Preproposal Conference for Solicitation No. SB1341-09-RP-0070 - July 1 2009.ppt

Preproposal Conference Solicitation No. SB134109RP0070

July 1, 2009

Segment I – Introductions of Government personnel

Segment II – Overview of NIST Smart Grid Program

George W. Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, NIST

Segment III – Overview of Acquisition Strategy and Solicitation No. SB134109RP0070

Joseph L. Widdup, Contracting Officer, Acquisition Management Division, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, NIST (assisted by NIST Smart Grid staff)

Segment IV – Questions and Answers Relating to Solicitation No. SB134109RP0070

Closing Remarks – Joseph L. Widdup

Agenda

Introduction to the NIST Smart Grid Program

George W. Arnold, Eng.Sc.D.

National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability National Institute of Standards and Technology

NIST’s Role

Leadership Perspectives

NIST Plan

Under Title XIII, Section 1305 of EISA, NIST has

“primary responsibility to coordinate development of a framework that includes protocols and model standards for information management to achieve interoperability of smart grid devices and systems…”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided additional funding through the Department of Energy to implement Section 1305 of EISA

NIST intends to use a portion of these funds to accelerate the development of the interoperability framework and model standards

This contract represents a portion of that effort.

Participants

Chaired by Secretaries Locke and Chu ~ 35 CEOs and senior executives from utilities, manufacturers, IT providers ~ 12 CEOs of standards bodies and associations ~ 5 state public utility commissioners FERC and FCC

Objectives

Convey Administration expectations Describe NIST program and announce initial results Engage CEOs in dialog to elicit industry views Secure CEO commitment

We need to move faster – it can be done!

There is a lot more low-hanging fruit to be picked

Where new standards are needed

Set aggressive timetables Dedicate resources to get the job done Think months, not years to develop standards The internet process is a model

Consensus does not mean unanimity

Not every view can be accommodated

At some point a decision has to be made and we move on

SG investments being made now cannot be ignored

Standards are just catching up to deployment

Standards need to allow for innovation

Foundational standards that would be costly to change are most urgently needed

Performance-based rather than design specifications

Do not over-specify; allow for new applications and technology change

Open standards are essential

Today’s regulatory assumptions may have to evolve

Like telecom

Standards need to allow for rapid technology change

PHASE ONE

Recognize a set of initial existing consensus standards and develop a roadmap to fill gaps (Part of Contract No. SB1341-09-CN-0031)

PHASE TWO

Establish Standards Panel to provide ongoing recommendations for new/revised standards to be recognized by NIST (Part of Solicitation No.

SB1341-09-RP-0070)

PHASE 3 THREE

Testing and Certification Framework (Part of Solicitation No.

SB1341-09-RP-0070)

March September

Open, participative process – 80% of electric grid is owned and operated by private sector

Utilities recognize need for speed, but want a systematic, not ad hoc process

Standards should be developed by private sector standards bodies, with NIST coordination

Standards are necessary but not sufficient – testing and certification regime is essential

Launch Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Panel by Year End 2009

Representation from all stakeholder groups

Administered by private sector organization

RFP SB1341-09-RP-0070 posted on FedBizOpps on June 19, 2009

Functions:

Evolve Roadmap

Recommend new/revised standards for inclusion in NIST interoperability framework

Monitor implementation

Standards Needed but Work Can Begin

Conformance Testing Framework

NIST to assist in organizing the framework Members of eco-system are the ones who will be running this

Cyber security may be more government led

Umbrella Organization to Coordinate Conformance Testing

May be part of the Smart Grid Standards Panel or a new group Almost 20 initial standards Many other identified after second smart grid workshop 15 SDO’s identified thus far May need to prioritize test cases and develop a phased plan Does Industry Want a Product Certification Program Framework Organization may provide certification coordination

Leverage Standards Testing Programs

Will not duplicate

Need to Identify Existing Gaps

Some SDOs do not write test cases

Many SDOs do not define overall test programs

What Type of Testing

Validation Process to Confirm Test Cases

Protocol Testing

Inter-Op Testing

Self Testing Eventually?

