As signaled, the Department of Energy’s final solicitation for a new Technical Support Services contract at the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office was published Tuesday.
DOE’s Office of Environmental Management procurement office said in mid-February that the final request for proposals (RFP) for technical support at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky and the Lexington, Ky., headquarters, was imminent.
The winning contractor is expected to provide administration and technical support to DOE and its contractors at Portsmouth and Paducah for nuclear cleanup, decontamination and decommissioning and depleted uranium hexafluoride operations. The winner will also provide various regulatory compliance help along with information technology and cybersecurity support, according to the RFP.
The small business set-aside RFP has a size standard of 1,000 employees, DOE said in the Tuesday news release.
The 1,000-employee ceiling gives DOE plenty of flexibility in selecting a contractor, one industry executive told Exchange Monitor Thursday afternoon. The executive believes the contract could draw proposals from the incumbent Pro2Serve, Navarro, Los Alamos Technical Associates, S&K and Longenecker, among others.
DOE plans a five-year contract with a three-year base and two potential one-year option periods, according to the RFP materials.
Bid proposals are due to DOE by 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 9, according to the cover page. DOE expects to publish answers to contractor questions a couple of weeks before the submission deadline, according to the RFP. According to the RFP cover page, questions on the procurement should be submitted by March 5.
Enterprise Technical Assistance Services, a Pro2Serve company, is the incumbent with a $179 million contract due to expire in March 2025.
DOE will evaluate the bidders on cost, management approach, key personnel and performance over the past five years, according to the RFP materials.
DOE published the draft RFP in December and followed up with an online pre-solicitation briefing in January, which drew more than 50 participants.