DLA Vitality Utility Providers supplies pre- and post-award contracting and technical experience for Service companions who wish to switch possession, operations and upkeep of set up utility methods to a contracted system proprietor.
Since 1999, DLA Vitality Utility Providers has managed the utility providers contracting mission for the Army and the Air Pressure, including the Navy initially in 2019. As of August 2022, DLA Vitality has awarded 101 new and continued utilities privatization contracts for 172 methods at 71 installations.
“The Navy had been doing its personal utilities privatization procurements from cradle to grave,” mentioned Laurie Carlson, Deputy Division Chief of DLA Vitality Utility Providers. “They approached us in 2018 to ascertain an settlement for a three-year pilot program as a result of they misplaced the historic utilities privatization expertise of their contracting store, and so they knew we have been the middle of excellence for the Army and Air Pressure applications.”
In June 2022, DLA Vitality in coordination with Naval Services Engineering Techniques Command awarded a contract to denationalise the wastewater utility system for Naval Station Mayport, Florida. In response to a Navy press launch, the contract will improve the system and adjust to Nationwide Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and Clear Water Act rules, whereas realizing a value avoidance of roughly $65 million over the lifetime of the contract.
The Navy and DLA Vitality are planning on two extra awards in fiscal 2023.
“Over the previous few years, the Navy witnessed our distinctive capabilities, business partnerships and knowledgeable contracting workforce and determined to make the settlement extra everlasting extending the partnership via June 2028,” Carlson mentioned.
Utilities privatization started within the Nineties to assist army installations receive protected, dependable, technologically present, and environmentally sound utility methods at a comparatively decrease value than below authorities possession. Within the privatization course of, army installations shift from the position of owner- operators to that of good utility service clients.
“Most installations have been constructed many a long time in the past and most of the utility methods are outdated and deteriorating,” Carlson mentioned. “Utility providers contracts leverage the specialists to recapitalize methods and obtain resilient and dependable utilities.”
One distinct benefit of a utilities privatization contract is the Providers’ prices for operations, upkeep, renewals and replacements of the system are amortized over 50 years, she mentioned.
“The contracted system proprietor ensures the system is maintained and complies with present codes, requirements, and greatest practices,” mentioned Ken Richardson, DLA Vitality Utility Providers Navy Program Supervisor. “The set up now has a companion it may work with to shortly adapt when change is required, equivalent to know-how developments or altering environmental or security necessities. It’s a long-term resolution to a really actual downside.”
DLA Vitality has earned a powerful fame with each utility corporations and the shopper due to its constant, dependable and environment friendly processes for awarding contracts, Carlson mentioned.
About eight years in the past, Carlson led a deep dive examination of DLA Vitality Utility Providers’ contracting processes. The staff set milestones and outlined the procurement steps inside every milestone in search of methods to enhance, expedite or condense the processes.
“Due to the streamlined processes, we’ve been in a position to efficiently award numerous procurements on time and get outcomes,” Richardson mentioned. “Mayport is a extremely good instance of that. We set a timeline in our acquisition plan that we agreed to with the Navy, and we held to it. We have been in a position to government it on time and ship outcomes.”
DLA Vitality Utility Providers plans to proceed rising its partnerships and serving to army and federal clients improve vitality reliability, safety and resilience.
A video about DLA Vitality’s utilities privatization efforts on Fort Hood, Texas, highlights the set up’s successes in this system. Learn extra about different utilities privatization initiatives within the DLA Newsroom.
Study extra about DLA Vitality Utility Providers and different DLA Vitality applications and providers at www.DLA.mil/Vitality.
