all right everyone we may have a few
other people joined but we'll go ahead
and get started here uh the recording
for this meeting has begun it's
currently 12:02 p.m. on April 18th
2024 and this is the online virtual
pre-proposal conference for the home
energy rebate programs application and
implementation
thank you
Aaron all right yeah let's get started
welcome everybody thank you so much for
joining us today as Aaron said uh this
is the pre-proposal conference for the
home energy rebate programs applications
and
implementations RFP I am batina bergu
I'm the associate director for Energy
Efficiency and financing at Virginia
Department of energy uh and thanks to
the team for continuing to admit people
uh we have other key folks today that
are part of this solicitation we have my
colleague haja dumbuya she is the home
energy rebate programs manager here we
have uh Jackie Lynch whose name you've
seen uh she is our procurement officer
here and the procurement lead for this
RFP and we also have Aon bowling who is
our agency's director of
it uh everyone please stay muted um if
you don't we will uh but certainly there
will be an opportunity for you to come
off mute and ask questions as part of
this conference um and as Jackie will
talk more about uh I will once I finish
this info or this intro I will put a
link to the solicitation on Eva in the
chat just so everybody has that handy
but hopefully you have already had a
chance to take a look at the
documents I did want to just mention
that of course key documents related to
the home Energy rebates uh is this the
RFP documents but we do also have some
other related U materials and will have
more related materials uh to the home
Energy rebates on the Virginia Energy
website so I'll put those links in the
chat as well we have a frequently asked
questions page about the IRA home Energy
rebates and then we also have um some
more materials related to our planning
on our public notices page and as we
have anything else related to our
planning that might be of interest uh
you can go back to that Public Notices
page uh to view those
materials so I'll put those in the chat
and I think with that all being said
I'll hand it over to
Jackie good afternoon everyone Welcome
to our optional pre-proposal conference
for the home energy rebate program
application and implementation
today is just an overall if we got any
questions um we'll address them now if
you don't get to attend if you got
questions you have until the 26th April
the 26th to get questions into me so I
can give them to the group to discuss
and at one time we will do an ad demment
on the Eva website with all the
questions and answers at one time
because every time that we do a answer a
question it adds 10 more days to the
ending of The Proposal so as of right
now we had it scheduled to close on May
the 21st but we already know it's going
to be May 31st because we're doing this
question answer thing so it's going to
add 10 days to the closing so how we're
going to do this is that uh we're going
to go over the proposal and we're going
to say page one do you have any
questions page two do you have any
questions we'll do it that way we think
it' be more organized
to sort of have control of it that way
to when we could get all the questions
down and stuff like that so we can make
sure we get it exactly how it's asked
and to be able to answer it correctly so
at the end I after we go over that and
we we got the attachments uh we're not
going to go Page by page of the
attachments but we will say attachment
one and tell you what it is and see if
anybody has any questions on that and
we'll address it that way so and then
again if you have any questions at the
end we'll take them on
that perfect thank you so much for
that and as required by the procurement
manual we are going to need to go around
and do introductions of everybody who's
attending so I know we have a number of
phone numbers on the line this is going
to be super fun uh please bear with us
as we go through this
um and at the end I'll ask if we missed
anybody so I'll just start with the
names that we see in alphabetical order
uh Chad and please state your name and
just your affiliation Chad Cruz hi I'm
Chad Cruz I'm with utility API a data
service
provider Chase
counts hi everyone uh Chase counts I'm
attending on behalf of greenbound
Consulting
Jennifer
Cornell hi um Jennifer Cornell
Honeywell David
Gman hi I'm Dave Gman with beic if
you're the meeting organizer Michael
Daisy hi everyone Mike Daisy here um
with
honey Moy or
um MO
hi my name is Duan Duan money and I I'm
with guide house in
corporations
Felix hey everybody Felix Martinez with
guide
house
Kate
FY hi Kate fery from
Accenture Sydney
Gillum Sydney Gillum with
IEM Aaron Gold
yeah hi Aaron Gold with
Honeywell kakaya Kamal or Kamal
karakaya hello good afternoon Camal K
guide
house Kevin
kilam Kevin quilliam with
incline Tim
lagi good afternoon Tim lagy with
ien uh Gibby
little hey this is Gibby little with
Honeywell
Cass hey this is Lloyd Cass uh Franklin
Energy sorry I couldn't get off mute
fast you're good kadim
