RFI for Natural Gas Management system

The California Department of General Services (DGS), through its Office of Business and Acquisition Services (OBAS) and Office of Risk and Insurance Management (ORIM), has issued a Request for Information (RFI #3188111) for a comprehensive Natural Gas Management System. This RFI seeks information about software solutions capable of managing natural gas supply from contract to delivery for approximately 200 state agencies, colleges, universities, municipalities, and special districts. The system must track all natural gas activities from purchase to burner tip, consolidate supply and delivery charges for billing, and provide automated operational control. Key requirements include gas industry-specific functionality, minimal customization, and integration with Local Distribution Company (LDC) utility systems. The solution must support relationship management, gas acquisition and pricing, deal capture and reporting, supply management, and accounting functions. Critical technical specifications include compatibility with MS SQL 2012, ability to support 4 users, and capability to interface with electronic bulletin board notifications and pipeline capacity auctions. The RFI timeline includes a release date of March 14, 2016, with questions due by March 21, 2016, state responses by March 30, 2016, and RFI responses due by April 7, 2016.

The RFI is explicitly for information gathering and will not result in a direct contract award. The department is seeking non-binding budgetary pricing information for planning purposes only. The current system relies on manual workbooks to track gas purchases, deliveries, and customer consumption, which the new system aims to replace with a more efficient, web-based solution. The proposed system must be hosted in a private virtual cloud with managed services and integrate with active directory for security. It should facilitate live bidding between DGS and gas suppliers, support web-based supplier bid submission and evaluation, and provide oversight for supply scheduling and nomination pools. While no specific set-aside designations or vendor restrictions are mentioned, the RFI indicates a preference for a solution that can operate efficiently within DGS's limited bandwidth environment and provide faster outputs at lower costs. The system will need to manage relationships with various end users, including cogeneration facilities, and currently relies on third-party management of gas supply transmission and distribution. No specific budget range or award value is disclosed in the provided documentation.