The total project term is not to exceed 3 years. Agreements with the selected applicant will be single-year contracts to be renewed annually.

Energy Smart Program

Data Management Services

Request for Proposals

Overview and Goals:

Eagle, Pitkin, and Gunnison Counties (“Counties”) are requesting proposals to develop and implement an Information Management System (IMS) for use with the Energy Smart Program (ESP). The Counties, in partnership with a grant from the Department of Energy Better Buildings Program, are working to develop the residential energy retrofit market through customer, contractor and financial support and create replicable models to achieve and demonstrate residential energy savings. The selected applicant (Vendor) will provide program development consultation and implementation related to tracking home energy use, energy conservation measures and associated financial metrics.

Eligible Applicants:

Applicants must demonstrate applicable skills in utility data procurement; management and web based tracking systems as they pertain to energy usage, greenhouse gas emissions, financial savings and return on investment scenarios. Applicants must present detailed descriptions of team members, their responsibilities and qualifications, and the applicant firm’s overall competence in strategic marketing consulting projects.

Application Deadline:

Applications are due no later than December 17, 2010 at 4:30pm. Applications must be emailed to adam.palmer@eaglecounty.us. “Energy Smart Data Management Services” must appear in the email subject line.

Term of Contract:

The total project term is not to exceed 3 years. Agreements with the selected applicant will be single-year contracts to be renewed annually.

Contact Information:

Eagle County Community Development PO Box 179

500 Broadway

Eagle, CO 81631-0179 (970) 328-8734

adam.palmer@eaglecounty.us

Project Background

In November 2009, Eagle, Pitkin, and Gunnison Counties each received voter approval to develop a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program, called the Energy Smart Program (ESP). Working from the PACE framework, the Counties have expanded the ESP to transform the demand for weatherization and energy retrofits and foster permanent job growth and energy conservation, while serving as a nationwide model for other resort communities.

The Department of Energy recently awarded the Partnership Counties a Better Buildings grant in the amount of $4.9 million to support implementation of the ESP. Over the course of the three-year grant period, the Program intends to achieve 20% energy savings in 4,300 or 10% of area homes. The Program will succeed in achieving these goals through a set of programmatic tools, including targeted marketing, workforce training, tiered financing opportunities and education.

Specifications and Requirements

The objective of the Information Management System (IMS) is to develop and archive a comprehensive database of participants, energy usage, savings, and the cost effectiveness of energy conservation measures. Program administrators should be able to easily query and export reports, link with existing data to eliminate duplicate data entry, and have the ability to display trends over time to illustrate the potential impact of the Energy Smart program. All indicators established by the IMS must comply with standards and reporting requirements outlined by the Better Buildings program. Please see the attached DOE reporting template for specific metrics. (DOE Data Requirements Template) The Energy Smart team may specify additional metrics during development of the IMS. The ESP will provide content for web-based forms.

The solution provided by the Vendor will streamline the interactions and

transactions between customers, contractors, vendors, utilities, and staff. Through web based collection tools, the IMS will consolidate multiple data sources into aggregate individual project files and aggregate reports.

While the tool will be web-based, the Partnership Counties would like the ability to use the IMS on a local machine not connected to the Internet, albeit some

functionality may be unavailable in that instance. The database should be stored securely and remotely, but contractors and customers should also have the option of saving their data on individual machines.

While the IMS is being developed to serve the three-year term of the Better Buildings grant, the system should be flexible to allow for long-term use. The use of currently available modules is encouraged to the extent they reduce development and implementation costs.

The specifications and requirements for this Project are broken down by user. Utilities

Actual utility consumption and costs are critical to developing both action plans for each participant and determining the cost effectiveness of energy conservation measures (ECMs). ESP would like to capture historical consumption and cost data for each enrollee. The IMS should facilitate a process for the timely receipt and integration of this data directly from each relevant utility. The IMS should also be able to update

individual consumption and cost into the future. Data from various utility providers should be integrated into individual building files.

Proposals should consider strategies and costs associated with the development of data sharing agreements and processes with partnering entities.

