THE CITY OF SEATTLE
SEATTLE CITY LIGHT DEPARTMENT
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
for
Electric Utilities Support Services Benchmarking and Best Practices Studies

Pre-submittal conference that is being held Monday, December 1^st, from noon – 1:30pm. 

The conference information is:
Conference location is: Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 5^th Avenue, Suite 3205, Seattle WA. 

Dial In:  800-501-9384      International: 303-248-0189 

Conference ID:  8413509

The City of Seattle, Seattle City Light Department (“SCL”), seeks to engage a consultant to provide consulting services to conduct a series of Best Practice and Benchmarking studies in Support Services functional areas. The areas to be studied are Conservation, General and Cost Accounting, Environmental Affairs, Finance and Budget, Fleets, and Facilities. 

SCL is seeking qualified firms to:

• Develop a series of performance metrics for each separate study area;
• Benchmark City Light’s performance for these separate study area metrics against approximately 15 comparable electric utilities in the United States;
• Determine which utilities are “best practices” utilities and what sets them apart from other utilities;
• Perform a gap analysis between best practices utilities and City Light;
• Make recommendations to City Light management about how to improve performance;
• Quantify anticipated savings/efficiencies or additional revenue from implementing the recommendations. 

The term of the contract shall extend from the date of execution by the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of Seattle City Light, or designee, sometime in the first or second quarter of 2015 through approximately September 2015. Contracts may be awarded for separate functional areas, or one contract as a whole to include all functional areas.

SCL may, at its option, amend the original contract for scope, time, and funding, subject to the continuing appropriation authority by the Seattle City Council. 

OBTAINING RFP DOCUMENTS: Documents are available online at http://www.ebidexchange.com/seattle. Consultants must complete a free registration prior to viewing, printing and saving to their own equipment at no cost, or ordering full or partial document sets and/or CDs through the Web site. For help using this site, or to order documents if you are unable to access the Web site, please call eBid Systems at 206-855-8430 or toll-free at 1-888-291-8430. Free internet access to obtain these documents is available at Seattle Neighborhood Service Centers and most public libraries. 

Proposals (seven copies) must be delivered by 3:00pm PST on December 15, 2014, to the address below:
Seattle City Light
Attn: Lorrie van den Arend, SMT 3004
Procurement & Contracting Division
700 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3200
Seattle, WA 98104-5031                                         

The City’s proposed schedule is outlined in the RFP.

The contract that is awarded as a result of this RFP will be awarded in a manner that will comply with all applicable laws of the United States, State of Washington, the City Charter, and Ordinances of the City of Seattle.

WOMEN AND MINORITY AFFIRMATIVE EFFORTS REQUIREMENTS: All proposals are required to meet the Affirmative Efforts requirements as specified in the RFP. An Outreach Plan will be required for the top rated consultant(s).”