Hydrogen Mobile Fuelers for 40-Foot Hydrogen Fuel Cell Buses

The Orange County Transportation Authority is requesting proposals for two hydrogen mobile fuelers for 40-foot hydrogen fuel cell buses under RFP 260461, with proposals due September 15, 2026, and a hybrid pre-proposal conference and mandatory site visits scheduled for August 25–26, 2026. A Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) goal applies to this procurement.

One mobile fueler will be deployed at the Santa Ana Base and one at the Garden Grove Base. Each mobile fueler must dispense gaseous hydrogen at 350 bar (H35) to support a minimum of fifteen buses within an eight-hour window, with capacity to service up to twenty-five buses. Equipment must comply with SAE J2601-2 standards and be equipped with either a WEH TK16-HF or WEH TK25 fast-fill nozzle or approved equivalent compatible with TN1 or TN5 receptacles on New Flyer XHE40 buses. The contractor is responsible for planning, design, permitting, equipment procurement, commissioning, installation, operations, and maintenance. Monthly Fuel Purity Certificates of Conformance must verify compliance with SAE J2719 hydrogen purity standards. Offerors must attend mandatory site visits at both bases; proposals submitted by vendors who do not attend are subject to elimination. The contractor must maintain key personnel approved by OCTA and participate in weekly one-hour conference calls through commissioning, transitioning to bi-weekly or monthly updates during operations.

The contract budget is $5.872 million for a one-year initial term (January 1 through December 31, 2027), with two optional one-year renewal terms at the same annual rate. Pricing is structured as firm-fixed costs for installation and commissioning (January 1–June 30, 2027) followed by monthly rental charges for operations and maintenance, hydrogen fuel at a specified rate per kilogram, delivery charges, and decommissioning costs. The contractor must submit monthly invoices with progress reports; OCTA remits payment within thirty days of approval.

Evaluation criteria are Qualifications of the Firm (30 percent), Staffing and Project Organization (20 percent), Work Plan (25 percent), and Cost (25 percent). Insurance requirements include $5 million commercial general liability, $5 million automobile liability, workers' compensation, $1 million employers' liability, and $5 million professional liability and pollution legal liability. Liquidated damages are $250 per day per bus (not to exceed fifteen buses per base) if the mobile fueler becomes inoperable for more than twenty-four consecutive hours.

Written questions are due August 27, 2026, at 5:00 p.m.; OCTA posts responses by September 3. The previous solicitation (RFP 250236) was canceled in June 2026 after two proposals received failed exceptions or insufficient evaluation scores.