NCPA Community Safety Power Outage (CSPO)

Purpose
NCPA is calling for Engineering Consultants with expertise in several aspects associated with Wildfire Mitigation (WFM) and Community Safety Power Outages (CSPO) to provide qualifications for future work in support of our members. This Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is to request Engineering Consultants to provide supporting evidence of their experience in the areas listed in this document.

Background
NCPA is a joint powers agency, a public entity established under California Government Code sections 6500 et seq. NCPA was established in 1968 by a consortium of locally owned electric utilities to make joint investments in energy resources that would ensure an affordable, reliable, and clean supply of electricity for customers in its member communities. NCPA Members include municipalities, a rural electric cooperative, and other publicly owned entities for which the not-for-profit agency provides such services as the generation, purchase, aggregation, scheduling, and management of electrical energy. NCPA Members are: the Cities of Alameda, Biggs, Gridley, Healdsburg, Lodi, Lompoc, Palo Alto, Redding, Roseville, Santa Clara, Shasta Lake, and Ukiah, the Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative, the Port of Oakland, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, and the Truckee Donner Public Utility District (individually referred to as “Member” or collectively as “Members” hereafter). NCPA also has a reciprocal relationship with the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) in regard to procurement activities, including RFPs and Contracts, which allow NCPA to share access to those services with both SCPPA and SCPPA Members.

NCPA owns and operates a fleet of electric generation facilities on behalf of its members. Several of these facilities and associated equipment are located within the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protect (CAL FIRE) Hazard Severity Zone and/or California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Fire Threat Zone. Many NCPA Members also own and operate electric generation facilities and equipment, and/or distribution and transmission assets, within a CALFIRE Hazard Severity Zone and/or CPUC Fire Threat Zone. NCPA Members are committed to safety and to protecting ratepayers’ investment by taking reasonable and cost-effective measures in an effort to safeguard key assets of its distribution system.

Community Safety Power Outage (CSPO)
Over the last decade, California has experienced increased, intense, and record-breaking wildfires. These wildfires have resulted in a devastating loss of life and billions of dollars in property and infrastructure damage. With the continuing threat of wildfire, POUs and electrical cooperatives may proactively cut power to electrical lines as a measure of last resort if the utility reasonably believes that there is an imminent and significant risk that strong winds may topple power lines or cause major vegetation-related issues leading to increased risk of wildfires. For the purpose of this RFQ this can be referred to as a Community Safety Power Outage (CSPO).
NCPA members have started the effort of preparing CSPO plans requiring engineering consultants with subject matter expertise in the areas detailed in the scope of work section of this RFQ.

Scope of Work
NCPA expects selected Engineering Consultant to demonstrate expertise in the following areas:

Fire Risk Analysis:
Conduct analysis to quantify fire risk and recommend risk mitigation for transmission and/or distribution within members’ service area, taking into consideration the following elements:
• Vegetation and terrain characteristics
• Weather conditions: Wind speeds, moisture, lightning.
• Distribution circuits construction: Exposed overhead lines, covered overhead lines, underground lines, wood poles and other characteristics.
• Distribution circuits configuration: Configuration may vary depending on the operation of reclosers, manual switches and fuses.
• Continuous monitoring device data.
• Critical areas if a fire starts: based on terrain conditions, fire suppression capacity, how easily the fire can propagate and/or the type of customers in the area.
• Members available data: Circuit data, maintenance records, operational procedures, member’s own weather stations.
• Identification of publicly available weather data, like CALFIRE or PG&E weather stations that would be useful for the fire potential index calculation.
• Members’ existing wildfire mitigation plans.
• Other elements Consultant deem relevant for a fire potential index calculation.
Finally, after the Fire Risk Analysis is completed, Consultant shall provide members with recommendations on how to reduce Fire Risk in the most critical areas. Recommendations may include but not be limited to:
• Undergrounding powerlines
• Covering overhead lines
• System hardening
• Vegetation management
• Installing additional weather stations
• CSPO Programs
• Implementation of continuous monitoring devices, mentioned below in this RFQ.
Recommendations shall be member specific, and area specific, based on calculated Fire Risk Indexes.

System Resiliency:
• Engineering services for the analysis, planning, design and implementation of:
o Undergrounding overhead powerlines
o System Hardening:
 Replacing bare powerlines with strengthened covered powerlines
 Installing fire-resistant poles and cross arms
 Installing more poles to support the weight of covered powerlines
 Removing overhead poles and lines that are no longer needed.
o Remote grids to provide power in less populated areas with high fire risk.
• Vegetation Management – Preparation and optimization of vegetation management plans identifying and prioritizing high risk areas. Services will include but not be limited to:
o Planning for inspections on transmission and distribution overhead lines.
o Identification of areas with overhead lines having a high vegetation risk.
o Identification of circuits with historically high volume of outages due to vegetation.
o Preparation of action plans for vegetation trimming or removal optimizing available resources.
o Proposed the implementation of remote sensing tools for early identification of vegetation risk and the use of this data for overall vegetation management plans.