Contractor will be responsible for performing requirements identified in Solicitation No. SB1341-09-RP-0070

Interact with COTR and, as applicable, their designees as necessary for all matters for which responsibility is delegated by the Contracting Officer to the COTR

Contractor’s Project Manager will be invited to attend NIST-sponsored meetings about matters that may impact requirements for the Contractor

The Contractor may be asked to meet periodically with the Contracting Officer or their designee (Contract Specialist) to ensure that NIST is meeting its obligations under the contract, to discuss any performance issues that warrant discussion at that time, and to encourage open dialogue between the Contractor and NIST

Role of Contractor (Phases Two and Three)

Significant market research conducted, including sources sought notice in FedBizOpps, to ascertain appropriate acquisition strategy

Market research showed that this acquisition should not be conducted as a small business set-aside

This acquisition is being solicited as a non-commercial service using procedures set forth in FAR Part 15, Contracting by Negotiation; Base period of six months, one option period for six months and one option period for twelve months

Unrestricted full and open competition – all responsible sources may be considered

All Offerors that are not small businesses under NAICS Code 813920 must submit Small Business Subcontracting Plan with their proposal

This acquisition will result in a nonpersonal services contract as defined at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 37.101

“Nonpersonal services contract” means a contract under which the personnel rendering the services are not subject, either by the contract’s terms or by the manner of its administration, to the supervision and control usually prevailing in relationships between the Government and its employees.

Contractor must supervise and be responsible for its own employees and subcontractors

Uniform Contract Format set forth in FAR Subpart 15.204-1

Content of Sections B through J will also become part of awarded contract; Sections K, L and M apply only to solicitation and will not be included in the contract

Coverage of each solicitation section

Special emphasis in the following slides for Section C, Section I clauses dealing with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, some Section L provisions and Section M

Requirement 1a: The Contractor shall provide a Comprehensive Work Plan. The Work Plan shall provide a written description of the proposed process and strategy for performing and fulfilling the requirements and deliverables of the contract. The Work Plan shall describe project activities, task prioritization, resource requirements, including person hours by task; interim milestones to achieve deliverables; interdependencies and intersections with other activities and risk mitigation strategies.

Requirement 1b: The Contractor shall attend a Start-of-Work Meeting at NIST in Gaithersburg, MD within 1 week of the effective date of the contract. At this meeting, the contractor shall be prepared to present and discuss its Comprehensive Work Plan.

Deliverable 1: If directed by the COTR, the Contractor shall provide a revised Comprehensive Work Plan within 5 work days of the Start-of-Work Meeting

Deliverable 2a: Within 1 week of the Start-of-Work Meeting, the Contractor shall provide the SGP Development Plan and SGP and Governance Board charters. The charters shall include: (1) charge, (2) scope, (3) bylaws, (4) general operating procedures and structures, and (5) a provision for allowing each defined stakeholder group (as described in C.2.1) to elect two representatives to the Governance Board. The SGP Development Plan shall include: (1) a membership development plan with strategy addressing the need for balanced representation among stakeholders, (2) a list of relevant Smart Grid stakeholders, and (3) an implementation schedule.

Deliverable 2b: Within 3 days of receipt of COTR’s comments on Deliverable 2a, the Contractor shall provide a revised SGP development plan that addresses those comments.

Deliverable 2c: The Contractor shall present electronic copy of final SGP Development Plan to SG stakeholders by August 25, 2009.

Requirement 3: (1) The Contractor shall organize and facilitate the First SGP Meeting co-located with Grid Interop 2009 (Grid Interop 2009 will be held in Denver, CO, with the SGP meeting to be held on November 17, 2009). Invited attendees shall include the SG stakeholders but shall also be open and advertised to the general public. (2) The Contractor shall arrange logistical operations for the First SGP Meeting, including but not limited to: (a) Meeting facilities; (b) necessary audio/visual equipment and wireless Internet access; (c) publicity for Meetings; and (d) handouts for the Meetings. (3) The agenda at that meeting shall include the following logistical matters: (a) the acceptance of the charge, scope, bylaws, and general operating procedures for both the SGP and the Governance Board; (b) Election of officers for the SGP and members of the Governance Board; (c) establishment of working groups within the SGP and distribution of agreed-upon work assignments, e.g., which working group is responsible for what Smart Grid environments and interfaces; agreement on liaisons to SDO committees and stakeholder communications; and a plan for addressing the roadmap.

Deliverable 3: The Contractor shall provide an electronic report for the first SGP Meeting to the COTR within 5 workdays of the first SGP Meeting. This report shall include but not be limited to: (1) final agenda and related events (2) the final approved charge, scope, bylaws, and operating procedures, (3) a list of elected SGP officers and elected Governance Board members, (4) a list of attendees and their affiliations, and (5) a discussion, based on the Contractor’s technical expertise, of outcomes and unresolved issues.

Requirement 4: The Contractor shall organize and facilitate the remainder of SGP meetings throughout the period of performance. These meetings shall be co-located at other SG-related venues, when appropriate. These meetings shall be held to achieve the goals of the SGP as described in Requirement 2. For all SGP Meetings, Invited attendees shall include the current SGP members and SG stakeholders but shall also be open and advertised to the general public. In addition, the Contractor shall arrange logistical operations for all SGP Meetings, including but not limited to: (a) Meeting facilities; (b) Meeting minutes; (c) necessary audio/visual equipment and wireless Internet access; (d) publicity for Meetings; and (e) handouts for the Meetings. The SGP shall meet monthly.