lock hey Kadeem lock and is from
aptum mty
ker Matty ker with
nazio Mark
hervy Mark hervy clear results
David
M hello with
ICF Samantha newbower
hi I'm Sam with
PRT Mitchell
pay hi Mitch pet with
honeywall Rob
Dunn hey Rob Dunn
McKenzie KY uh Ian
Stewart hi from ICF
sukumar
raal sukumar raal from parin
group Suzanne
past hello Suzanne past from guide
house and Allison
vet good afternoon Allison with
I Perfect all right we've got some phone
numbers here so I will read out the
first six in hopes that that is clear
enough we've got a
20225 hi there arano C for clim
strategy 336
244 Mark kry Franklin
Energy 401
738 hi there Mike mck the
ICF
40288 Tracy stromquist
from 413 oh no
658 Ben bunker Pearl
certification 586
419 Emilia anall Franklin
Energy 703 559
is there someone at 703 559
number
yes can you state your name and
affiliation John English Partland Energy
Partners perfect thank you John 773
255 Joel fing
aptum 804 677
covers at
884677 could you state your name and
affiliation maybe driving safely that's
fine uh 804
814 Megan part with Franklin
Energy 804
929 uh and guide
housee 833
275 is there someone at 833 275
number you state your
name all right I know they heard a lot
of pings is there anyone who joined that
hasn't stated your name in affiliation I
see one uh Andrew griggsby could you
just state your name in
affiliation yes hi Andrew griggsby I'm
with
fidant okay perfect I also see that uh
Alyssa has joined can you state your
name in
affiliation Alysa Luchi with Franklin
Energy okay Ben Nichols hi Ben Nichols
with yardi
systems all
righty thank thank you everyone for
bearing with us is that everybody
anybody who hasn't announced
himself all
right that should serve as
compliant so we can move forward uh all
right over to you hajah thanks great
thank you so much for joining us today
so I am going to be going over the
statement of needs I'm going to be share
my screen
again
okay
okay so thank you so much again for
joining us today I'm the home energy re
programs manager at the Virginia
Department of energy the Virginia
Department of energy will be seeking two
types of services from a prospective
program implementor the first type of
service so is going to be the
development of the applications for
federal funding and the second type of
service is going to be for a program
implement implementor the request
implementation
Services now let's go over the
development of applications for federal
funding since the inflation reduction
Act was signed into law the US
Department of energy has released
guidance for states to apply and deploy
rebates Across the Nation the guidance
and other supporting documents published
by the US Department of energy will
require state to submit a state
application that details how they are
going to use rebates the program
implementor would be guiding efforts to
develop application material while
ensuring that material abide by federal
regulations it should be noted that the
vendor will be helping for both the
homes and the here programs however
Virginia energy will be the only entity
submitting their applications to the
Department of energy
now let's go over um the second part of
the services that we're looking for
which are about the programs
implementation after approval from the
US Department of energy the contractor
will deliver all activities mentioned on
the application that are related to the
deployment of the rebates the contractor
selected will have the option of
subcontracting with a third entity as
needed of course other tasks will
include evaluating prog on
implementation and remuneration of the
contractor would highly depend on
approval of the US Department of energy
at each stage of the application process
based on the performances and the
impacts of the program doe shall release
the uh funds in trenches there is
specific reporting requirement
identified through the financial
assistant reporting checklist which are
attached to um the aware agreements
there are other actions
the program implementor shall expect to
take uh and Virginia energy is not
including detail program requirements in
this
RFP
however um yeah yeah however based on
the internal and external stakeholder
feedback to date Virginia energy will
anticipate prioritizing a program
designed that furthers the objectives
that are listed in the
RFB um would you have any questions
regarding what I just said
no I think we can go ahead and start
from the top like um like Jackie said
we'll go Page by Page and uh before
starting the question period today I
just wanted to recognize that um several
folks have submitted questions already
and you know we've been getting guidance
from uh the department of General
services uh procurement team on um this
whole solicitation process and today's
conference and what they uh really
stressed was that um y'all have a lot of
knowledge to bring that we didn't know
in development of this RFP and so your
questions are to help us make the RFP
better um and so we really appreciate
the questions they've already um
prompted us to consider things that we
just didn't know we needed to consider
