Community Clean Energy Resiliency Initiative PON-ENE BESS Request for Proposals Question and Answer Log

Transcription

1 Community Clean Energy Resiliency Initiative PON-ENE BESS Request for Proposals Question and Answer Log 03/09/16 Lead Time 1. The schedule included in the BESS RFP for the energy storage project gives 16 weeks of lead time from award of the contract to startup of the BESS. Is this a critical schedule or can this schedule be adjusted to accommodate suppliers actual BESS lead times. a. Answer: Admittedly the schedule included in the RFP was aggressive and ideal for SMLD. It is well understood by SMLD that many suppliers will not be able to meet this lead time. Meeting the RFP schedule is not a gating criteria for proposal acceptance. Vendors shall submit a schedule showing proposed dates that are attainable by the vendor. Proposed schedules will be taken into consideration as comparison criteria as part of the bid evaluation and selection process. 03/10/16 Addendum for additional BESS capacity 2. Part 2, Section F, second bullet of the RFP document calls for 500KW units / capable of operating at nameplate rating for 2 hours, up to an additional 1MW - 2 hour as alternate bid. Please explain this requirement further. a. Answer: The base bid of the proposal shall be for a BESS with the ratings included in Part 2, Section F, first bullet 1MW / capable of operating at nameplate rating for 2 hours, base bid. The system must maintain this capability over the expected lifetime (identified in the vendor s proposal). Vendors shall provide a proposal based on these ratings as a minimum response to the RFP. SMLD is interested in procuring a larger rated BESS if the economies of scale are advantageous to SMLD. The alternate bid pricing requested in bullet 2 requests option pricing for two additional cases. i. Alternate 1: 1.5MW / capable of operating at nameplate rating for 2 hours, base bid. The system must maintain this capability over the expected lifetime (identified in the vendor s proposal) ii. Alternate 2: 2MW / capable of operating at nameplate rating for 2 hours, base bid. The system must maintain this capability over the expected lifetime (identified in the vendor s proposal) In the alternate pricing section of the vendor s proposal also please include any other modifications to the proposal, besides price, which would be a resultant of SMLD

2 choosing one of the alternates. For instance, lead time, system configuration, construction duration, etc. 03/16/16 Questions asked at the Substation walk though 3. What SCADA connections are expected to be provided at the substation? a. Answer: SMLD will install a conduit from the control building to the BESS. Data cabling from the BESS to the network switch and the SEL-2030 (which are located inside the control building) shall be provided by the BESS vendor as it is dependent on the type of interface provided by the BESS. 4. Will auxiliary construction power be available during construction? a. Answer: 120/240VAC power will be made available by SMLD from extension cords run from the control building for use by the BESS vendor during construction. The transformer that will be connected to the PCS should be installed prior to the BSEE arriving on site. That transformer can be energized for back feed power by SMLD at the request of the vendor at a time determined appropriate by the vendor. 5. Is the secondary voltage of the transformer connecting to the OCS required to be 480VAC? a. Answer: No, that secondary voltage can be flexible depending on the vendor s design of the PCS. 6. Does SMLD have a priority set for the control function modes? a. Answer: The priority of modes of operation functions has not yet been finalized. SMLD will request guidance from the successful bidder as to what is possible and appropriate. In general modes shall be able to be prioritized by the user via the BESS HMI. Changes to set points within each mode shall be able to be made via the HMI. The BESS shall be controlled automatically by these preset mode priorities unless switched into a manual mode of operation and controlled manually by the user. The ability to switch to manual operation mode and enter manual settings shall be provided via the HMI. 7. Does SMLD want to split the available MVA of the batteries between concurrent functional modes of operation? a. Answer: That has not yet been considered. SMLD will request guidance and discussion on this topic from the successful BESS vendor during the design phase. 8. What are the allowable working hours? a. Answer: M-F, 7am to 4:30PM are the typical working hours? Pre-job briefs can be held prior but no loud equipment can be used until 7AM. i. Accommodations can be made for working outside of those normal hours if it is found to be in the overall benefit of SMLD. Those negotiations can be made during the construction planning process. 9. Does the changeover to a microgrid operational mode need to be automatic?

