QA - 1.pdf

The following questions were received by the Department of the Army (DA) in reference to Request for Proposals DACA27-1-26-102. The questions and DA’s responses are provided below.

Q.1. Are these data centers for government use or commercial use?

A.1. The Project as proposed is for commercial data center(s). Please refer to Section 3.b. of the RFP that provides “In no event shall this RFP or any EUL executed as a result of this RFP require or otherwise obligate DA to purchase any service or product from the Project. DA makes no representations regarding the Offeror(s)’ ability to secure an agreement(s) for sale and purchase of the services or products arising directly or indirectly from the Project, EUL, or the Properties.”

Q.2. What is the nature of the current electric service to the Ft. Hood site? Provider?

Voltage and current capacity? Point(s) of delivery?

A.2. Please refer to Attachment B of the RFP and questions/answers numbers 1 and 2 of the Fort Hood Industry Day QA posted on sam.gov.

Q.3. Does Fort Hood operate and maintain elements of its own electric distribution system? If so, please describe.

A.3. Fort Hood operates its own distribution network. The utilities have been privatized for water, wastewater, electric and natural gas. The privatized electric company operates at a low voltage distribution network on Fort Hood. Services may not be available from the privatized utilities to service the data center, which will require the selected Offeror to acquire utilities independent of Fort Hood.

Q.4. Are there Federal level incentives available for deploying any form of On-Site Generation (OSG)? (e.g., fuel cells, BESS, etc.) If so, please describe.

A.4. Identification of any Federal level incentives available for deploying any form of On-Site Generation would be the responsibility of the offeror as part of its due diligence and Project planning.

Q.5. What is the nature of the current natural gas service to the Fort Hood site?

Provider? Pressure and volume? Delivery point?

A.5. Please refer to Attachment B of the RFP and question/answer number 6 of the Fort Hood Industry Day QA posted on sam.gov.

Q.6. Is the Ft. Hood site subject to Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and/or Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) jurisdiction? Or, as Federal land, is the site outside of PUTC / ERCOT jurisdiction?

A.6. The location on Federal property does not normally exempt assets from state and local statutes, rules or regulations. For a previous third-party owned and operated generation project on Fort Hood, both PUCT and ERCOT procedures were followed.

Q.7. Since (entity) is the lessee and not the owner: Who signs easements to bring the utility power to the Fort Hood site? Will we need easements for the 34.5kV distribution on the campus?

A.7. Easement(s) will be required for any utility or transmission lines serving the Project(s) on the Installation(s). Easement(s) on any of the four Installations will be executed by the selected Offeror and a warranted Real Estate Contracting Officer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Any easements required by the selected Offeror off of the Installations will be the selected Offeror’s responsibility.

Q.8. Please provide KMZ / shapefiles for the boundaries of the listed parcels at the Installations.

A.8. KMZ / shapefiles for the boundaries are not available for any of the Properties.

Q.9. Please provide KMZ / shapefiles of the listed parcel encumbrances where possible at the Installations.

A.9. KMZ / shapefiles of the listed parcel encumbrances at the Installations are not available for any of the Properties.

Q.10. What restrictions, if any, would apply to the future tenants of the data center?

Would the commercial off-takers/tenants need to be vetted and approved by the DA?

A.10. Regarding access to the Installation(s), please refer to Section 2.2.16.f. of the RFP, as well as Sections 1.03(b) and 1.03(d) of Attachment H to the RFP.

Q.11. Please clarify any binding commitments for the Offeror upon receiving a Selection Notice but prior to the final execution of the BTA and final Milestone Timetable.

A.11. Please refer to Section 8 of the RFP for actions required of an offeror that receives a Conditional Selection Notice or a Selection Notice.

Q.12. If we are proposing to develop projects on multiple Installation properties, should we plan to submit separate proposal documents for each property? Or should all project plans be integrated into one consolidated RFP proposal submission?

A.12. Please refer to Amendment No. 2 of the RFP.

Q.13. Will the Installation provide mitigation lands for threatened and endangered species at no cost to lessee?

A.13. Please refer to Section 2.2.2 of the RFP that provides “The selected Offeror will also be required to comply with and implement, at its sole cost, any environmental mitigation actions affecting the Project. If any required mitigation actions significantly adversely affect the viability of the Project, DA and the selected Offeror will enter into discussions to resolve any disputes regarding the implementation of any such mitigation actions. If DA and the selected Offeror cannot resolve the disputes, DA reserves the right to terminate negotiations. Upon such termination, DA shall neither owe nor pay any fees, costs, expenses or monetary penalties to the selected Offeror for any reason(s) regarding or stemming from this Solicitation, and DA shall, at its discretion, be free to select another Offeror to further pursue the EUL and the Project, or to cancel this entire Solicitation.”

Q.14. Are there any natural gas plants planned at, on or around any of the 4 sites?

Q.14. DA cannot address this question.

Q.15. The RFP states that "Offeror(s) who choose to submit trade secrets or business-sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information shall provide two copies of the submission. The first copy should be marked “non-confidential,” with the information believed to be confidential deleted." Please confirm that "deleted" means redacted.

RFP, Section 5.C., page. 13.

A.15. In Section 5.b. of the RFP it states “Offeror(s) who choose to submit trade secrets or business-sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information shall provide two copies of the submission. The first copy should be marked

“non-confidential”, with the information believed to be confidential deleted.” The word “deleted” can be read as “redacted”.

Q.16. RFP states that "The second copy should be marked “confidential” and must clearly and conspicuously identify the trade secrets or business-sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information and must be marked as described in paragraph (c) below." Please confirm that "clearly and conspicuously identify" means to mark the page as "confidential" in the footer where trade secrets or business-sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information appears.

A.16. It would be acceptable to mark a page as “confidential” in the footer where trade secrets or business-sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information appears.

Q.17. Will the DA add a requirement for offerors to establish an initial operational data center capacity within 12 months of signing a BTA, which may include an agreed upon, interim solution?

A.17. Offerors may propose establishment of an initial operational data center capacity within 12 months of signing a BTA, which may include an agreed upon, interim solution. DA will not be revising the RFP to require such a proposal or schedule, however.

Q.18. In the event the Department of Army (DA) and Lessee agree to the provision of data center capacity as a form of in-kind contribution to the DA, will compute infrastructure installed in the commercial data be subject to BAA requirements?

A.18. Please refer to Section 2.2.9 of the RFP concerning Buy American Act.

Q.19. The RFP states the Business Terms Agreement (BTA) will include "milestones..to ensure timely execution of an EUL." Can the DA provide: (1) the number of months (or range of months, for example: "6-9 months") that would be considered "timely execution of an EUL" and (2) the desired timeframe (in range of months) for Offeror begin commercial data center operations?

A.19. Offerors should propose a timeline and milestones it believes can be achieved.

Q.20. What water sources are available at each site for construction and long-term operations, and what constraints apply under normal and drought conditions?

A.20. Please refer to Attachments B through E of the RFP for site specific information concerning utilities.

Q.21. Would DA be open to power supplied from proximate or electrically connected generating sites, or is there a strict “behind-the-meter” requirement?

A.21. The Army is interested in the most advantageous power solutions for power for both regular and outage operations as allowed by state regulation applicable to the site(s) and any existing contractual constraints.

Q.22. What incremental beyond electric power demand the projects contemplated by this RFP does each installation anticipate by 2035 (and beyond)?

A.22. Question is unclear to DA.