1 STAFF REPORT
DATE
: January 23, 2024
TO: Ju
stin Hess, City Manager
FR
OM: Dawn Roth Lindell, General Manager, Burbank Water and Power VIA: Mandip Samra, Assistant General Manager, Power Supply Riad Sleiman, Assistant General Manager, Electric Services BY: Michael Wang, Principal Electrical Engineer
SUBJECT: Adoption of a Resolution to Approve Design and Construction Services to Support the R egional Intermodal T ransportation C enter Solar Project, Authorize the BWP General Manager to Negotiate and Execute the Design- Build Contract with Baker Electric and Renewables, LLC and Authorize the Assistant General Manager ( Power Supply) or Their Designee to Approve Plans and Specifications t o Retain Design Immunity RECO
MMENDATION
Adopt A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BURBANK APPROVING
DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION SERVICES TO SUPPORT THE REGIONAL
INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION CENTER (RITC) SOLAR PROJECT,
AUTHORIZING THE BWP GENERAL MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND EXECUTE THE
DESIGN-BUILD CONTRACT AS WELL AS ANY ANCILLARY DOCUMENTS AND
AMENDMENTS AS MAY BE NECESSARY WITH BAKER ELECTRIC & RENEWABLES
LLC, AND AUTHORIZING THE ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER (POWER SUPPLY) OR THEIR DESIGNEE TO APPROVE PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS (Attachment 1).
BACKGRO
UND
Pursuant to a 2010 update to the Development Agreement (DA) for the Hollywood Burbank Airport, Burbank Water and Power (BWP) will install a solar generation facility on the roof of the Airport’s RITC. The facility will feature a 2.8-megawatt (MW) array of rooftop-mounted photovoltaic solar generation modules and specifications for a future battery. When the DA was updated, the city foresaw an opportunity to partner with the Hollywood Burbank Airport to help advance the city’s sustainability goals. The updated agreement, together with a right of entry agreement executed in October 2015, allowed BWP the rights to build a solar project at the RITC.
City
Council (Council) adopted a 2040 target date for a zero carbon resources goal . To reach this goal, BWP needs a variety of zero- carbon resources, including in- territory generation and batteries . In-territory generation frees up transmission that would
WATER AND
POWER
2 otherwise import energy. Transmission lines are difficult to permit, expensive to build and have a long lead time. T he RITC project will serve as the first of many utility -distributed generation projects and provide valuable and meaningful real -world data as to how distributed generation resources can be controlled to impact performance of the existing grid and inform our planners and operators on how to maximize the effectiveness and value to the utility.
DISCUSSION
Design-Build Contractor Selection
Staff completed the r equest for proposal (RFP) process for the design and construction services for the RITC solar project and are now seeking the Council’s approval to award the design-build (DB) contract to Baker Electric & Renewables, LLC (Baker).
On August 9, 2023, staff released an open-competitive RFP under bid schedule no. 1521.
The scope of work for this DB contract is a turn-key solar generation facility on the rooftop of the Hollywood Burbank Airport RITC.
A mandatory pre-proposal meeting and job walk were conducted on August 30, 2023 and attended by contractors’ representatives from 14 firms. Three firms responded to the city’s Purchasing Division (Purchasing) with a proposal on October 25, 2023.
Upon receipt of proposals, Purchasing reviewed them to ensure they were complete and responsive. Purchasing deemed one of the firms non-responsive due to not meeting the proposal requirements. After removing pricing information, Purchasing notified BWP on October 26, 202 3, that the proposal s w ere ready and available for BWP to begin evaluating.
The proposals were evaluated using a set of ranking criteria, including business history and performance ( 15%), technical and service ( 20%), design and management, oral presentation and key personnel (1 5%), and price (50%). The evaluation team consisted of highly qualified personnel with expertise in electrical systems, including electrical engineers, substation maintenance and construction staff, electrical system operators, an airport engineer, and an energy consultant . Upon completing the proposal evaluations, the evaluation team compiled and submitted its ranking scores to Purchasing. Afterward, Purchasing was allowed to release pricing information for each proposal to BWP. The price component was scored and final evaluations were tabulated.
After tabulating the score, the evaluation team determined that the best value proposal was submitted by Baker. Baker is qualified to provide design-build services to support the completion of the RITC solar project. Baker’s proposal met all the requirements specified in the RFP, and their project team has installed many similar projects. Baker’s team consists of seasoned and dedicated construction team members with a long history of successful projects and excellent references.