3 a. Answer: No, changing to a microgrid mode of operation is not required to be automatic. Configuration of the system to operate in a microgrid configuration is a manual process by SMLD. The SMLD distribution system will go down and then switched into the microgrid mode manually and then brought back up on battery power. 10. Is it the vendor s responsibility to provide port a johns? a. Answer: No, SMLD will provide those facilities 03/22/16 Additional Questions asked at the Substation walk though 11. Should the concurrent operation of the 2MW PV system which is located about a mile from the substation be included in the base bid for the BESS system? If so it will require control of the inverters located at the solar plant from a master controller which also has control of the BESS. a. Answer: Please exclude the requirement for the Solar plant to be operational and charging the BESS during the microgrid mode of operation from the base bid proposal. Please exclude all costs associated with meeting this requirement from the base bid proposal. Further exploration of adding this function will be explored in the future by SMLD but at this time it has been decided to exclude the requirement. SMLD would prefer that the respondents to this RFP focus their attention and energy on the base case of the microgrid mode of resiliency simply serving the load of the police station. 12. Will trash removal be the vendor s responsibility? Will there be any sorting required? a. Answer: SMLD will provide dumpsters as needed for trash and recyclables removal. The vendor shall place all trash in the dumpster. b. Answer: SMLD will provide one dumpster for trash and a separate dumpster for recyclables. The Vendor is responsible to sort the construction waste materials into these two dumpsters as appropriate. No hazardous waste may be disposed of in these SMLD provided dumpsters. The Vendor is responsible to remove all hazardous waste from the job site and have it properly disposed of at the Vendor s sole expense. 13. Does witness testing all have to be done in the same location with the specific equipment that will be provided to SMLD? a. Answer: If the vendor can show experience of a successful installation provided by the vendor using the same PCS and battery system equipment together then factory testing the equipment separately at their respective factories will be acceptable. b. Answer: If the SMLD project will be the Vendor s first time using the proposed PCS model with the proposed battery system model then factory testing shall be performed at one of the two factories together tested as a complete system to additionally prove that the systems will be compatible. c. Answer: Witness testing of the battery units themselves must be on the actual units that will be supplied to SMLD. d. Answer: Except for the requirements contained in these answers the Vendors shall propose the standard witness testing procedure which is most economical for SMLD. It

4 is not SMLD s intention to add cost to the vendors test process to dictate test procedures. 03/22/16 Questions Submitted Via 14. If the battery asset is to supply the police station and dispatch center in an islanding mode: a. Are the Police Station and dispatch center co-located at the Police Station? i. Answer: Yes b. What are the size(s) of the critical loads (KW)? i. Answer: 10kw Revised Answer on 3/24/16: 15kW per the RFP Part 2 Section F c. Will the circuitry to allow islanding be installed and operated by Sterling? i. Answer: Assuming that the question is referring to the distribution circuit between the substation and the police station. Yes, that circuit will be reconfigured manually in the event of a complete grid outage to allow for islanding of the police station prior to brining the BESS back online in the microgrid operating mode. d. Will there be any other load on the islanded circuitry besides the police station and dispatch center? If so, how much additional load will need to be served in the islanding mode? i. Answer: No additional load e. It is also our understanding that the critical loads will need to be supplied for 100 hours. Please confirm. i. Answer: Yes 15. Please explain how the storage asset will be used daily: a. Real time demand response: i. Will the storage asset be fully discharged daily? 1. Yes it may be. Please refer to the load profiles found in Part 2, Section F of the RFP document. Those load profiles were constructed to provide a best estimate of how the BESS may be used without going too far with requirements that may drive up the cost of the BESS. ii. Will Sterling optimize the full discharge to reduce the monthly transmission peaks and summer capacity peaks? 1. Answer: Yes iii. Full power discharge, for 1.5hrs, 2 times / day, 2 days /week Does this assume charging to also occur during the day, rather than one time at night? 1. Answer: In order to operate this load profile the battery would need to charge sometime during the day. That is a possible scenario depending on market pricing. iv. 50% maximum output power, for 2 hours, 2 times / day, 2 days/ week, 14 weeks/year Why not 100%?

5 1. Answer: The objective of this load profile was to cover two peaks per day without having to recharge during the day between the two peaks. The reason that a load profile of 100% power for 2 hours (fully discharging the battery) several days per week and several weeks per year was not included was because SMLD was under the impression that this requirement would significantly drive up the cost of the BESS. If this is a misunderstanding and the BESS technology proposed by the vendor which meets the load profile requirements listed in the RFP will also be able to perform the 100% discharge for 2 hours case at the same frequency of operation please list this as a competitive advantage in the vendor s proposal. b. Frequency regulation: i. Does Sterling also intend to provide frequency regulation services to ISO-NE with this same storage asset? 1. Answer: Not at this time but if the asset is capable of providing such services SMLD may possibly consider that market in the future as it develops. The ability to provide frequency regulation service is not a consideration for evaluating proposals for this project. c. Increase the resiliency of the of Sterling s solar-reliant microgrid: i. It seems that the solar assets are a distance away from the substation and Police Station. Please explain how the solar-reliant microgrid will be connected to the battery storage. 1. Answer: Please refer to the answer for question 11. SMLD has removed the requirement for the solar generation plant to be operated as part of the microgrid mode of operation. ii. How will the storage asset know when to stabilize the solar output? Will one or both of the large solar assets provide real time output information to the storage asset? 1. Answer: The net feeder loads for the feeders which have solar assets connected can be provided to the BESS control system though the SMLD SEL-2030 data concentrator. In addition SMLD has a third party monitoring system by Draker for each solar plant. If more direct measurements of solar output are required it may be possible to expanded that Draker service and provide data to the BESS master controller. 16. How will the BESS provide a grid reference to the two solar farms for a total system outage contingency as they are not located near the substation? a. Will enough circuitry be isolated to allow the solar farms to charge the battery in that contingency? i. Answer: Please refer to the answer for question 11. SMLD has removed the requirement for the solar generation plant to be operated as part of the