Participants

Participants will complete a web-based enrollment form, which includes a utility release (for transmittal to utility company) and basic building characteristics. The web-based form should also include configurable online energy use behavior survey and report. In the event direct utility uploads are not possible, participants should be able to directly input their utility consumption data. Participants should be able to monitor their usage on an ongoing basis with a home energy “dashboard” that clearly and creatively reports usage, savings, and cost trends. Participants should also be able to use the dashboard to compare their energy use and savings to aggregated peer groups.

Each Participant will have a unique Individual Project File that consolidates data from all input sources. Specifications for individual project data are found in the attached DOE Data Requirements Template. IMS functionality should at a minimum be able to track, on an individual project level; Quarterly Individual Retrofit/ Audit data, Quarterly Finance Loan-level Data, and Voluntary Quarterly Data/ Individual Retrofit Data. Energy analyst

Prior to program work, each energy analyst will complete a web-based

enrollment form with contact information, links and data sharing agreement. For each participating home, the Energy analyst shall be able to view utility consumption data at the time of the home energy assessment. Upon completion of the assessment, the analysts will access a web-based form to enter additional building characteristics,

observations, recommended measures, which will feed into the individual home file. The IMS will use the imported data to create a comprehensive report, which presents a return on investment of recommended energy efficiency measures. Calculations account for the cold climate of the Partner Counties, as well as appropriate utility and contractor costs. Existing standard audit report forms are highly encouraged. Vendors should attempt to identify developed audit reporting systems based on precedent use and coordination with Energy Smart partners.

The Energy Smart Program is also a DOE Home Energy Score (HES) Pilot program. Energy Analysts will be registered under the HES systems and be required to complete HES reports. Vendors should asses data cross over between Better Buildings and Energy Smart Program Data Requirements (attached DOE Data Requirements Template) and the functionality of existing systems, even if existing data systems require limited customization. If HES is not used as the primary vehicle for audit reporting, the IMS should be able to pre-populate the HES form.

Contractors

The IMS will support contractor enrollment with a web-based enrollment form including contact information, links and services provided. Following the installation of ECMs, contractors should be able to update project files with data related to the installed measure such as scope of work completed, project cost and completion date.

Financial Institutions

The IMS should include a web-based reporting tool for multiple financial institutions to include loan amount, term, interest rate, loan to value ration and other metrics as specified by the DOE Data Requirements Template. Financial institutions

should also be able to report ‘clean’ aggregate data without confidential account information. Proposals should consider strategies and costs associated with the development of data sharing agreements and processes with partnering entities. Energy Resource Center Staff

Each County will have local Energy Resource Center (ERC) staff to assist program participants. ERC staff should be able to update individual project files created by the other users and create additional data fields. ERC staff should have access to a web-based reporting form to log individualized energy action plans, with payback estimates, using embedded savings and ROI calculators. ERC staff shall be able to report project data to financial institutions as necessary.

Vendor shall also adapt DOE reporting templates into functional stand-alone reporting tools for grant administration and reporting at the county and regional level. Reporting requirements are specified in the attached DOE Data Requirements Template. ERC and jurisiciational level users should have full reporting functionality and system access. An IMS that is user friendly and requires little training to utilize will be favored. It is also the intent that the IMS will continue to be utilized by ERC staff beyond the 3-year EECBG grant term with little to no additional cost.

ESP Program managers/administrator

Program managers and administrators shall be able to view consolidated data with graphic reporting capability. They shall be able to query the database for particular metrics and the performance of individual home files within that metric. The IMS should also include the ability to issue customizable surveys with system wide capability to tally new fields. Management level ESP staff shall be able to aggregate reports that comply with the attached DOE xml reporting schema.

County Assessor

The Vendor will develop a process to integrate publicly available County Assessor data into the IMS at the individual project level. This shall include basic property information, size, geo-referenced location and owner.

Data Collection Process

• Upon initial consultation, the ERC will collect basic contact information and the appropriate utility bill releases via an online enrollment form. Utility information will be directly uploaded to the information management system (IMS) and available to the analyst at the time of inspection.

• Accredited home energy analysts will collect additional building characteristics and list of recommended measures. The analyst will use a web interface to enter responses or upload reports into the IMS.

• The home energy advisor will contact the participant; provide recommendations based on cost effectiveness and ROI (with embedded calculators) and further develop the participants individualized energy action plan.

