A Maryland county is seeking bids for microgrid projects, designed to ward off long power outages and to green county facilities.
Bids are due to Montgomery County June 30.
“Improving the ability of our county facilities to remain operational during power outages is essential to providing emergency services to the public during crises,” said Isiah Leggett, Montgomery County executive. “We are optimistic that through a public/private partnership, we will be able to identify cost effective and energy efficient ways to enhance our capabilities and keep our operations running when necessary.”
The county seeks public/private partnerships and prefers partners that design, build, own, operate and finance microgrids.
The microgrids must be able to operate independently from the grid during an outage. They will serve properties managed by the Montgomery County Department of General Services (DGS). Collectively the county owns, operates, or maintains over 410 facilities and 9 million square feet of floor space.
The request for proposals defines a microgrid as a system of controls, generators, storage devices, and other technologies that enable a building to operate independently of the electric grid for prolonged periods of time.
Each microgrid is expected to serve only county buildings or campuses. However the county will consider expanding microgrids into neighboring areas if regulatory and financial issues can be resolved and a reasonable revenue share can be negotiated.
In this first stage of bidding, the county seeks information on bidder qualifications and approach. Proposals will receive 30 points for qualifications, 40 points for approach (including use of technologies that have met the needs of similar facilities) and 30 points for innovation, with preference for those that partner with local companies, certain minorities, recognized government, research or non-profits and equipment manufacturers.
Bidders that score high will be invited to participate in the second stage, where they will submit further project details.
The county prefers proposals that amortize costs, but it will consider other financial approaches. It will not accept bids that offer only solar power purchase agreements, since that type of project is being addressed in a separate RFP.
The contact is Eric Coffman, Chief Office of Energy and Sustainability, DGS Montgomery County, Maryland; 240-777-5595; [email protected].
The RFP is available here.