After releasing the total ranking scores to Purchasing, BWP entered negotiations with Baker to come to an agreement on near final contract terms (Attachment 2). Additionally, as requested in the bid schedule, an optional Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) integration was included in Baker’s proposal. The BESS option that was proposed needs 3 more significant negotiation to provide the best value to the city ; therefore , st aff will continue negotiation for a possible addition of BESS and include it directly into the DB Contract or as a change order. If an acceptable option cannot be agreed upon with Baker, staff will pursue a separate BESS contract with another contractor or vendor to execute with Council’s approval.
Staff is recommending that Council find that Baker’s proposal presents the best value and that it is in the best interest of the city to waive the competitive bidding process in favor of the design-build process and authorize the BWP General Manager to execute the DB contract to support the RITC Solar project as set forth in the attached resolution and substantially in the form of the Bid Schedule No. 1521.
Design Immunity
California Government Code Section 830.6 provides design immunity to the city for any injury caused by the plan or design of a construction of, or an improvement to, public property where such plan was approved by the City Council. Design immunity is a liability protection provided for public projects when plans have been reasonably approved and errors may have been found at a later time. In a traditional design-bid-build project, design or plan approval occurs when Council awards the construction project just after bidding.
With a DB project, final plans and specifications are not completed until after Council approval. Therefore, to retain design immunity, Council or any employee exercising discretionary authority must approve the plans and specifications for a project using the DB method. The Council may also delegate this authority. Accordingly, staff requests that Council expressly delegate authority for approving plans and specifications to the BWP Assistant General Manager (Power Supply), or their designee.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Staff presented an overview of the RITC solar project to Council on April 12, 2022 as part of a note and file. On March 2, 2023, staff presented an update to the BWP Board on the initial bid effort, and discussion about the second bid effort took place. In 2023, there were four community outreach events for the Integrated Resource P lan (April 20, July 13, August 10, and October 26) that mentioned the RITC solar project as an example of a project that would fulfill part of the utility’s long-term generation goals. The final Integrated Resource Plan presentation at the Council meeting on December 5, 2023 also mentioned the project. Lastly, in addition to including airport staff on the evaluation committee and oral interviews for the RITC solar project proposals, staff conducted outreach at an airport commissioner’s meeting on September 18, 2023 to provide a conceptual overview and update the commissioners and any members of the public that were present on the progress of BWP’s second bid process for the RITC solar project.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The design and construction work authorized by the resolution meets the exemption criteria set forth in the CEQA Guidelines, Public Resources Code Section 21080.35, which provides that installing a solar energy system on the roof of an existing building or on an existing parking lot is statutorily exempt from CEQA. As indicated in Section 21080.35 (b)(2) this exemption defines a “solar energy system” to include all associated equipment. Associated equipment consists of parts and materials that enable the generation and use of solar electricity or solar-heated water, including any monitoring and 4 control, safety, conversion, and emergency responder equipment necessary to connect to the customer’s electrical service or plumbing and any equipment, as well as any equipment necessary to connect the energy generated to the electrical grid, whether connection is onsite or on an adjacent parcel of the building and separated only by an improved right-of-way. As such, staff recommends that the Council find such activity and adoption of this resolution statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (Public Resources Code, § 21080.35).
FISCAL IMPACT
The total bid cost of the Baker design- build contract to provide design and construction services for the RITC solar project is $ 10,791,048. S taff recommends a n additional contingency amount of $ 539,552 (5% ) to address any unforeseen issues or circumstances. If staff successfully negotiates a BESS option, the expected cost to include a BESS would be approximately $6 to $7 million, in addition to the solar contract.
The total recommended amount is within BWP’s budgeted amount , and sufficient funds exist to fund the design-build contract and contingency for fiscal year 2023-2024.
CONCLUSION
Staff recommends that Council delegate authority to the General Manager of BWP to negotiate and execute a DB contract for the RITC solar project with Baker substantially in the form of Bid Schedule No. 1521, as well as enter into any ancillary documents and amendments as may be approved by the City Attorney’s Office but only to the extent the applicable funds are available and budgeted, and authoriz e the Assistant G eneral Manager (Power Supply), or their desi gnee, to approve plans and specifications for the project, as set forth in the draft resolution.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1 – Resolution
Attachment 2 – Design-Build Agreement