Questions_and_Answers _for_REOI_for_EAFB_Control_No.REOI-PZIOB-2024_dated 25-Apr-2024.pdf

REOI Source Sought “Questions & Answers” (Notice ID #REOI-PZIOB-2024) Page 1 of 11

Questions & Answers (Q&A) for

Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) for Edwards AFB, CA Sources Sought Notice ID # REOI-PZIOB-2024

Date of this Q&A Document: 25 Apr 2024

This document is to address the questions which the Government received and the Governments responses to those questions. The REOI Sources Sought was posted to SAM.gov on 18 Mar 2024, with the formal question submittal due date being no later than 4:00PM PDT on 12 Apr 2024 from Interested Parties. This is all Q&As received by the Government.

# Question Government Answer 1 Is this a new requirement? Or is there an incumbent contract/contractor currently performing these services? Would you be able to share the contract details (contract#, vendor name, etc..)?

This REOI is a new requirement. There is not a current incumbent contract #/contractor currently performing these services. Therefore, no details to share.

2 Is a response to this REOI a pre-requisite to qualify for the coming RFP/Q?

The current REOI is not a pre-requisite for any future Requests for Quotes/Proposals that may come out of our base. However, as noted in the REOI, the Government strongly encourages and welcomes industry responses and participation in the REOI/Industry Day etc.

3 Can the Government provide information on some of the A&E and Installation companies that have successfully supported your base and mission with projects like this in the past?

Also, since our technology is so new and disruptive, would your engineering and contractor team like to get an overview brief in a teams meeting to help them understand our disruptive energy storage technology?

The Government has not done efforts of this nature in the past, therefore there is no information to provide.

All companies are to provide information and responses in accordance with the REOI directions.

No personal Teams Calls or other one on one meetings between the Government and interested parties will be permitted. Interested Parties will be permitted to have one on one time with the Government in the Industry Day, as outlined in the

REOI.

4 What is the forecast of the growth of the expected load/power needs at EAFB over the next 10 years (20 years if available)?

EAFB current has 32 MW total peak from 3 feeds to the base.

EAFB instantaneous peak is 27MW.

For the next 10 years, there is an expected 8MW of peak growth. We do not have a 20 year forecast.

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5 What are the terms of the off-take contract with SCE and WAPA, and when do they next expire?

The purpose of the REOI is not necessarily eliminate SCE and WAPA as providers but to provide resiliency for the base. The purpose of the REOI is provide up to 2 weeks of continuous backup power for up to a 2-week grid outage. The SCE contract and WAPA contract are not releasable in the REOI. WAPA is clean cheap power, and we are committed. The terms of the WAPA contract are not releasable. SCE is not firm, but we could face stranded asset charges.

6 Does CAISO allow power to be sold back into the grid from EAFB?

The following SCE link covers your question:

CAISO Markets and Interconnection Process | Grid Interconnections | Generating Your Own Power | Your Business | Home - SCE

7 Are there interconnect/congestion issues and will they accept or penalize power generated from natural gas reciprocating engines?

Depends on location, proposal needs to be verified by SCE, local, state, and federal agencies. See response to question #6.

For example, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, OG&E installed two combustion turbines at Tinker AFB creating an electric peaking plant. This peaking plant serves two main purposes. First, this plant provides backup power as well as Electrically Islanded Operations (EIO) to the Base. During an EIO event, Tinker AFB is completely disconnected from the grid. Power is solely provided using the electric peaking plant, which maintains energy resiliency and reduces overall risk to the DAF mission as directed by DAF Instruction (DAFI) 90- 1701, Installation Energy and Water Management.

Second, OG&E routinely operates these units at peak times to maintain regional grid voltage with Tinker AFB being the first customer in line for power.