um that will be reflected in the
addendum so thanks for those of you that
have already submitted uh and for the
questions that you'll have
today yes now I'm going to go over each
page um asking any questions that you
might have so uh we will begin with the
cover page of course would you have any
question on page
one okay I'm assuming that's clarify is
are we already pushing back the due date
to May 31st did I hear that
right it it will be because anytime
there's a question that serves that we
need to add an ad demment to it that
automatically throws the opening 10 days
so okay from the
yeah thank you and it could be more if
we have questions later on after we post
these we hope not but if there's
something that comes up it could throw
it 10 more days but we're hoping by
having this that we'll get all the
questions out and not postpone the
opening any longer than the
31st okay thank
you a one thing I'm noting does it it
looks like you do have the pdf version
of this open in another tab sometimes
the yeah the the pages can be a little
different so perfect let's let's use
this one okay so I'm going to move on to
the second question would you have the
second page would you have any question
about the second
page
okay and uh this is uh the page or the
third page at Leist the table of
contents and the attachments I'm also
going to go over all the attachments of
the RFB after uh we're done with this
one so any questions on this part as
well
okay so let's go to the purpose and
background section on page
four any questions on this
part okay um page five of the RFB mainly
on the statement of needs would you have
any question on this
page and pretty much the first part of
the statement of
needs hi this is Allison with imem I'm
not sure if it's exactly on this page so
please forgive me but I was curious from
the implementation
standpoint um of the pro
program will the vendor be required to
carry a contractor's license along with
any insurance or bonding
requirements thanks for the question I
think Jackie unless you feel really
confident that's a clarification we can
note that one for this type of Duty I
wouldn't think they would be a need for
insurance and
bonding what about um a contractor's
license that be needed we can check on
that but I would not think
so thanks so
much okay if you don't have any
questions on this page I'm going to move
on to page six which is the second part
of the statement of needs would you have
any question and
here just because we're going to be
responding sorry um just since we'll be
responding in writing I do want I'm I'm
noting questions and I want to repeat
them just so we're capturing uh exactly
what the questions are uh so the person
who asked that before is it correct to
say is
the um contractor uh Capital C
contractor required to have a
contractor's license
and is there any bonding or Insurance
requirement for the
contractor does that capture question
yes perfect thank you sure I
think yeah hi this is Aaron Gold with
Honeywell uh just a quick question do
Parts one and part two have to be bid
together or can they be bid
separately um I know we they can be put
together I believe because at the end of
the day like these are kind of like all
the requests of of the services but any
other like uh requirements are going to
be detailed like in the other parts of
the RFP so this is just to give you an
idea of what we are expecting you to do
it's not actually the content of The
Proposal is the question whether we will
accept proposals for only part one or
part two
I gu I guess the question is do we have
to bid both um to get do we have to bid
both or can we just bid part one or part
two um we're only accepting
both okay proposals covering both part
one and part two great thank
you Jackie and as you can tell we're you
know
uh processing um while we're going here
Jackie I should know that question right
and we put it in the addendum yes okay
so the question is is an
offerer um able to propose submit a
proposal only covering part one or part
two does that cover the
question that
does okay so I'm going to move on to the
next part is the uh the proposal
preparation and submission
instructions as you can see here we're
starting by the instructions and also
the project management approach which
you have any question with that there's
also a beginning of the program delivery
approach of
course okay I'm going to move on to the
next page she's still um more about the
program delivery approach the market
transformation approach and also the
marketing education and Outreach
approaches so would you have any
question this
page okay let's move on to the order to
page nine charlock consumer protection
approach the community benefits approach
the experience and organization as well
would you have any question from this
part
okay I'm moving on to the data security
and privacy
approach and
uh small small women on envirment to own
business status and
subcontracting and also the pricing
schedule which is at its beginning stage
do you have any question on this page
okay I'm moving on to seal the table
about the pricing schedule it's
