EMCS Ph 2 JA 010-22.pdf

Control No. 010-22

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

REVIEW

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

FOR:

Trend Controls System for Base-Wide Energy Management and Control System (EMCS), Thule Air Base, Greenland

25 March 2022

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Trend Controls System for Base-Wide Energy Management and Control System (EMCS), Thule Air Base, Greenland

Contract No. W912DS22B0009

1. CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), New York District (NAN), Contracting (CT), 26 Federal Plaza, New York, NY 10278.

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION:

This Justification and Approval (J&A) supports the use of brand name components in an upcoming construction project. The government will not purchase the components directly, but rather will require that offerors include the Trend Controls Systems as part of proposals submitted in response to an Invitation for Bid (IFB) solicitation that will lead to the award of a new firm-fixed-price (FFP) construction contract. USACE is responsible for the acquisition and administration of the construction of Base-Wide Energy Management and Control System (EMCS) Phase 2, at Thule Air Base, Greenland Contract No.

W912DS22B0009. Funding for this acquisition will be Unspecified Minor Military Construction. The FFP construction will be solicited and awarded as an IFB under FAR Part 14.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

The use of the brand name Direct Digital Control (DDC) system indicated in Section 2 will be required for the Base-Wide EMCS Phase 2 project. The new local DDC system provided in 62 buildings listed for this project, will be connected to, and fully integrated into the existing base wide EMCS currently installed at Thule Air Base, Greenland. The existing base wide EMCS is based on the Trend Controls Systems that are capable of remote control and monitoring the HVAC equipment and other facility related systems throughout the base.

The base wide EMCS shall be a distributed, supervised, and scalable system that would not only control and monitor the HVAC equipment and other building systems, but also provide a centralized supervisory function throughout the entire base; including but not limited to the alarm handling, trending, scheduling, and demand control for the controlled equipment and systems.

The local control system in each building will have a network/building controller and other field controllers connected to the base-wide network infrastructure to facilitate communication between the base-wide EMCS server and field controllers in the buildings. The new EMCS shall be compatible with and be fully integrated into the existing base-wide EMCS, without impairing operational function or reliability of any existing base-wide EMCS.

4. AUTHORITY CITED:

10 U.S.C. § 2304(c)(1), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements, as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(c), Application for Brand Name Descriptions. In accordance with FAR 6.302-1(c), the Contracting Officer will specify that all offerors be required to procure an item specific to one supplier (brand-name item).

5. REASON FOR AUTHORITY CITED:

A. Background:

In efforts to improve the energy savings and efficiency in system operation, the base started installing the DDC system in the buildings throughout the base and integrating local systems into the centralized base wide EMCS for remote control and monitoring capabilities. More than 100 buildings were added to the base-wide EMCS during the EMCS Phase 1 Upgrade project in 2013 and this EMCS Phase 2 Upgrade project is to add the remainder of 62 buildings into the existing base-wide EMCS.

Trend Control Systems were installed during the EMCS Phase 1 Upgrade. This system utilizes both BACnet and Trend LAN as communication protocols. However, the local systems in the buildings are mostly communicating using Trend LAN, a proprietary communication protocol provided by energy management system manufacturer, Trend Controls. In addition, the majority of existing DDC controllers installed during the Phase 1 Upgrade have been discontinued and are no longer supported by Trend Controls.

B. Justification:

Although the Phase 2 Upgrade project will utilize a BACnet as a communication protocol as much as possible, the base still requires that new DDC controllers be the latest version of Trend Controls that can communicate using both BACnet and Trend LAN so that the new DDC system being added can be seamlessly integrated into the existing EMCS network and communicate with the existing components where required.

To achieve seamless integration required in UFC 3-410-02, Direct Digital Control for HVAC, and Other Building Control Systems, and UFGS Section 25 10 10, Utility Monitoring and Control System (UMCS) Front End and Integration, the existing EMCS front-end software provided by Trend Controls shall be used to configure the new system being added and any additional software and tools provided shall be provided by Trend Controls. The base will be able to maximize utilization of existing government-licensed Trend front-end software to configure and program the controllers. Although BACnet is an open standard by ASHRAE (ASHRAE Standard

135) adopted by various control system vendors, there is no standard published for software and programming. As a result, it does not allow for configuration and programming functions to take place between different manufacturers' controllers and each manufacturer's proprietary front-end software and tools must be used to configure or change the program within the system.

By using Trend Controls Systems, it will maintain and streamline the installation of the entire system and all controllers can be programmed from a single central server instead of having a hybrid system composed of multiple servers/workstations and controllers and associated configuration/programming software from multiple vendors. Managing the systems from multiple vendors will reduce operational efficiency and increase the costs associated with installation, maintenance, and repair. Utilizing hardware products from the same vendor that produced the configuration/programming software also eliminates multi-vendor disputes regarding conflicts, standards, protocols, and/or performance characteristics.

