Survey on the energy consumption characteristics - RFI

Introduction:

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is releasing this Request for Information to investigate the potential of private sector survey firms to conduct a survey on the energy consumption characteristics in multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) in Canada.

Background:

The Office of Energy Efficiency Buildings Division aims at helping the building sector to reduce its energy consumption. For this purpose, it is offering a number of programs and services, the suite of programs under the ecoENERGY initiative. These include enhancing the National Energy Code for Buildings 2011, the Canadian adaptation of the U.S. energy benchmarking system Portfolio Manager, training, case studies, and information for stakeholders. The Division is also responsible for the delivery of the Federal Buildings Initiative and the Natural Resources Canada - Public Works and Government Services Low Carbon Memorandum of Understanding, which aims at promoting the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy federal targets to federal facilities, and supporting federal organizations in achieving the GHG reduction goals. The Division is always analyzing the market to help develop new programming for the end of the current funding cycle, in 2016.

The Buildings Division has identified a data gap in the area of MURBs. Information is required to quantify the stock, understand the energy use and calculate Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions for this building type. A survey of MURBs would provide statistically-reliable characteristics on buildings in this sector and quantify their energy use in relation to other types of buildings. The primary purpose of the survey results would be used as input to NRCan’s determination of energy scores for the ENERGY STAR Benchmarking tool. Results would also assist NRCan in future program planning and establish a baseline for comparison with future years; and ultimately, to attribute GHG emissions for these building types.

Objectives of this Request for Information:

NRCan is requesting that respondents provide a written response to the following questions related to a national level survey on Multi Unit Residential Buildings (MURBs). Your responses are intended to aid NRCan to formulate and plan its approach to finalise a potential Request for Proposal (RFP). Please provide explanations and rationale for each response provided.

Conference call:

A conference call will be held on December 21^st from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. to answer any questions and provide clarification to potential respondents. Respondents are requested to contact the Contracting Authority via email (Serge.Tshimanga@canada.ca) no later than Friday December 18^th in order to confirm their participation/attendance.

Closing date and time of the Request For Information

The deadline for submissions of a response is 15 January 2016 at 02:00 p.m. (E.S.T.).

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Survey Design

1. What information would you need in order to build a frame for this survey or would you have access to a pre-existing frame?
2. What approach would you use in order to collect energy consumption data from utility providers and from building owners?
3. Would you have the capacity to conduct this survey in both official languages?

Data Processing

NRCan intends to use the data resulting from this survey to feed in to their ENERGY STAR building benchmarking program. They are also obligated to keep the data provided by respondents confidential.

1. How would you handle and process the data in order to ensure a level of data quality sufficient to serve as a basis for the mathematical regression analyses required to develop building energy scores fed in to the benchmarking software?

2. What approach would be used to maintain the confidentiality of the data?

Additional Information

In order for you to eventually bid on an RFP for this survey what additional information would you need to properly cost the survey?

Price

1. From your experience with similar initiatives, what price range excluding taxes would you estimate for the survey - <$250K, $250-$400K, $400-$550K, $550K-$700K, $700K-$850M, $850-$1M, $1M- $1.5M and >$1.5M?

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Additional information:

Links to the information on the Survey of Commercial and Institutional Energy Use:

http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5034

http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV_f.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5034

Instructions:

Vendors must send their response via email to Serge.Tshimanga@canada.ca. The file document should contain the company information (name, address, phoneand point of contact).