continuing um would you have any
question on this content of the table of
the pricing
schedule hello I have questions this is
Mike from
honey
um so this is just regarding pricing so
so given the pricing or the program
design will be defined more thoroughly
within the application process um and
and it's subject to change um Can
pricing be would pricing be able to be
updated after the award to reflect the
changes that are made during the
application process and approval by the
doe I think we're as you can probably
imagine taking a conservative approach
to provide in any concrete answers um
that like preliminarily yes that makes
logical sense uh given the nature of the
RFP um but I'm going to note the
question and we'll we'll issue a you
know more final visal response uh in the
addendum um so can you restate your
question uh one more time yeah so given
the program design U will be more
defined Within the application process
and submission to the doe um and is also
subject to change um Can pricing be
updated after award um to reflect any of
those changes that were
made thank you and Jackie can correct me
if I'm wrong but the preliminary
response is uh just recognizing that uh
there is almost always a negotiation
process as well that um could lead to
some adjustments in the pricing from
what's submitted in The Proposal
documents Jackie do you have anything to
add or is that no I mean that's why
we're doing a proposal here so it could
be negotiated
so okay thanks for the question
thanks I guess I'll follow up on that uh
you go to another page but one of the
evaluating criteria is Kevin Coen from
clamp sorry is pricing schedule um so
points are awarded for the pricing
that's provided if if offerers are able
to renegotiate their prices after they
are selected um what's to stop us all
from just saying that we'll do this at a
at a low price and then renegotiating
our price later is that pricing going to
be used and are we going to be held to
that pricing or is that
criteria um a little squishy I
guess well based on the submitt
um I mean because like I said we're
doing a proposal things could change but
what we'll do is base our top three or
four companies on what has been
submitted and see which ones that fit
our need and then we can work with them
on that I'm not saying you know the
pricing can go up or down we'll just
have to see if it's
responsible but we'll we'll go more
detail once she as the
adment could you uh help if you're at a
computer could you help me out just by
putting that question in
writing so we don't have to like
Workshop
it I want to capture it right thank you
um you know one thing that I think we'll
note in the official response is just
the the points that you'll see uh for
and and maybe Haj if you can go down to
um down to oh sorry we haven't gotten to
evaluation criteria but you will notice
that um you know the the pricing
schedule points are five as compared to
you know the other
categories thanks for the
question okay I'm going to move on to
page 12 which is going to show the last
part of the pricing schedule and the
beginning of the evaluation criteria so
would you have any question about this
page okay I will be moving on to the
second part to the next page page 13
which is a continuation of the
evaluation criteria the beginning part
of the reporting and delivery
instructions do you have any questions
in
here yeah hi this is dve Gman from veic
I've got a question for you I just want
to make sure that uh I want to find out
if you can verify that the contractors
will be seen as contractors and not as
subrecipients under this program makes a
big difference in federal financial
structure subcontractor versus
subrecipient
thanks thanks Dave I think we can take
that one today but we'll include it in
the you know official list it does
State earlier page I don't remember um
that per Federal compliance per the
award with doe the contractor will be a
contractor and not a sub
it doesn't actually say and not a sub
recipient but that's implied thanks just
wanted to verify once and for all thanks
appreciate it yeah thank you um I'm just
going to restate that
question um Can Virginia energy
confirm that the contractor will be a
contractor for federal award purposes
does that
work yep that's good thanks
okay I'm moving on to one more or a
couple more questions here sorry Kevin
Quan from inclin um I have some
questions around the small business
requirement first uh it appears that a
small business would need to be the
Prime in order to receive the full 20
points and if any other business was a
prime they could receive at most 75% of
the 20 points is that
correct yes repeat
okay yeah sorry Jackie it it's worth
being careful can you repeat that so
Jackie can confirm okay um the only way
to get the full 20 points is if a small
business is the prime and if if any
other business or dsds ESD certified
small business the prime and otherwise
uh they could not take it only receive
75% of the 20
points is that correct is that is my
understanding of that correct okay so if
you're if if you are a sdsd business you