The base will be able to avoid the significant operational burden and cost of having maintenance and engineering staff become proficient with the configuration, programming, commissioning, operation, and maintenance of controllers from different manufacturers. The base has established a standard library of graphical displays, programming and other configurations that have been implemented into the existing EMCS over the years, which reduces personnel training costs and decreases other costs related to additional equipment, maintenance, and support contracts for another manufacturer's hardware and software, as well as the maintenance of an additional parts inventory. Maintaining multiple solutions is inefficient and creates unnecessary work and overhead that increases the total costs of ownership and O&M of the system. The base also poses a unique condition that is different than other bases where the service and support from local representative of control system vendor is very limited and difficult due to a remote location.

C. Alternatives:

No viable alternatives will be acceptable to meet the mission requirements of an integrated, base-wide EMCS due to compatibility issues of the Trend Controls Systems with equipment from other manufacturers, any control system other than Trend Controls System will not be able to guarantee operational effectiveness and seamless integration of the control system to existing base-wide EMCS.

The only alternative action to ensure compatibility of a different manufacturer’s control system using BACnet with the systems used throughout Thule AB would be to remove and replace the existing proprietary sub-network (Trend LAN) currently used for field controllers in over 100 buildings with the BACnet/IP and/or BACnet MS/TP and associated field controllers. Also, a third-party, universal Human Machine Interface (HMI) software needs to be installed so that graphical displays and supervisory functions from different vendor’s software can be consolidated and integrated, which requires significant work to map all the existing control and monitoring points, configure the system and develop the graphical displays that are redundant to what is already configured in the existing base-wide EMCS. This would be a very cost prohibitive effort.

D. Impact:

If the J&A is not approved and a different control system is installed at Thule AB, the base wide EMCS would fail to provide an integrated and fully operational system that manages the control and monitoring of HVAC equipment and other facility related systems throughout the base. This could lead to the equipment failure, storm/weather damage to the facilities, increased energy and utility costs and possible interruption to the mission at Thule AB.

6. EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION:

The brand name product has been published as required by FAR 5.201, a Notice of Intent (NOI) (W912DS22S0025) to determine sources for this system was synopsized on 10 March 2022. No responses were received for the Notice of Intent. The brand name justification and approval will be posted with the solicitation. As stated in paragraph 5 above, Trend Control Systems is the only brand available to ensure compatibility within the Thule AB existing system. Trend Controls Systems are available on the open market for purchase and installation by all offerors.

7. ACTIONS TO INCREASE COMPETITION:

This J&A supports a discrete requirement that will end when the project is complete. While the procurement allows the use of open-source system protocols (Lon Works, BACnet), the remote physical location of the base combined with threatening weather most of the year means uniformity of the control systems throughout the base is of utmost importance to the infrastructure and ability to provide support to inhabitants. Additional vendor integration to existing EMCS system would increase the risks of failure and contradicts consolidation efforts to provide uniformity and reliability. The ability to get repairs in the remote location is challenging and may put inhabitants in jeopardy. Therefore, there are no planned actions to increase competition for the requirement covered by this J&A.

8. MARKET RESEARCH:

A Notice of Intent (NOI) to determine sources for this system was synopsized on 10 Mar 2022.

The NOI was published for the required 15 days on SAM.gov (W912DS22S0025). There were no responses to the NOI. Additional research was not done besides the NOI.

9. INTERESTED SOURCES:

There were no responses to the NOI posting. The solicitation will be synopsized in accordance with FAR 5.201 and responses will be evaluated per FAR Part 14.

10. OTHER FACTORS:

All pertinent facts are included above.

11. TECHNICAL CERTIFICATION:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification and approval are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge.

Name: Rafal Turek

Title: Technical Manager Signature:

12. REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification and approval are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge.

Name: Brian Packowski

Title: Military Programs Branch Project Manager Signature:

13. FAIR AND REASONABLE COST DETERMINATION:

I hereby determine that the anticipated cost or price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. This determination will be based on the Independent Government Cost Estimate, the items being procured, and historical data.

Name: Nicholas Emanuel

Title: Contracting Officer Signature:

14. CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION:

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Name: Nicholas Emanuel

Title: Contracting Officer Signature

APPROVAL

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the brand name requirement for Trend Controls, estimated at $365,000.00 in support of the Base-Wide Energy Management and Control System (EMCS) Phase 2, Project as authorized by 10 U.S.C. § 2304(c)(1), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements, and as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(c), Application for Brand Name Descriptions, subject to availability of funds and provided that the product herein described has otherwise been authorized for this acquisition.

Date: Signature:

Francis Cashman Chief, Contracting Office