Deliverable 4: The Contractor shall provide report on each SGP Meeting to the COTR within 5 workdays of each SGP Meeting. This report shall include at a minimum: (1) a final agenda and related events, (2) a list of attendees and their affiliations, and (3) a discussion, based on the Contractor’s technical expertise, of outcomes and unresolved issues.

Requirement 5: (1) The Contractor shall organize and facilitate the Governance Board Meetings throughout the period of performance. For all Governance Board Meetings, the invited attendees shall include current members of the Governance Board and other SG stakeholders, but shall also be open and advertised to the general public. (2) The Contractor shall arrange logistical operations for all Governance Board Meetings, including but not limited to: (a) Meeting facilities; (b) Meeting minutes; (c) necessary audio/visual equipment and wireless Internet access; (d) publicity for Meetings; and (e) handouts for the Meetings. The Governance Board shall meet monthly.

Deliverable 5: The Contractor shall provide an electronic report on each Governance Board Meeting to the COTR within 5 workdays of each SGP Meeting. This report shall include at a minimum: (1) final agenda and related events; (2) a list of attendees and their affiliations; and (3) a discussion, based on the Contractor’s technical expertise, of outcomes and unresolved issues.

Requirement 6. The Contractor shall develop an Integration Plan for integrating the NIST Domain Expert Working Groups (DEWG’s) and Coordination Task Groups (CTG’s) into SPG Working Groups (SPG WG’s) and SG CTG’s. After approval from the Governance Board and review by the COTR, the Contractor shall implement the plan.

Deliverable 6: The Contractor shall provide the Integration Plan to the COTR by August 25, 2009.

Requirement 7: The Contractor shall provide and implement a plan for organizing and supporting the WG’s and CTG’s that includes the facilitation and coordination of WG and CTG meetings, email correspondence, meeting minutes, preparation of documents, maintenance of registration lists, upkeep of the SGP wiki collaboration website and tools, coordination among WG’s and CTG’s, and other support activities. T he WG and CTG meetings shall meet via teleconferences as deemed necessary by WG and CTG chairs. The WG’s and CTG’s shall hold one face-to-face meeting every six months. These face-to-face meetings shall be co-located with an organized SG/interoperability conference or meeting. The first meeting shall be held no later than December 15, 2009.

Requirement 8: The Contractor shall develop and maintain a public website for all SGP related activity, including WG/CTG outputs as completed. The Contractor may use a NIST external wiki site for this purpose.

Requirement 9: The Contractor shall implement, maintain and update the publicly accessible Interoperability Knowledge Base (IKB) that is the repository of the use case narratives, standards, SDO information, and other information to support long-range standards gap analysis and standards development. The Contractor shall use the IKB Vision Statement as a guide to implementation. This Statement is found on the NIST Smart Grid Interim Roadmap Collaboration Web wiki site.

Requirement 10: (1) At least every three months, the Contractor, based on its technical expertise, shall revise the SG Interoperability Standards Roadmap with guidance and input from the SGP, the SPG WG’s and the SG CTG’s. The Contractor shall use the most recent version of the SG Interoperability Standards Roadmap and the most recent version of the NIST Identified Smart Grid Standards. Each revision shall be a document that:

provides a thorough description of all duplications, overlap, or competition among standards for the relevant Smart Grid use cases;

identifies and thoroughly describes the appropriate standards development organizations (SDOs) or other organizations that can address the standards gaps; and develops a timetable for addressing the identified standards gaps.

Each revision shall extend the plan for addressing standards gaps and harmonization while capturing progress to date. Each Roadmap revision shall be developed and labeled in a sequential format (e.g., Smart Grid Interoperability Roadmap version 1.0).

Each revision shall extend the plan for addressing standards gaps and harmonization while capturing progress to date. Each Roadmap revision shall be developed and labeled in a sequential format (e.g., Smart Grid Interoperability Roadmap version 1.0).

Deliverable 10: The Contractor shall provide a revised SG Interoperability Standards Roadmap to the COTR on a regular basis; the frequency of the revisions shall depend on the amount of updated material that warrants a revision, as determined necessary by the COTR, but no less than every three months.

