Redacted LSJ.pdf

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

FOR A BPA EXCEEDING

THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

(AUTHORITY: FAR 8.405-6)

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

1. Agency and contracting activity.

The contracting activity is the Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), Eastern Region Acquisition Division (ERAD) and the requiring activity is the National Ocean Service (NOS), Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

This is a limited source justification to award a Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) under Federal Supply Schedule (FSS), 66 II Geophysical Environmental Analysis Equipment and Services, Special Item Number (SIN) 612, Environmental Data Loggers and Communication Equipment. This FFP BPA will be awarded against OTT Hydromet Corporation’s General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule GS-07F-002DA for Sutron equipment and repair services on existing Sutron equipment. In 2015, OTT Hydromet acquired Sutron Corporation and OTT Hydromet is the sole manufacturer and provider of Sutron equipment.

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

NOS, CO-OPS, Field Operations Division requires new Sutron data collection and telemetry equipment and repairs on existing and future Sutron purchased equipment that is used for remote environmental sensing and monitoring. This equipment maintains the operational requirement to monitor, assess, and distribute tide, current, water level, meteorological, and other coastal oceanographic products and services that support NOAA’s mission of environmental stewardship, environmental assessment, and prediction. These supplies and services are proprietary to one manufacturer, OTT Hydromet.

The placement of a BPA consisting of one (1) twelve (12) month base year with four (4) twelve (12) month option years is anticipated.

4. Authority and supporting rationale. The following circumstance justifies limiting the source as supported below:

Only one source under the authority of FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) - Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

To accomplish its mission, CO-OPS utilizes a network of environmental monitoring stations of which Data Collection Platforms (DCPs) are an integral part of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) Data Collection System (DCS). The DCS enables a large variety of environmental data to be relayed from point sources through GOES and back to Earth from where this data is disseminated to the various system end users. DCPs can be on land, sea, or mobile based. The DCPs are configured to collect averaged water levels, meteorological, and water quality observations on six (6) minute intervals and transmit data via NOAA’s GOES every six (6) minutes.

In addition to the six (6) minute observations, the coastal systems are configured to collect one (1) minute and fifteen (15) second averaged water level observations in support of the NOAA Tsunami Program.

There are currently over 210 tide stations in the National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) and over 400 stations in support of the Physical Oceanography Real-Time System (PORTS), National Currents Observation Program (NCOP), and other special products and real-time navigational support within the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, Caribbean, and in coastal areas of Alaska. Each station is equipped with a DCP that is comprised of various Sutron components. In order to maintain standardization and efficiency, CO- OPS utilizes Sutron equipment throughout all NWLON, PORTS, NCOP, and partner observatories.

Compatibility with existing systems and system components is critical to meet mission needs.

Using another manufacturer’s sensors or system components would necessitate extensive system integration that would be required to install non-brand specific sensors in over 600 stations in the NWLON, PORTS, NCOP, and other observatory systems. Sensor and instrumentation compatibility and interchangeability are critical to the operations and maintenance of the systems, which helps to ensure that the data gathered at the observatories is suitable for real-time dissemination, post analysis, assessment, and use in updating tidal datum, currents tables, and navigational charts. Furthermore, the system interoperability helps to ensure robust and reliable operations, and reduces the cost of maintenance through ease of replacement and component upgrade. For these reasons, at this time, only Sutron components can meet the needs of the Government. CO-OPS long-standing standardization of this equipment is critical to the continued data reliability and data quality that support NOAA’s Tides and Currents Mission.

Additionally, purchasing new sensors or system components from a manufacturer other than OTT Hydromet Corporation would require the added acquisition of new test and diagnostic equipment, along with spare components for the equipment throughout the NWLON, PORTS, and NCOP observatories. Further Government resources would need to be allocated for the testing, approval, acceptance, and interfacing of the new equipment with existing equipment. When introducing a new sensor technology into a pre-existing operational ocean observatory, it is critical to complete a series of thorough and rigorous testing in order to fully understand how the sensors will perform over the wide range of environmental conditions experienced at field locations. Tests are performed to ensure the quality of the data and the durability of the equipment.

The testing is completed by the CO-OPS Ocean Systems

Test and Evaluation Program (OSTEP). OSTEP provides quantifiable and defensible justifications for the use of existing sensors and methods for selecting new systems. This facilitation of new equipment requires additional time and resources testing, preparation, and installation.

In addition, CO-OPS specific ingestion and processing software would require updates for use with any non-Sutron, vendor specific (proprietary) data formatting protocols. This software development would include GOES formatting to the CO-OPS standard message format, a critical component of data ingestion using the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) data telemetry system. Data ingestion formatting alone would be anticipated to take up to twelve (12) months and over 1,600 staffing resource hours to complete and prep for operational use.

Based on the above information, it is not in the best interest of the Government to purchase new sensors. The depth of testing requirements and resources needed for integration of any new component into the network of environmental monitoring stations is too great. Integration sensors with the current equipment being utilized is estimated to cost over three million dollars in testing, labor, and training. To completely replace the systems currently used to collect data for CO-OPS, the total cost for equipment, training, and labor would cost approximately fifteen million dollars.

Compatibility with existing systems and system components is essential to meet mission needs;

therefore, only OTT Hydromet Corporation can meet the needs of the Government.

5. Determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

GSA has already determined the prices of supplies fair and reasonable. Therefore, ordering activities are not required to make a separate determination of fair and reasonable pricing. However, in accordance with FAR 8.404(d) and 8.405-2(d) the Contracting Officer will conduct a price evaluation in order to determine the pricing is reasonable and provides the best value. In addition, in accordance with FAR 8.405-4, the Contracting Officer will seek additional discounts prior to placing the call order.

6. Market research conducted among schedule holders (or reason market research was not conducted).

Market research was conducted by the requiring activity and contracting activity by reviewing the acquisition history and review of similar sensors and equipment offered by other manufacturers. A letter was issued from OTT Hydromet Corporation that indicated they are the only manufacturer and service provider of Sutron equipment; therefore, no other manufacturer is authorized to manufacturer or perform services on Sutron equipment. Market research concluded that using another manufacturer’s sensors or system components would necessitate extensive system integration that would be required to install non-brand specific sensors in over 600 stations in the NWLON and PORTS. Sensor and instrumentation compatibility and interchangeability are critical to the operations and maintenance of the systems. This helps to ensure that the data gathered at the observatories is suitable for real-time dissemination, post analysis, assessment, and use in updating tidal datum, currents tables, and navigational charts. Furthermore, the system interoperability helps to ensure robust and reliable operations, and reduces the cost of maintenance through ease of replacement and component upgrade.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

All supporting facts have been documented herein.

8. Actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for supplies and services is made.

Any subsequent acquisition for Sutron equipment and repair services will be reviewed and market research will be conducted to consider other manufacturers that produce similar equipment. CO- OPS will review the equipment based on analysis of system performance and mission requirements.

CO-OPS undertakes a system analysis and evaluation of standardized equipment and sensors every three (3) to five (5) years and re-evaluates requirements and other manufacturer’s systems. If equipment or a sensor representing a better value to the Government that meets CO-OPS’ requirements is identified, CO-OPS will take action to begin procuring the newly identified equipment or sensor for testing and possible integration into the CO-OPS observatories. In-depth research and testing, both laboratory and field, of multiple comparable sensors and systems resulted in selecting the Sutron systems and components as the best value meeting CO-OPS requirements.

This is an ongoing effort to ensure the Government is utilizing the best systems at the best value to meet all mission requirements.