will get the full 20 points whether
you're minority small W um minority
you'll get the 20 points you don't have
to be all certified just one of the
certified to get the
points so uh does the prime need to be
the certified entity or could any
participant in
the prime has to be
and and the kind of strange thing here
is it looks like you could have a prime
who was a small business but they only
did 25% of the work would they still get
20 points in that
case if the prime
is
certified bdsd they get the 20 points if
they subcontract out they'll have to do
a subcontractor
Cent right but if they subcontract out
does that cut back on their points so if
you're a small certified business
okay and so that there's no limit
there's no requirement in order to be a
prime that you do more than 50% of the
work I guess is this the bottom
question okay and then my last question
here is that um the the entity that does
that certification
sbsd uh has indicated that that takes 60
days for them to review an application
and so even if an application was put in
the day that this RFP was released that
the eligible companies would not be
certified by that point um are you
willing to put some language in that
they uh be certified within 60 days of
the of of the date or something that
would allow for folks to get certified
here I don't know that there's too many
small businesses that are in this Niche
that would otherwise qualify if they're
not allowed to to qualify alternately
they also indicated to me that if uh if
you all called them and told them that
um there was a need for certification
happen faster they would do that but
that was the only way they could do that
so if you're willing to do that that
would solve that also but I think um
otherwise there's no way for you to get
small businesses in if they're not
already if your application's in and we
could
call but if you don't have your
application in you know I don't think I
mean because we'll tell them that we're
in the middle of this proposal and if
they can hurry your certification on we
would be gladly to do that but you'd
have to send the email and let us know
that your application has been completed
it is in for
review thank
you all right I'm just going to review
those to make sure I captured the
essence of your questions first is it
correct that the prime offerer would
need to be
a what's the official
dsbsd
designated uh entity to qualify for
full points um under the
swam evaluation
criteria yes
okay and then next is Virginia energy
willing to put in language that would
allow a an entity um I guess it has to
be a business undergoing dsbsd
designation to qualify as dsbsd for the
purposes of this RFP
next question is Virginia energy willing
uh
to
contact UM
dsbsd
to um speed to speed an application
review speed up the application review
for a pending
application um for a prospective offerer
that capture those are all accurate yeah
thank you thank you so
much okay if you don't have any more
question I'm going to move to the next
page page
14 which is like a second part of the
reporting and deliver instructions would
you have any page any question here
all right I'm going to move on and as
you can see we have the remaining
section about the reporting
requirements and um a glimpse of the
general terms and
conditions um General and special terms
and conditions actually so any question
in here
okay I'm moving on to the uh last part
is going to be the method of
payment yeah hi it's uh Dave Gman again
from viic have a question on this one um
notice that you've set things up for
quarterly invoicing just wondered if you
are willing to consider monthly
invoicing other states that have been
doing this have seen specific questions
on that for example Pennsylvania has
recently responded on theirs that they
are indeed considering
monthly uh invoicing because again the
idea is that the the prime contractor
has to basically carry the cost of all
of the payments for the rebates During
the period until they can
invoice
thanks thank you Dave the question is is
Virginia energy willing to consider
monthly
invoicing Kev from incline I'll I'll
back that up and also say is is the uh
are you willing to front the rebate
funds so that the companies don't have
to float those because the companies
will have to pay interest on that
that'll be passed on to you so if you
were able to front the funds so that
they could be provided in some kind of
es account that is drawn on um then
they're more available for rebates so
simplify the question is is the agency
willing to to front the rebate
funds sorry what was the end of the
question um or was it just is Virginia
energy willing to front the rebate funds
that's it y um and it is helpful that
you provided like an example like EG via
an
escrow account
is there any
other EG you would want to add that
would be it yeah
okay it's helpful to hear
that as you know other states are
considering um different ways of doing
things um can do you have anything to
share that's public um about another
state that is taking that
approach uh I don't I know that it's