6 microgrid mode of operation. 17. Will the optional additional 1 MW -2 hour storage asset be located in the substation in addition to the 1 MW 2 hour asset and required to perform similarly? Answer: Yes, this option would be exercised as a way to increase the size of one system, not to have a second independently controlled system. a. Would the step up transformer be changed to handle 2 MW of storage? i. Answer: Yes b. Where would the additional 1 MW of storage be located inside the substation fence? i. Answer: Ideally all within the same trailer. If it has to be in a separate trailer conceptually it seems like they would need to be located one behind the next along the same fence line. 18. In the RFP it says: Additional support for this effort will be received from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Energy Storage Program, under the guidance of Dr. Imre Gyuk. Please explain what additional support is expected. a. Answer: The DOE, The Sandia Foundation and Dr. Imre Gyuk have provided assistance in developing the RFP, they have offered to provide further technical consultation during the bid evaluation and design process, we expect to continue sharing operational information after the project is completed. 19. Are the substation transformers equipped with LTC s to regulate the bus voltage? Answer: Yes a. If so, will the BESS be required to regulate the bus voltage? i. Answer: Yes, see Part 2, section G of the RFP document, although this function is not expected to be implemented often and will be set at a low priority. SMLDD was under the impression that this was a relatively standard function that is typically provided with a BESS system. SMLD does not necessarily have voltage problems on their system currently. SMLD will be open to the suggestion of the vendor for how to coordinate this function with the LTC. It can be done directly by giving control of the LTC to the BESS controller or it could be done by coordination of settings. Coordination of settings would be preferred as it seems to be the simpler solution. b. Are the two busses isolated from each other in normal operation? Answer: Yes i. If so, the BESS can only provide services to bus 2 and their circuitry? 1. Answer: Yes, that is correct. 20. The RFP references 500 kw units. Does this mean that 2 individual 500 Kw banks operated by one control system? a. Answer: The term units does not refer to providing two separate BESS systems. SMLD is simply looking for adder pricing for increasing the size of one commonly controlled

7 system. So a simpler way to state the request is SMLD requests pricing for the following sized systems: 1. 1MW for 2hrs (base bid) MW for 2hrs (option 1) 3. 2MW for 2hrs (option 2) The BESS must maintain this capacity over the expected lifetime (to be identified in the vendor s proposal) 03/24/16 Questions Submitted Via 21. Please confirm the circuit interface at which the main power requirement applies? What interface voltage level does the AC nameplate power requirement apply 480V or 13.8kV? a. Answer: Nameplate power and energy ratings can be considered to apply to the 480VAC bus 22. Does the nominal main power requirement apply at Vgrid =1 pu? or over a range such as Vgrid = pu? If over a range of grid voltage conditions, please specify the range. Please confirm that this is at 13.8kV? a. Answer: The nameplate power and energy ratings apply to a voltage range of.9pu to 1.1pu on the 480VAC bus 23. Would it be acceptable to draw aux power (~35kVA 3-phase 4-wire plus ground) for operating the battery system from the substation control building? a. Answer: No, providing aux power from the control building is not acceptable. If the BESS vendor requires a separate power source for aux power please include the cost of providing and installing a separate service from the substation bus including all mounting and service equipment required. 24. Can we use the synchrophase monitoring data from your SEL351 (shown on the conceptual design one line schematic) for the purpose of battery system metering at up to 60Hz native rate? a. Answer: Yes, SMLD can make data available from a spare relay port or the SEL-2030 if that is desirable for the BESS Vendor. 25. Will SMLD provide the metering data/signals needed for peak demand management? a. Answer: If the BESS vendor s design anticipates needing any additional metering installed in the control room that does not exist today, SMLD will provide and install those meters. In that case the vendor is to state the requirement for these additional

