facility Code box blank.

17. When will updated Exhibit 1 be received?

Answer 17: GSA plans to release the first Exhibit 1 in the mid-May timeframe for early June auctions and updated Exhibit 1s will be released as new auction events are scheduled.

18. For Section E (Representations), it states that we can just complete Paragraph B if we have recently completed our SAM Registration. There is nothing to complete/fill in within the Paragraph B, so how is this documented/designated as our option to use for the Section E requirements?

Answer 18: Per Section C.3 and the Technical Proposal Checklist, Offerors only to need to provide Representations and Certifications as part of their technical proposal submittal if they are not in the offeror’s System for Award Management (www.sam.gov) profile.

19. A.13 Load Changes During the Term of the Contract- reduction of natural gas loads. If a company is awarded a 60-month contract and 15 months after, the government/customer has decided to put in solar panels instead of using natural gas, what would be the minimum notice time for the government/customer to tell the awarded company? I.e. If the awarded company secure a supply strip for the awarded term and the government/customer decides to transition to solar during the awarded contract, what happens?

Answer 19: The customer will make their best effort to give plenty of notice of any load changes however, the Federal Government will not be penalized in any way for pursuing any projects that reduce natural gas load requirements except as expressly detailed under Section B, FAR 52.212-4, as tailored for this contract. Additionally, the Government does not see a scenario where solar electric generation would materially impact a facilities natural gas requirements.

20. When will the exhibit be released that has monthly volume data and additional information?

Answer 20: GSA plans to release the first Exhibit 1 in the mid-May timeframe for early June auctions and updated Exhibit 1s will be released as new auction events are scheduled.

21. Pricing product I or Pricing product II per line account are not listed in the preliminary exhibit, will it be in the Exhibit 1?

Answer 21: Yes.

22. Can you explain what the size standard means in box 10 on the SF 1449. On the pre-bid call this was quickly covered as a way to decide if a company needs to do a small business subcontracting plan, but I didn’t fully understand.

Answer 22: The NAICS code in Box 10 is 221210 (Natural Gas Distribution) and the size standard listed is 1000 employees. This means that Offerors with less than 1000 employees do not need to submit a small business subcontracting plan. Offerors with more than 1000 employees will need to submit a small business subcontracting plan.

23. Would the accounts be willing to add OFO (Operational Flow Order) language to the package?

Answer 23: The GSA solicitation addresses Operational Flow Orders. No additional language regarding OFOs will be included in any awarded contracts.