FY 23 Statement of Work - Argus Natural Gas.pdf

Statement of Work (SOW) Argus Media (Argus)

Background:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil.

FERC's Mission is to ensure reliable, efficient, and sustainable energy for consumers. Fulfilling this mission involves pursuing two primary goals:

• Ensure that rates, terms and conditions are just, reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential.

• Promote the development of safe, reliable and efficient energy infrastructure that serves the public interest.

In an effort to support the first goal, the Commission protects consumers through market oversight and surveillance; assuring compliance with tariffs, rules, regulations, and orders; detecting, auditing, and investigating potential violations; and developing and formulating policies and regulations to address emerging issues. The Commission employs various methods in these activities, including:

-Developing surveillance procedures to detect potential manipulation, anticompetitive behavior, and other anomalous activity.

-Identifying potential subjects of nonpublic investigations.

-Analyzing trading and other complex data related to manipulation or other improper conduct.

-Analyzing long-term electric market trends.

-Issuing, coordinating, and developing proposed policy reforms to address emerging issues affecting wholesale and interstate electric energy markets.

-Reviewing index data used to set rates in jurisdictional tariffs.

Argus provides proprietary natural gas index pricing information for next-day and next-month physical natural gas markets. As a part of the Commission’s routine tariff review, Commission staff must analyze the liquidity of natural gas price index references in Commission jurisdictional tariffs.1 Natural gas price indices referenced in Commission tariff filings must be provided by Commission-approved index developers.2 Argus has previously received Commission approval and is currently seeking Commission re-approval for its indices to be referenced Commission-jurisdictional tariffs.3 In order for the Commission to

1 Price Index Order, 109 FERC ¶ 61,184 at Ordering Para. (D) (citing Initial Policy Statement, 104 FERC ¶ 61,121 at P 33).

2 Id. at P 39.

3 The Commission issued its Revised Policy Statement in April 2022 which modified the Commission’s price index policy so that each previously approved natural gas price index developer should seek re-approval from the Commission every seven years to demonstrate that evaluate potential Argus price index references in Commission tariffs, it most procure historical next-day and next-month (Bidweek) pricing information from Argus in a database format.

Scope

The Commission is seeking natural gas pricing information from Argus in a database format.

Objectives

The Commissions expect natural gas pricing data to be easily accessible, accurate, and in a format useable by Commission staff.

Tasks

Argus Media Web API allows content subscribers to retrieve data for integration in their own custom applications. It is also possible to retrieve all the data available from argusmediagroup.com through the API. The Web API is implemented through .NET web service architecture and is easily used from .NET client applications. Argus will grant the Commission access to its Web API allow Commission staff to connect its software to directly download natural gas pricing information from the WebAPI (as specified in “Argusmedia.com Web API Specification” guide Version 5.03 Oct 5, 2022). Argus will also provide a data dump of historical pricing information as needed.

Delivery

· The Vendor shall ensure high uptime and availability to the data, except for routine maintenance and outages attributed to 3rd party failures.

· The Vendor shall provide FERC both front-end and back-end access to the solution.

· Front-end access shall be via web interface

· Back-end access shall enable direct access to data assets via a robust solution capable of modern automation such as an API

· The back-end solution must be capable of efficient large query runs using modern languages. FERC staff will develop and submit any queries, while the the price index developer meets all or substantially all of the price index developer standards.

See Actions Regarding the Commission’s Policy on Price Index Formation and Transparency, and Indices Referenced in Natural Gas and Electric Tariffs, 179 FERC ¶ 61,036, at P 76 (2022) (Revised Policy Statement).

Vendor must ensure that the solution is sufficiently robust to process submitted queries.

o Examples of queries include:

i. All next-day natural gas indices

ii. All next-month (Bidweek) natural gas indices

The Vendor shall support a dedicated, high-speed, and encrypted connection utilizing a secure connection approved by FERC’s CIOO so that query results are quickly transmitted to the Commission. Please note that this security requirement is subject to data communications security requirements provided by OMB/NIST and may change to a more stringent standard at a future date. This connection should enable transfer of any query results to the Commission.

The Vendor is encouraged to provide all relevant technical specifications of the solutions that will support FERC’s use.

The Vendor shall provide the following:

-Historical data dump of physical natural gas or electric indices for next-day and next-month markets (if applicable).

-Daily data feeds of next-day indices and monthly data feeds of next-month (Bidweek) indices.

-Data should include: hub name, transaction date, flow date, weighted average price, volume, deal count, counterparty count (if applicable).

Government-Furnished Property

N/A

Security Requirements

A security clearance is not required in performance of this effort.

Information made available to the contractor by the Government for the performance or administration of this effort shall be used only for those purposes and shall not be used in any other way without the written agreement of the Contracting Officer. The contractor agrees to assume responsibility for protecting the confidentiality of Government records, which are not public information. Each contractor or employee of the contractor whom information may be made available or disclosed shall be notified in writing by the contractor that such information may be disclosed only for a purpose and to the extent authorized herein.

Place of Performance

Argus Media and Commission Locations.

SOW Format: Period of Performance Base Period - 12 months from contract award.

Option Period I - 12 months from the end of the based period Option Period II - 12 months from the end of option period I Option Period III - 12 months from the end of option period II Option Period IV -12 months from the end of option period III

General quality measures, as set forth below, will be applied to each work product received from the contractor under this statement of work:

-Accuracy: Work Products shall be accurate in presentation, technical content, and adherence to accepted elements of style.

-Clarity: Work Products shall he clear and concise. Any/ All diagrams shall be -Easy to understand and be relevant to the supporting narrative.

-Consistency to Requirements: All work products must satisfy the requirements of this statement of work.

-File Editing: All text and diagrammatic files shall be editable by the Government.

-Format: Work products shall be submitted in hard copy (where applicable) and in media mutually agreed upon prior to submission. Hard copy formats shall follow any specified Directives or Manuals.

-Timeliness: Work Products shall be submitted on or before the due date specified in this statement of work or submitted 'in accordance with a later scheduled date determined by the Government.