8 meters and take exception to providing them in the exceptions section of the Vendor s proposal. 26. What is the expected functionality for the interface to the SEL2030? a. Answer: Analog or digital points from the SEL-relays can be passed to the BESS vendor as needed. Major alarms or other points that are appropriate can be passed to the SEL for display at the operations desk HMI that is linked to the substation Who is responsible for providing the meters and metering connections? a. Answer: SMLD will provide meters that are to be located inside the control building as long as the requirement for SMLD to provide these meters is clearly stated in the vendor s proposal in the exceptions section. Data connections from meters to the BESS control are to be provided and set up by the BESS vendor. 28. Please confirm any concurrent control mode requirements a. Answer: Please see the Answer to question What is the maximum required load on blackstart operation? a. Answer:15kW 30. Please confirm the expected warranty term in years to be included in the contract price and the desired number of years for warranty extension as the warranty description in the Scope of Works section on page 5 of the RFP is unclear. a. The proposal shall include the cost of a 5 year warranty. SMLD is also interested to receive optional additional line item pricing for extended warranty options. SMLD does not want to dictate the terms of the optional extended warranties. Instead this is left to be an optional area of competitive advantage for the bidders. 31. Construction Scope SMLD: Please confirm that the following construction is not in scope and is to be handled by SMLD: a. Excavation and conduit placement underground. By SMLD b. Cable pulls between battery enclosure, PCS and XFMR. By Vendor c. Landing and termination of interconnection between DC disconnect on battery enclosure and PCS. AC Connections between PCS and XFMR. By Vendor d. Install conduit, pull and terminate fiber optic between each BESS equipment and master controls. Buried conduit by SMLD, Fiber by Vendor e. Install conduit, pull and terminate auxiliary power circuit between primary and BESS equipment. Only buried conduit by SMLD f. Foundation fabrication on site By SMLD

9 32. Construction Scope TBD: Please confirm if it will be SMLD s or our responsibility to offload all equipment including battery enclosure, PCS, XFMR and HVAC on site. a. Answer: Offloading of equipment supplied by the BESS vendor is to be performed by BESS the vendor 33. Blackstart: The BESS system shall be equipment with a blackstart functionality that shall allow the system to start---up in grid forming mode (Microgrid) in an event the grid has failed. This feature requires backing up the controls load via Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS). Please indicate the expected back---up time to size the UPS. This is the expected maximum time between failure of grid and the manual remote signal by SMLD to start up the system in Microgrid. a. Answer: 12 hours, If that is not reasonable it would be acceptable that starting the UPS and booting the controller would be part of the manual black start process. 34. Please indicate how the system shall receive the manual signal to blackstart. This signal should be sent only when the grid is ready for islanding. a. Answer: SMLD does not have a preferred method for how this should be done and will look to the BESS vendor to provide an appropriate solution. 35. PV Smoothing: Please confirm that the solar asset SEL Data Connector or the Draker monitoring system will be able to provide PU Output every 1---second. a. Answer: Please see the answer to question Please clarify Alternate bid bullet point. Are you requesting an alternate bid in addition to the base bid? What is the range of the alternate bid, MW? a. Answer: Please see the answer to question What is the scope (i.e. what is included as start and stop) of the BESS Round trip efficiency? a. Answer: The round trip AC efficiency was meant to reference the 13.8kV SMLD system. The vendor may assume a.98% efficiency for the transformer provided by SMLD MW PV Smoothing what is the desired programmable ramp rate? a. Answer: SMLD has not firmly decided on a specific ramp rate to use for the PV smoothing function. SMLD will ask the successful BESS vendor for advice and collaboration on the issue. Limited research shows that approximately 10% / minute may be appropriate. Therefore, for the purposes of this RFP the vendor may assume that the BESS will allow a fluctuation at the rate of 200kW / minute. 39. Please provide SMLD s cyber security requirements. a. Answer: More detail will need to be coordinated with the SMLD IT consultant during the contract negotiation process as needed. For the purposes of this RFP please consider that all communication networking will be done on a local network provided by the BESS for the purposes of the BESS or on the SMLD private network. A connection required for monitoring the BESS will be provided by the SMLD IT consultant via a secure VPN tunnel.

10 40. Please confirm that the HMI will be installed in the SMLD s operation center and not on site. a. Answer: An HMI screen will be required at the SMLD office for control of the BESS. This may be as simple as the vendor s software loaded on an SMLD owned computer. However, local control and diagnostic capabilities must also be provided at the BESS itself in the substation. The local control and diagnostics will allow for ease of testing, troubleshooting and for operation in the microgrid operational mode. The SMLD office will not have power during the microgrid operation mode. The hardware needed to provide a local HMI at the substation shall be provided by the BESS vendor as designs may vary. 41. Will a MA state licensed construction supervisor be required? a. Answer: No