RFI: Retail Energy Supply Contractors

Event ID EV00007944

Contact Information

Carl Spector

(617) 635-3854

carl.spector@boston.gov 

As agent for the customers of the City of Boston (the “City”) municipal aggregation program, the approval of which is currently pending before the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (the “DPU”) in docket 19-65 (the “Program”), and acting by and through its Commissioner of the Environment (the “Official”), the City hereby requests information from businesses, persons, or entities licensed by the DPU to be a retail electricity supplier (“Respondents”) sufficient to prequalify such Respondents to provide firm all-requirements power supply to Program customers (“Customers”) pursuant to the terms and conditions set forth in the City’s request for information dated April 20, 2020 (the “ RESA RFI”). An electronic copy of the RESA RFI may be obtained after 12 o’clock noon Eastern Time (ET) on April 20, 2020 at the City’s Supplier Portal (www.bit.ly/2RltMAN) under Event ID EV00007944. The RESA RFI will be available up to the deadline for the submission of prequalification statements set forth below.

Respondents shall submit their qualifications statements electronically via the City’s Supplier Portal no later than 12 o’clock noon ET on May 14, 2020 (the “Submission Date”). Qualifications statement must be submitted in a form that conforms in all respects with the requirements specified in the RESA RFI. 

The RESA RFI will not itself result in the award of a contract, and is thus exempt from the public bidding requirements of M.G.L. c.30B. Subsequent to approval of the Program by the DPU, however, the City will issue its first request for proposal (“RFP”) for a retail energy supply agreement (“RESA”) to secure full-requirements electricity supply for Customers. All Respondents that satisfy the criteria set forth in the RESA RFI, and that successfully negotiate a form of RESA with the City, shall be qualified to submit proposals in response to future City RESA RFPs. Proposals submitted in response to such future RFPs by businesses, persons, or entities that have NOT been successfully prequalified in accordance with the RESA RFI will be deemed non-responsive, and will not be considered.

The responsibilities and services of the Program’s electric supplier will include: enrollment of Program customers (“Customers”); printing and mailing of Customer materials; handling Customer interactions; managing and coordinating all account EDI transactions with NSTAR Electric Company d/b/a Eversource Energy (the “LDC”); receiving payments from the LDC and making payments to the Program consultant (currently, Colonial Power Group), the City, and such other charges and payments as permissible under the Program; collecting usage and other Customer data and delivering the same to the City; preparing, in consultation with the City, and submitting all necessary documents and reports to the DPU and other regulatory bodies; and performing all services related to the implementation and ongoing administration of the Program as defined by, and in compliance with, M.G.L. c. 164, §134, and any other applicable statute or regulation.

In 2019, the City’s approximately 300,000 basic service LDC customers had an annual aggregated electric load of approximately 2 million MWh, exclusive of those electricity customers within the City who were then receiving electricity from third-party suppliers. These LDC customers, less those who exercise their right to opt-out of the Program and continue to receive LDC basic service, will be enrolled in the Program.

The RESA RFI is not procurement or a solicitation to provide goods or services, but is being issued to qualify Respondents to submit proposals in response to future RESA RFPs. The RESA RFI does not in any way obligate the City to issue or amend a future RESA RFP, or to include any of the RESA RFI provisions or RESA RFI responses in any such RESA RFP.

All costs associated with responding to the RESA RFI will be the sole responsibility of the Respondents.

The City and the Official reserve the right to waive any defects, or informalities, to accept or reject any or all qualifications statements, or any part or parts thereof, to invite the submission of additional information subsequent to the Submission Date, or to cancel the RESA RFI, if the City deems it to be in the best interests of the City so to do.

Carl Spector, Commissioner of the Environment