BIPCo planning group interviews two bidders in closed meeting, with a third bidder in the wings By Abby Fox On Tuesday, Feb. 14, the Block Island Power Company working group held a closed meeting for more than four hours to interview two bidders who have applied to perform an Integrated Resource Plan.

An Integrated Resource Plan is a long-term planning effort to evaluate energy needs and find the most cost-effective and environmentally sensitive way to meet those needs.

In December, the group, made up of BIPCo president Al Casazza, Steve Scialabba of the R.I. Division of Public Utilities and Carriers and town representative Everett Shorey, received two bids — one from La Capra Associates of Boston, Mass., in conjunction with GDS Associates; and one from Synapse Energy Economics of Cambridge, Mass. On Tuesday, the group interviewed both of them.

Afterwards, Shorey wrote in an email to the B.I. Times , "We remain pleased with both parties." At this point, he added over the phone, he isn't "prepared to discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses" of each firm, but "I'd be comfortable with either of them."

The meeting wasn't open to the public, despite the efforts of Town Manager Nancy Dodge and Peter Voskamp of the B.I. Times , who requested last week that it be opened. "They wanted it to be private," BIPCo CEO Cliff McGinnes said this week. "I don't know why it was closed."

Scialabba said the meeting was "no more private than when I'm having a meeting with anyone in my office. We're not subject to the open meetings statute. It's a working group and we were holding a job interview; we wanted to have the meeting dynamics somewhat reasonable." He added, "There's nothing nefarious about it. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of potentially opening this up to anyone. We're trying to conduct a free flow of information."

Several weeks ago, BIPCo management told the working group it wanted to invite HDR Engineering of Billings, Mont., to bid. The national firm has done work for BIPCo for several years, such as a long-range distribution plan and an alternative-energy study. The first two bids, from La Capra and Synapse, came in "a little high," McGinnes said. Scialabba said, "The company wanted to add HDR. We didn't see the harm in getting a third bidder."

HDR's proposal, sent in last week, states, "HDR's work for BIPCo has allowed us to become very familiar and understand the island power system. HDR's work on Block Island has afforded us an understanding of various island dynamics and entities such as the Power Company, and the Town Management and Energy Committee."

Last year, during the power company's rate case before the Public Utilities Commission, HDR's renewable-energy report was criticized by the town's expert witness in the rate case, who called it "not much more than some assembled materials available from the Internet and descriptions of a handful of supply-side options." Island-based engineer Chris Warfel was also not impressed by HDR's renewable report.

The IRP committee plans to interview HDR on March 14, and to pick a bidder soon after. "The process is moving forward," Shorey said.

HDR' s application

HDR's proposal is half as long as the other bidders, and doesn't explain in as much detail what it intends to do.

Another interesting difference is that the people who would be working for HDR on the plan all work in the western United States — in Nebraska, Montana, and Washington, for instance. La Capra and Synapse, in contrast, are only one state away, in Massachusetts, and many more of their clients are in New England.

Finally, it seems that HDR's personnel don't have the credentials the others do. A comparison between HDR and Synapse, for instance, shows that more Synapse workers have advanced degrees, especially in the sciences, and a couple have Ph.Ds in engineering. At least seven of the Synapse employees mentioned in their proposal have master's degrees, while HDR has about three people with master's degrees.

The cost of HDR's proposal is "in the same range" as the other two, Shorey said.