Energy lease powers MacDill AFB resilience > Air Force Materiel Command > Article Display

Air Force’s first Energy Assurance Lease signed at Tyndall AFB > Air Force > Article Display

Continued on next page.

https://www.sce.com/business/generating-your-own-power/Grid-Interconnections/The-California-Independent-System-Operator--CAISO----Wholesale-Markets https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3220926/energy-lease-powers-macdill-afb-resilience https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2837905/airforces-

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8 What is the natural gas availability, if any, to the EAFB site, in what volumes and pressures?

We do not know the natural gas pressures and availability of gas on PG&E’s system. This needs to be verified with PG&E, it would depend on location of project and project demand. The gas availability should be good, the major PG&E transmission line runs across the north edge of the base.

9 What is the hydrogen availability, if any, to the EAFB site, in what volumes and pressures?

None.

10 How can we obtain 12 months of comprehensive 15-minute interval load data for Edwards AFB?

Not releasable at this stage.

11 What insights can you share regarding the preferred Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) contract terms? How have different contract lengths historically impacted both the base and potential partners?

Contract length have traditionally been in 10–25-year range. Edwards AFB is open to various contract durations. We do not have any studies on how contract lengths have historically impacted the base and potential partners.

12 What specific criteria does the base prioritize in community engagement projects? Could you provide clarity on the essential parameters guiding these initiatives?

Community in this case is defined as teaming up with the local/state/national energy providers and utilities, not just a standalone EAFB project. The main purpose of the REOI is to provide resiliency for the base. The purpose of the REOI is provide up to 2 weeks of continuous backup power for up to a 2-week grid outage.

See:

“Metrics and Standards for Energy Resilience 20 May 2021”

13 Regarding Energy Assurance Lease (EAL) arrangements, which lease durations have proven most effective in satisfying Edwards AFB’s objectives and operational requirements?

We are looking for a EAL of at least 10 years.

14 Can you elaborate on the total acreage designated for energy projects under an Energy Assurance Lease (EAL)? How are decisions made regarding land availability on Edwards AFB?

EAFB has large areas of underutilized land. If we find interest in the EAL process from the REOI, we will release a detailed Request for Proposal (RFP).

Contractors can propose multiple locations and should not be limited to a certain area or size.

Generally, lands close to the perimeter of the base are the best locations.

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15 Please provide information about any imminent upgrades to existing infrastructure, such as electrical systems, that may impact our future planning efforts.

Not releasable at this stage.

16 Could you expand upon the available options for rooftop photovoltaic (PV) installations under Energy Assurance Lease (EAL) agreements?

EAFB is not entertaining PV rooftop installations under this REOI. This is due to the high cost of a micro grid and problems with rooftop solar as it affects roof life and repair costs.

17 Describe the factors that determine the feasibility or advisability of rooftop PV installation in specific areas of Edwards

AFB?

See Question #16 above.

18 What are the known environmental hazards, cultural artifacts, or endangered species that may affect site development and environmental compliance at Edwards

AFB?

Yes, depending on proposed area there may be environmental hazards, cultural artifact and, or endangered species. The information on these items is not releasable in the REOI phase.

See the section “Cultural statement & EIAP Statement” in the REOI

19 Provide details on the designated land areas for lay-down during the construction phase of proposed projects.

Adequate lay-down areas will be provided.

20 Please provide your current SCE rate structure and any applicable riders.

The 3 SCE fees are included in the TOU-8 rate and the riders are available on SCE.com.

SCE owns the Main Base substation which is shared with the community. AFRL and South Base substations are owned and operated by SCE and serve only Edwards. EAFB paid for the AFRL and South Base substations. EAFB pays SCE for maintenance on the AFRL and South base substations. South Base and AFRL supply electricity at a cheaper rate than the Main Base

21 Please provide your current agreement to purchase power from WAPA. Is it take or pay energy agreement?

The current WAPA agreement is not releasable.

Yes, it is a take or pay contract and EAFB is most likely not interested in eliminating the WAPA contract. The Western Area Power Authority, WAPA contact is federal hydropower, which is clean and offered at attractive price.