• Following ECM installation, service providers and ESP staff update project files including direct input, periodic web based surveys and IMS limit alerts that notify ERC staff of significant reductions in energy consumption. ERC staff will contact the enrollee to determine the cause of observed energy use reductions.

• ERC staff will report findings to the Eagle County Program administrator quarterly; the administrator will consolidate the data for reporting to DOE.

System Access and Integration

The IMS should allow varying levels of security-controlled access to staff, program contractors, system administrators etc.

Access must be through web or direct links, as appropriate, and must be able to track and determine a user’s system access patterns. System access rights must be controlled via security rights assigned to each user.

Web forms and interfaces shall be integrated into the ESP website.

Reporting Functionality

The IMS should have the ability to generate pre-defined standard reports that are tailored for day-to-day, monthly, quarterly and annual management of the Better Building programs, provide updated progress reports and project long term benefits from project completion. Reporting should be possible at both the individual project level and aggregate Program level. All reporting must have the capability to sort by municipality, geographic location, and individual project metrics. The IMS should also have the ability to perform immediate report generation upon request; the ability to export information into Excel, Access, Word and Adobe (PDF) formats; allow for a mix of text, data tables and graphs; be able to receive inputs from other database structures yet to be defined; provide a report generator-driven by drop-down menus that allows easy creation of standard and non-standard reports; provide users with flexibility to easily change

reporting; and provide straightforward method for adding new data elements for existing programs and program components.

The IMS is required to report on all of the data fields in the attached DOE Data Requirements Template. The IMS is required to have the ability to report DOE data requirements on the attached xml schema.

Support and Training

The IMS must provide users with on-line help for documentation of operations and troubleshooting of common problems. The Vendor must provide users a guide for documentation of operations and troubleshooting of common problems. The Vendor must provide initial training of all involved parties. The Vendor must also provide a dedicated project manager for the companies account.

It is anticipated that during and after the beta phase implementation of the BPM IT Tool, the Vendor will be available to answer questions and correct issues promptly until all functionalities operate independently and without issue. Costs for upgrades or additions to the system should be described.

Rejection of Responses

ESP reserves the right to reject any and all applications received from respondents as a result of this request.

Incurring Costs:

ESP is not liable for any cost or expenses incurred by the Vendor or any other person or entity in the preparation of their applications or proposals (including, without limitation, for attendance at any conferences or meetings related to this RFP).

Proposal Requirements

Applications are due to Eagle County no later than December 17, 2010 at 4:30 p.m. The submission must be in electronic form, including a scanned signature page,

submitted via email to adam.palmer@eaglecounty.us. “Energy Smart Data Management Services” must appear in the email subject line.

Executive Summary

Respondents should provide a summary of their organization, their qualifications, their proposed approach for working with the Program and a budget estimate.

Statement of Qualifications

All responses must include a statement of qualifications, experience and description of the Respondent firm or individual and its/their history. The response should specifically indicate the firm’s current and historical expertise in providing the Consulting Services identified in the RFP.

Staff Qualifications

All responses must include resumes of each individual who will be providing Consulting Services under any work order, as well as written descriptions of the

individuals’ experience with the specified eligibility criteria. The Partnership reserves the right to investigate and review the background of any or all personnel assigned to work under agreement for services and, based on such investigations, to reject the use of any persons within the Partnership’s discretion.

References

All responses must include references from at least three clients of the firm, and preferably clients who have utilized the firm on matters related to the Consulting

Services. The references must include a contact person, a full address, and a phone number. In addition to the foregoing, all responses must include a listing of public and private clients for whom the firm has provided services similar to those set forth in this RFP, with a description of the services provided.

Evaluation Criteria:

The Vendor shall prepare a statement as to how the firm tends to handle: • Project Overview

• Project Schedule

• Personnel assignments, including qualifications and experience of those personnel

• Time Estimates of personnel assigned to the Project • Other Pertinent Facts

2. List of Similar Work

The Vendor shall submit references and examples of work with other governmental agencies and work of similar type and size.

3. Availability

The Vendor shall affirmatively state that all necessary staff is available to complete the Project within the time indicated.

4. Cost and Pricing 5. References