Posted on January 15, 2013 by CHAD MARRIOTT on the Stoel Rives RENEWABLE+LAW blog.

On December 12, 2012, the Defense Logistics Agency-Energy ("DLA-Energy") published a solicitation for a 15-28 MW biomass facility to be located at the U.S. Army's Fort Drum in New York (Solicitation No. SP0600-13-R-0401). The procurement will be conducted and negotiated pursuant to the Department of Defense's authority to enter into long-term power purchase agreements under 10 U.S.C. 2922a.

In this case, DLA-Energy anticipates entering into a firm fixed price requirements contract with a term between 10 and 25 years and the solicitation states explicitly that "the Government will only consider costs that do not exceed the equivalent of $0.056/kWh compounded annually at 4.88%." Thus, the ceiling is set and bidders should take that into account when analyzing their business case for a proposal.

Last Friday, DLA-Energy announced that registration is now open for the pre-proposal conference, which will take place at the Dulles State Office Building in Watertown, New York on January 24, 2013, from 7:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. EST. Attendees will be provided an overview of the potential project, a site tour, and an opportunity for Q&A about the solicitation. Solicitation proposals are due no later than 3:00 p.m. on March 15, 2013.