Continuous Monitoring:
Engineering services for the planning, design and implementation of:
• Early fault detection systems: Devices capturing data for potential faults in power lines, like cracked, broken, or melted primary insulators; broken tie wire, bird caging conductors, broken conductors to name a few examples.
• Distributed fault anticipation systems and line sensors: Systems installed in substations that communicate with line sensors to determine the cause of a fault, like vegetation contact, arcing, sagging, broken equipment, animal interference and others.
• Real-time grid monitoring: Pole mounted, self-powered sensors deployed on transmission towers and distribution poles, to deliver continuous grid monitoring, even during outages. These sensors can alert potential failures in advance to address dangerous conditions before a wildfire starts. Gridscope monitors vibration, acoustics, IR and visible light for early fault detection.
• AI enabled high-definition cameras: Provide visibility into high fire-risk areas using AI to detect ignitions and notify responsible personnel.
• AI enabled weather stations providing insight into conditions across the service area for better prediction and response to severe weather threats.
• Smart meters

Operational Support Tools:
Support development and implementation of real-time tools and procedures that aid operational decision-making during elevated fire-weather periods.
• Establish member-specific fire-risk indices and operational thresholds that translate short-term forecasts and real-time conditions into clear decision aids.
• Integrate member/public data sources to support operational awareness (e.g., weather networks, weather forecasts, sensors, system data and characteristics).
• Configure situational awareness displays and alerts aligned with member protocols and roles.
• Translate planning analysis into concise operational guidance (checklists, decision matrices, reference cards).

Operational Procedures
Preparation and implementation of operational procedures for the following stages of a CSPO plan:
• Prior to CSPO Execution:
Preparation of procedures, with clear steps to be followed, after a fire risk has been identified and before a CSPO is executed. Areas to be considered are the following:
o Fire Risk levels and subsequent actions at each risk level. Actions to be carried out by the members will include but not be limited to:
 Disable circuit reclosers
 Identify switch positions and circuit configurations
 Monitoring of high Fire Risk Areas: Sending crews to the affected area.
 Coordination with fire and police departments.
 Communications with customers
o Decision making protocol: Preparation of Decision-Making Protocols identifying all elements needed to consider moving forward with a power shutoff, and the chain in command involved in making that decision.

• CSPO Execution:
o Communication plan with fire department, police department and customers
o Preparation of power shutoff switching steps: Consultant is expected to work with members to develop circuit specific switching steps having different scenarios depending on circuit configuration.
o Outage area monitoring: AI enabled cameras, satellite imagery, maintenance and operation crews.

• CSPO Restoration:
o Communication plan with fire department, police department and customers
o Decision Making Protocol: Consultant is expected to work with the members to develop a Power Restoration Decision Making Protocol identifying all elements and conditions needed to consider restoring power to affected areas, and the chain in command involved in making that decision.
o Preparation of power restoration switching steps: Consultant is expected to work with members to develop circuit specific switching steps having different scenarios depending on circuit configuration and available resources for manual operations.

• CSPO Optimization:
Preparation of studies and designs for the following improvements:
o Distribution grid automation: Implementation of substation automation and remotely operated distribution line switches. Main goal is to reduce response time and Fire Risk Index.
o Enhanced powerline safety settings (EPSS): Faster trips for protective relays in circuits identified with a high Fire Risk level. These settings shut-off power within one-tenth of a second, or faster, when a hazard contacts a powerline to prevent an ignition that could cause a wildfire, and its implementation must be associated with the Fire Risk level. EPSS will require dual settings (normal operation / fire risk operation) that could be remotely controlled. Consider how these dual settings could affect normal operation of the system.

CSPO Post Event Reporting
Preparation of post event reporting plans for members internal distribution and identify if external reporting is needed with entities like CALFIRE, CPUC, or others. Reporting plans shall include but not be limited to responsible parties, relevant information to be included, distribution list and reporting templates.

Submission Requirements
Interested Consultants must submit:
1. Company profile.
2. A brief letter containing interested consultant understanding of each area of this RFQ
3. Specialized company experience and technical competence in the type of work required based upon the requirements stated in the scope of work.
4. Submit the qualifications of your proposed key personnel based upon the requirements stated in the scope of work.
5. Reference projects providing details of similar work performed by consultant. A minimum of three projects are required.
6. Hourly rates for key proposed positions.
Evaluation Criteria
Proposals will be evaluated based on:
1. Technical expertise and past performance
2. Past project experience associated with the scope of this RFQ
3. Qualifications of key personnel
4. Compliance with NCPA policies

RFQ Special Instructions
1. Respondents may submit proposals for one or more categories of services and proposals should explicitly define which service(s) it is responding to.
2. NCPA reserves the right to select separate and/or multiple consultant(s) for each category of services, or consultant(s) providing more than one service.
3. NCPA seeks proposals, typically for a term of five years, with an estimated start date still to be defined. NCPA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to consider proposals or execute contracts with successful respondents for an agreement term that is greater than or less than five years, which may or may not be structured to include options to extend the terms of the Agreement.
4. Agency intends to execute enabling agreement(s) with successful respondent(s). A sample agreement is included as Attachment A. Services provided under the agreement may include services directly to NCPA or, as requested by NCPA, to NCPA Members, Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA), or SCPPA Members. Respondents should thoroughly review the sample agreement in its entirety.
5. Questions in response to this RFQ must be submitted by email only. Submit all questions to Camilo Espinoza at camilo.espinoza@ncpa.com
6. Time and manner of submission: All proposals must be submitted in electronic format, via email to Camilo Espinoza, camilo.espinoza@ncpa.com. Proposals must be received no later than COB Wednesday December 3rd, 2025.

RFQ Documents: https://www.ncpa.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025_NCPA-CSPO-RFQ.pdf