Requirement 11: The Contractor shall set up the framework for conformity assessment that will ensure that that the relevant SG standards and requirements are being met The Contractor shall identify areas where conformity assessment activities can facilitate the implementation of the SG. Included shall be a framework and process to determine which standards for the SG will be required to be tested and how they will be tested. The Contractor shall demonstrate consideration of how the conformance testing will fit into an overall certification program to ensure product and system interoperability for smart grid products/systems.

Deliverable 11: The Contractor, based on its technical expertise, shall develop a report outlining the conformity assessment requirements that reflect the needs of federal, state, and local governments, utilities, and other relevant SG stakeholders. The report shall include, at a minimum, a framework/process to:

Provide and overall communication plan related to the SG Conformance/Certification Program;

Define what organization(s) and structure will define SG standards required to go through conformance testing, and include the Contractor’s recommendations and the basis for those Contractor recommendations;

Define how the approved SG standards will be selected for conformance testing, including draft recommendations to be brought into an open forum structure for consideration with justifications;

Provide recommendations pertaining to consideration for the overall certification framework structure, definition and process for which the conformance testing will be a sub-set. Also, provide recommendations pertaining to the consideration of (i) fee based system to ensure self funding for the organization(s) overseeing certification and conformance testing and (b) risk vs. cost and timing to complete certification.

Define structure for the organization(s) which will write test purposes and test cases;

Determine who writes test scripts;

Select labs and how conformance testing will be performed, including lab requirements (considerations to be given to protocol conformance testing and inter-op testing and open market system for labs);

Suggest how test labs would be compensated.

The Contractor shall provide this deliverable to the COTR no later than Dec. 17, 2009.

Requirement 12: The Contractor shall develop, test, and evaluate implementation guidelines for the standards identified by the most recent SG Interoperability Standards Roadmap, including applicability criteria and adherence tests. The Contractor shall provide a thorough description of issues involved in implementing each selected standard, how to select the standard that applies to a given scenario, and how to verify correct implementation and use of the standards.

Requirement 13: The Contractor shall facilitate the acceleration of SG standards development and harmonization as identified by the SG Roadmap, through the following tasks: (1) hosting standards committees/working groups meetings; (2) serving on standards committees/working groups as SGP liaisons; (3) developing reference implementations of standards for validation of standards; and (4) developing conformance and interoperability testing tools.

Requirement 14: The Contractor shall develop a business plan for a self-sustaining standards harmonization process, including cost/revenue projections over a 6-year period. As part of the business plan, the Contractor shall include the appropriate organizational and operational constructs that underpin a sustainable business model.

Deliverable 14: The Contractor shall provide the Business Plan to the COTR no later than December 17, 2009.

Requirement 15: The Contractor shall develop and implement an action plan to address SG interoperability issues that arise during the term of the contract.

Deliverable 15: The Contractor shall provide a proposed action plan, including proposed deliverables, to the COTR for approval within 5 working days after notifying the COTR that an issue has arisen.

Unique Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) clauses for ARRA-funded acquisitions:

Clause I.28 (52.203-15)

Clause I.31 (52.204-11); and

Clause I.33 (52.215-2 Alternate I)

These clauses apply because this acquisition is funded by an ARRA appropriation.

Provision L.2 indicates, among other things, that:

“The Government intends to evaluate proposals and award a contract without discussions with offerors (except clarifications as described in FAR 15.306(a)). Therefore, the offeror's initial proposal should contain the offeror's best terms from a cost or price and technical standpoint. The Government reserves the right to conduct discussions if the Contracting Officer later determines them to be necessary. If the Contracting Officer determines that the number of proposals that would otherwise be in the competitive range exceeds the number at which an efficient competition can be conducted, the Contracting Officer may limit the number of proposals in the competitive range to the greatest number that will permit an efficient competition among the most highly rated proposals.”

Provision L.5 provides detailed instructions for how to construct and submit proposal – follow those instructions closely

Provisions M.1 and M.2 indicate how the Government will evaluate proposals.

Provision M.1 indicates the importance of the evaluation factors for award and how important they are in relation to one another.

Provision M.2 indicates that the total evaluated price will include the price of the option periods

Any changes to the solicitation will be made only by an Amendment issued by the Contracting Officer on a Form SF-30; one or more Amendments will be posted on FedBizOpps where the solicitation is posted. Monitor FedBizOpps frequently for Amendments to Solicitation No. SB1341-09-RP-0070.

Offerors shall acknowledge each issued Amendment, either by signing each issued Amendment (SF-30 cover page) and including it in the proposal or simply by acknowledging the Amendments in their cover letter in their Volume I proposal.

Questions will be answered informally during this preproposal conference. However, please send all questions by email to joseph.widdup@nist.gov by July 2, 2009 so that formal responses to those questions can be drafted and thereafter posted in an Amendment to the solicitation.