On Call technical support for CalEEMod v.2022.1 and subsequent versions.
The purpose of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to solicit bids from qualified entities with in-depth expertise in modeling, programming, and software development, with a special focus on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and air quality.
The selected contractor will support the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association (CAPCOA) in hosting, maintaining, updating, and expanding the California Emissions Estimator Model (CalEEMod), the CAPCOA Handbook for Analyzing Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions, Assessing Climate Vulnerabilities, and Advancing Health and Equity (CAPCOA Handbook), and its associated website.
CalEEMod is a cloud-based platform that incorporates updated new development emissions modeling and mitigation quantification methodologies, climate adaptation analysis through Cal-Adapt integration, geospatial analysis, consideration of disadvantaged and underserved communities through CalEnviroScreen and the Healthy Places Index, and other features. The CAPCOA GHG Handbook is an award-winning planning resource that provides a common platform of information and tools for evaluating greenhouse gas reduction measures, climate vulnerabilities and promoting equity to support sustainable, resilient, and equitable land use planning and project design.
All questions to this RFP must be submitted electronically via email to Paul Philley at CalEEMod@airquality.org with subject line “RFP Questions”
Questions due by August 15th 2023 by 5:00 PM PDT
All responses to this RFP must be submitted electronically via email to Paul Philley at CalEEMod@airquality.org with the subject line “RFP response”.
Proposal due by August 31st 2023 by 5:00 PM PDT
- Proposals will not be accepted after the time and date indicated above;
- All components of the proposal are mandatory;
- Failure to include all requested information may result in rejection; and
- Minor or inconsequential deviations may be waived.
| Questions | Answers |
| Do hosting costs need to be included in the $150k ceiling, or should these be considered separate? | Hosting costs, along with all other expenses needed for CalEEMod.com to be accessible to our users, need to be included in the $150,000 shall-not-exceed amount. |
| How many new mitigation measures do you anticipate adding in the first year? | CAPCOA does not anticipate adding any new mitigation measures in the first year. However, as part of Sac Metro Air District’s Climate Pollution Readiness Grant, they anticipate quantifying up to 10 new measures for the CAPCOA Handbook, provided the measures can be quantified statewide and backed by substantial evidence. Incorporation into CalEEMod would be expected to take place by the contractor during the second year. |
| How many total users of the current system? Can you please provide a breakdown between internal (e.g. CAPCOA staff) and external users? How many of these users access the system on at least a monthly basis? | There were more than 800 users in the last 28 days with 500 of them being new users. About 70% of users are connecting from California. CalEEMod.com received 90k views in the last 28 days. CAPCOA staff does not use CalEEMod, and Air District staff comprises a small minority of users. |
| How many technical support requests to you receive on a monthly basis? | CalEEMod@airquality.org received 24 external emails during July 2024, and 22 external emails during the month of June 2024. This represents about a dozen requests for technical support per month. |
| Can you please share your top 10 technical support requests? | The most common technical support request involves the model not producing needed results, either due to user error, misunderstanding of the model, or model error. Typical issues include: -NaN/Infinity emissions -Emission sectors missing -Emissions incorrect -Mitigation measure not working/not selectable -Unavailable/incorrect defaults -Requesting results/reports beyond the scope of the current model -Equipment list resets/unstable/can’t be changed -Model runs missing/deleted -Model not calculating results -v2022 results different than v2020 |
| Can you describe the current challenges or pain points with the existing system and/or handbook? Please identify which aspect of the current solution these challenges fall under (underlying AQ model, data integrations, SQL database, IndexedDB, web application, handbook, technical support, etc.)? | Air District members and third-party reviewers of environmental documents would like to have more comprehensive reports. Specific reporting desires include: -Localized Significance Thresholds a.) on-site emissions from construction and operations for NOx, CO, PM10 and PM2.5 b.) Reporting of total ozone precursors (ROG + NOx), along with a total ozone precursor threshold -Default Changes: A report outlining any changes to defaults, to include the original value as well as the new value -Mobile fleet mix and traffic assumptions in reports -Visualizations from the results pages to be included in reports CalEEMod users have asked for easier ways to upload data, such as excel sheets that could be imported directly into various CalEEMod screens and exported to save a template. Additional paving phases are also requested. |
| How many new versions of the AQ model do you typically have per year and/or anticipate in future years? How many major updates to the web app per year? How many minor (e.g. bug fixes, patches, etc.) to the web app per year? | You can view CalEEMod’s release history here: https://caleemod.com/release-notes. Since full launch on December 21, 2022, there have been 14 updates. With respect to defaults, the following are the estimated release schedules for updates for sources of information on which CalEEMod is dependent: Dataset Type |
| When a new dataset is released (for example, EMFAC), is the consultant responsible for post-processing the data to make it usable by CalEEMod or will that be done by CAPCOA or the releasing entity? | Post-processing costs, along with all other expenses needed for CalEEMod.com to be accurate for our users, need to be included in the $150,000 shall-not-exceed amount. As each major dataset is released by different organizations, the consultant should expect varied assistance from the releasing entity. During the creation of v2022, some agencies (such as SACOG) processed their data to fit the proposed CalEEMod schema. Other agencies refused meetings and were skeptical of their data being used in this model. While the contractor can count on the focus group’s support in obtaining data in as usable a form as possible, there may be challenges in obtaining complete information which may require additional analysis by the contractor. |
| Can you please describe your application environments? For example, do you have a testing/QA and staging environments for the web application and underlying databases? | There is a testing environment with restricted access, a staging environment for final review, and a production environment. All three environments are connected to the production database. |
| Will the consultant(s) who are currently providing technical support be available for consultation and knowledge transfer? | Yes. |
| What is the frequency of the CAPCOA organized “regular meetings” with the CalEEMod Focus Group and/or how often can the Consultant anticipate “consultation with CalEEMod Focus Group”? (SOW Task 2) | The CalEEMod Focus Group has met 138 times and has a standing meeting once per month. Currently, the contractor does not typically meet with the Focus Group, but instead has a 20-30 minute call with the Focus Group Chair biweekly, which is based on the current contractor’s development cycle. The Focus Group and the selected respondent will arrange a communication process that most efficiently conveys needed information. |
| From the SOW Task 7, the “research, quantification, development, and integration of new measures…,” etc., do the expectations for this task require the Consultant to collect field data and complete research studies? | No. The quantified measures of the CAPCOA GHG Handbook contains no original research, but instead utilizes published studies to create generally applicable emission reduction formulas. However, as research becomes more available regarding post-pandemic energy use, travel behavior, etc, CAPCOA expects the contractor to advise the focus group regarding adjustments that may be needed for existing measure formulas, as well as addition/removal of measures. |
| Is the web application code under source code management? If so, what do you use? | The code is stored in a git repository. |
| Can you provide a data model diagram for the current SQL database (e.g. Entity Relationship Diagram, or whatever you may have handy – does not need to be overly formal)? | Below is an entity relationship diagram for CalEEMod. |