just a a topic that I asked by every
Implement in every state I think because
this the cost is pretty significant if
you look at the prime rate and multiply
that by you know four months that that
you have to wait for getting that money
back it's it's in the several millions
of dollars in interest cost that the
implementor is absorbing and of course
that just gets passed
on yeah thank you for the
question okay so I'm going to move on to
the attachments
okay sorry this is Joel freeling from E
just a clarification to as you answer
the question about the quarterly again
in if you decide you will not front the
rebates can you at least provide clarity
as the quarterly related to both admin
and rebates or one or the
other should we amend the
well and if it's okay with the person
that submitted the original question
about monthly invoicing should we amend
it to say is Virginia energy willing to
consider monthly invoicing for rebate
and or administrative
funding correct if that's okay with
v yeah I Dave how however however this
can be improved I think is the uh desire
here from all of us is that quarterly by
itself is a
burden um if we can subtract you know if
we can split out some of it that would
certainly be helpful
too thank
you all right so I'm going to the
attachment now so it's is going to be
one of the first
attachments please bear with me while
it's loading all right this is
attachment one to required general terms
and conditions um I would like to ask if
you would have any questions on this
first page of the
attachment okay I think we're allowed to
ask just about the whole attachment
right Jackie
okay yes don't do Page by page of all
the attachments just do it as
attachments if they have any questions
per attachment okay
okay sure they've had time to look at
them okay so this is like the entire
attachment in here would you have any
question in
here okay I'm the
attachment okay attachment number two
special terms of conditions for the
terms of the Comm of ala Virginia would
you have any question for this
attachment this is Andrew griggsby with
fidant I had submitted some questions
earlier about attachment to should I do
you want to hear them now or or or will
they show up in the document did you
submit them
today uh days did you direct them to me
I did okay they've got I've I have sent
all those over that will be included in
the document the
adment yeah Andrew you're welcome to
verbalize them now if you'd like but
they will be in like we we're capturing
them well yeah I'll go ahead and express
them some other folks may have have
thoughts uh in this attachment to it
says that 42% of purchases shall be are
is the goal of those from small
businesses and one of my questions is do
the rebate dollars themselves that
households claim are those
considered uh
purchases by the Commonwealth
because those households May for example
spend them at a big big box store on
Appliance or they may hire a contractor
a large or small contractor to do
insulation
work uh another question you don't want
to yeah I think I was just allowing
Jackie the to say anything but we are we
going to address that in the um addendum
okay cool Sorry Andrew that's fine um
and the second
question um and this sort of goes back
to a question asked earlier about should
the uh Prime uh have insurance um this
states that the prime contractors fully
liable and responsible for work done by
its
subcontractors and the the question is
are are uh uh installers to use a
different word hired by households using
rebate dollars are they considered subc
subcontractors uh to the
prime the an example might be would
would the must the prime implementation
contractor assume all liability for the
performance of a heat pump uh installed
by
a a contractor using a here
rebate yeah thanks for the question you
submitted that one right correct yeah
okay
great that's it okay if if no one else
has a question I'm going to move on to
the third attachment
this is a uh inflation reduction act
special terms and conditions do you have
any question regarding that it's a
pretty long
document I'm going to scroll down very
quickly for
yeah okay so I'm moving on to the other
attachment attachment for propriatary
confidential information identification
form if you have any question on this
page okay
attachment
five would you have any question for
this
one here two
pages
okay moving on to the next attachment
which is attachment six
any question on this
page
okay I believe that's the end of
it yes we have exactly six attachments
and we went through six attachments I'm
going to stop sharing my screen
now
okay I think that's it um thanks
everybody really appreciate your
questions we will work as speedily as
possible on that addendum and Jackie do
you have anything any closing
remarks nope I'm good okay well it is
April 18th at 12:51
and everyone gets a break before what
I'm sure is your 1:00 meeting uh really
appreciate it or whatever time in
whatever time zone you are uh so have a
great day everybody and thank you so
much Jackie Aaron hajja um for your
partnership on this bye everybody thank
you thank you thank you