22 Please provide any details of your existing PPA (term, years left, current $/kWh). Is it a take or pay agreement?

The details of the existing contracts are not releasable. We pay only for the power provided.

There is approximately 8 years left on the contract.

It is a PPA for 3 MW of solar power without BESS.

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23 Are there any areas of the Government property that are strictly forbidden for development?

Yes, there are areas that are strictly forbidden. The areas are not releasable at the stage. For large project that take significant amount of land, the base perimeter would probably be the best location.

This all depends on the size and scope of the proposal.

24 Please provide additional context and detail expectations for the “solution” to be presented in this REOI stage of the opportunity – to be presented at the July 15, 2024 On-site Industry Day. With a very broad scope of option possibilities involving, for example EAFB, surrounding communities, grid infrastructure and interconnects, existing and potential relations with SCE/WAPA/Solar PPA, regulatory and policy considerations, potential REN Energy Credit opportunities, etc. – a substantial amount of effort is required researching current state details and the extensive option sets to conduct a reasonable trade study to arrive at an optimal recommended energy generation and/or energy storage solution. It will be important to clearly understand the customer requirements associated with this event in this timeline.

The government is not looking for a detailed proposal at the industry day. The government is looking for a concept solution feasibility of which we could start investigating in partnership with a contractor. The purpose of the REOI is to provide up to 2 weeks of continuous backup power for up to a 2-week grid outage.

25 Is it anticipated the EAFB energy generation and / or energy storage solution would be substantially different from approaches applied for other AF base solutions - such as Tyndall AFB, MacDill

AFB?

The government is agnostic when it comes to generation and / or energy storage solution, if the solution satisfies Federal and California legal requirements. The REOI is designed to produce a solution that fits EAFB and local community, not necessarily what has been done at other bases. It could be an extension of an existing project or an entirely new project.

26 As solution design and trade studies will require detailed knowledge of present state EAFB grid infrastructure and grid interconnect details with present utility providers, it is critical to have access to these details (schematics, models, inspection reports). When is it anticipated this information would be made available?

Who will be the interfacing parties authorized and responsible to provide this information? Are there restrictions to available information associated with EAFB that should be anticipated? Who will be the interfacing parties authorized and responsible to negotiate grid interconnect permits and opportunities with SCE?

Detailed information will be available when (or if) a Request for Proposal (RFP) is released.

Information will be released via Edwards AFB Contracting Office. Restrictions on information concerning electrical infrastructure are not anticipated. Interconnection permits and opportunities will be the responsibility of the contractor.

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27 Energy costing details for current state will be necessary – including day / seasonal rate profiles across the 3 primary generation sources (SCE/WAPA/Solar PPA). When will this information be made available?

Detailed information will be available when (or if) a Request for Proposal (RFP) is released

28 EAFB operation profiles and utility loading details (KW/VAR) will be important to understand to support a solution design.

When will this information be available? Are operation profile practice considerations included in scope for arriving at an optimal solution? For example – could there be EAFB operations that could be shifted to different time of day (and/or seasonal) to avoid peak power timeframe.

Operation profiles are not releasable at this stage.

The number one goal of the REOI is to provide backup power to the base when the grid goes down.

Edwards AFB will not be considering changes to its operations profile.

29 More clarity please on the requirement associated with 14 MW (SCE generation offset) vs 40 MW site backup with islanding capability. What duration of backup should be anticipated for EAFB? What are critical infrastructure operation power requirements and load types that must be supported? Are power quality requirement details available and will these be provided?

EAFB current has 32 MW total peak from 3 feeds to the base.

EAFB instantaneous peak is 27MW.

For the next 10 years, there is an expected 8MW of peak growth. Expected duration of backup is 24 hours/day for two weeks.

30 In addition to National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) – it will be necessary to understand any other EAFB or surrounding community induced restrictions. For example, access roads / traffic (for both installation and O&M stages), height restrictions (considering for example wind generation), landscape visuals or audible related impacts must be addressed. Is this type of information available and will this be provided or need to be captured as part of the solution trade study scope?

