NWS-CR Geothermal HVAC Conversions

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO) Eastern Acquisition Division (EAD) located in Kansas City, Missouri awarded a contract on the basis of other than full and open competition in support of theNational Weather Service (NWS) Central Region Headquarters (CRH) located in Kansas City, Missouri. The award is a five-year indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) firm-fixed price contract to Control Technology & Solutions, L.L.C., hereafter referred to as CTS. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-1 entitled, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. 

The NWS Central Region comprises of thirty-eight (38) offices within fourteen (14) states and has been converting conventional HVAC systems into geothermal ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems under multiple CTS contracts since 2014. To date, the NWS-CRH has invested a large sum in geothermal GSHP work to CTS, with the last contract being WC-133W-16-CQ-0048. That contract was competitively awarded as a five (5) year small-business set-aside, design-build requirement on September 16, 2016, with a ceiling amount of $9,900,000.00. Therein and similiar to this action, the scope encompasses a specifically designed HVAC enhancement to maximize energy conservation, for which CTS provides proprietary designs including a specialized geo-thermal well field, internal heat recovery unit, and a customized BAS control system that interfaces between the NWS-CRH server located in Kansas City, Missouri and all associated NWS WFOs. This customized BAS control system containing CTS proprietary software, accessed through the NWS centralized server, is the main access point to diagnosing and servicing the numerous NWS systems in operation. When system issues arise, CTS provides diagnosing technical support via a remote server control located within their own headquartered facility. This support occurs by the NWS providing limited access to environmental server controls only, without access to overall NWS-CRH server mainframe controls. This is noted as CTS engineers and technicians performing the work are vetted through the contract and must comply with Governmental information technology (IT) security requirements. Throughout the contract, CTS has provided this 24/7 hourly support and HVAC maintenance inspection requirements under warranty coverages. This requirement will continue and complete all NWS Central Region geothermal HVAC replacements. CTS is the only source capable of providing these critical HVAC replacements due to the previously discussed designed control systems integrated throughout the NWS-CRH Weather Forecasting Offices. 

Awarded contract 1305M221DNWWR0030 to Control Technology & Solutions L.L.C. for 9900000.00 on 2021-09-17.