EAFB is looking for expressions of interest and general proposals, not a detailed design. The base is too large to include all the impacts that must be addressed. Plus, impacts would depend on actual proposed site(s).

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31 What are the infrastructure security requirements associated with this energy generation and / or energy backup facility and operation that must be considered and established?

Physical and cyber security requirements will have to meet Air Force standards. These requirements will be adequately detailed in any future Requests for Proposals (RFPs) that may be issued.

32 Are details available on how EAFB (DoD) can access carbon credits or GHG (green house gas) emission credit?

See three attached documents titled:

“DAF CFE Memo_NOV2023_Signed” “DAFI 90-1701 Installation energy and water mgt

17 DEC 2020”

“CFE DAF fact sheet 2024”

33 Considering other DoD goals to progress to SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) – should / can a solution encompass this goal and if so, what trade study weighting should be applied? For example, SAF or constituents of produced at EAFB could be leveraged for energy production.

The SAF can be part of the REOI response. We do not have any trade detailed study weighting. The purpose of the REOI is to provide up to 2 weeks of continuous backup power for up to a 2-week grid outage.

In general – considering the criticality and breadth of solution pathways – what guidelines are available / will be provided for trade study criteria weighting?

Considering, for example - energy cost (LCOE), environmental impacts, degree of resiliency, power quality, technology advancement, other – will threshold and objective level requirements be provided?

The heaviest weight will most likely be given to projects that can provide continuous backup electric power for 2 weeks during a grid outage

35 Need to confirm the power requirements. Is the Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) looking for a solution that can provide up to 40 MWe of power while the SCE grid is down and up to 13 MWe under “normal operating conditions”?

EAFB currently has 32 MW total peak from 3 feeds to the base.

EAFB current instantaneous peak is 27MW.

For the next 10 years, there is an expected 8MW of peak growth for a total of 40MW.

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36 Is there a minimum amount of power generation for the installation? Would a 2 MWe energy storage installation be of interest? or it is necessary to provide all the 40 MWe?

Based on the electric usage data provided in Table 1 of the REOI, the below chart shows the estimated average power consumption per month in 2023 at the EAFB. On a yearly average, solar generation accounts for 7% of the total, at an average power of

1.2 MW. Total yearly average power is 17

MW

See Diagram #1 after this table.

A 40 MWe energy storage system that leverages low-cost renewable electricity might require access to 100-200 MWe from the grid in the span of 4-5 hours each day.

Is there potential to access such large amounts of power?

On the other end of the spectrum, a 2 MWe energy storage system would drop the charge power requirement to approximately 10-20 MWe of electricity. Please comm

See Question #35.

We would need an instantaneous minimum of 27MW but the total peak demand billed monthly from the 3 substation is 32MW. Peaks can occur differently at each substation. We currently have a load study request out to SCE to determine what is the maximum SCE can supply during the summer at each substation. We would expect the growth to push the instantaneous demand to 35MW and the maximum billed monthly to 40MW.

37 What is the EAFB maximum import capacity? How much power can be made available to charge the energy storage system during normal operating conditions?

At what voltage?

We currently have a load study request out to SCE to determine what is the maximum MW and voltage SCE can supply during the summer at each substation.

The 3 solar system on the base could supply up to 3MW, they are in 3 locations, miles apart. EAFB does not have a microgrid. One MW of solar is located near each substation. The solar PV systems feed the base at 33 kv.

EAFB is interested in a shared community solution where the backup capacity can be utilized by the community and or energy providers, for example:

to provide power in peak times but the capacity is reserved for EAFB during a grid outage.

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38 Is there a preferred method for electrical charging of the energy storage system?

Potential options would be 1) behind-the-meter with an on-site solar PV installation or 2) by pur-chasing low-cost grid electricity during excess variable renewable generation. Please comment.

See Question #37. The government is agnostic when it comes to generation and / or energy storage solution, if the solution satisfies Federal and California legal requirements.

39 What is the current power capacity of the on-site solar power purchase agreement (PPA) mentioned in the REOI? Would it be possible to leverage this generation asset to charge the RedoxBlox energy storage system? What are the terms of the power purchase agreement (electric-ity prices in particular)?

AFRL PPA - 1 MW

Main PPA - 1 MW South Base PPA - 1 MW Edwards AFB pays $.052/kwh EAFB is interested in a shared community solution where the backup capacity can be utilized by the community and or energy providers, for example:

to provide power in peak times but the capacity is reserved for EAFB during a grid outage.

40 Since the installation is looking to offset utility grid purchases from Southern California Edison (SCE), what are the current average hourly electricity prices paid by the EAFB? Is there a power purchase agreement in place with SCE?

What are the current electricity purchase price terms?

The main purpose of this REOI is to provide electric resiliency for the base not just to offset

SCE.

There is not a PPA with SCE.

EAFB pays SCE approximately $0.22/kwh on TOU-8 rate (includes all charges such as demand, riders, transportation, etc.)

The blended rate for FY23 was $.12/kwh (WAPA, SCE and Solar).

41 Is this a fully funded project by the Government and/or EAFB? If any, what is the expected range of monetary support (in millions of U.S. Dollars) for the project?

The project is not expected to be fully funded by the Government. See response # 37 above.

Funding will depend on the resiliency benefits to EAFB. EAFB would have to justify the funding for any resulting Request for Proposal(s)(RFP) sent out in connection with interested parties REOI Response. There are currently no dollars set aside for the work which may come from this REOI.

42 What is a realistic expectation from EAFB for the project timeline? What is the planned “latest” commercial operational date for the project?

An Energy Assurance Lease (EAL) can take 3-8 years. We are looking at time frame of 3-10 years.

43 Can the EAFB share historical data of its outages? It would be of interest to know 1) time of the day of each outage, 2) duration of each outage, and 3) extent of the outage (i.e., how many MWs are missing).

Detailed EAFB distribution outages are not releasable at the stage. According to SCE, transmission outages are very rare.

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44 While the total annual consumption data in Attachment 3 is helpful, in order to better define the system requirements having time-domain power/energy (load) data for a representative day, month, season, or year would be great (i.e. 8760 energy consumption &/or power meter reading). Do you have any data of that sort you can make available? Even an approximation would be helpful.

Not releasable at the stage. Data of this nature will be provided when or if we issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) at a future time.

45 following onto #44 above, any information on planned infrastructure additions, modifications, upgrades that may change the load profile in the future would also help respondents provide you with better information.

Not releasable at the stage. Data of this nature will be provided when or if we issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) at a future time.

Attachment Name Answer # Metrics and Standards for Energy Resilience 20 May 2021 Question #12 CFE DAF fact sheet 2024 Question #32 DAF CFE Memo_NOV2023_Signed Question #32 DAFI 90-1701 Installation energy and water mgt 17 DEC 2020 Question #32

Full Link Answer # https://www.sce.com/business/generating-your-own-power/Grid- Interconnections/The-California-Independent-System-Operator-- CAISO----Wholesale-Markets

Question #6 https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article- Display/Article/3220926/energy-lease-powers-macdill-afb-resilience/ https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2837905/air-forces-first-energy-assurance-lease-signed-at-tyndall-afb/

Question #7

Links noted in answers above are provided below for reference.

Attachments noted in answers above are provided as separate PDF documents to this Q&A document. They are noted below for reference.

Diagram #1 from Question #36 is provided on the following page.

https://www.sce.com/business/generating-your-own-power/Grid-Interconnections/The-California-Independent-System-Operator--CAISO----Wholesale-Markets https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3220926/energy-lease-powers-macdill-afb-resilience https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2837905/airforces-

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