Canada - Automated scientific buoy (F3709-195036/A)

Description

Trade Agreement: NAFTA / CFTA / FTAs with Peru / Colombia / Panama / Korea
Tendering Procedures: Generally only one firm has been invited to bid
Non-Competitive Procurement Strategy: Exclusive Rights
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Vendor Name and Address:
Multi-Electronique (MTE) Inc.
1, 8e Avenue
Rimouski Quebec
Canada
G5L2L9
Nature of Requirements:

1. Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)

An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

2. Definition of the requirement

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada requires the supply of an automated scientific buoy to replace a buoy carried by the ice. This buoy serves as a floating platform to accommodate a set of oceanographic instruments, provide a power source for instrumentation and support the cellular and satellite modem data transmission system. It must be equipped with a main electronic controller to manage the data flow of the instruments and its transmission, as well as a power management controller for managing the various sensors power supplies and the battery charge. The mechanical structure must be able to receive all the instrumentation normally used on this type of buoy (see Table # 1). It must also have an electrical structure comprising solar panels, batteries, wind turbine and the interconnections between the various electronic components listed above. In addition, the buoy subject to this procurement is part of a network of ten (10) buoys and therefore, compatibility between the buoy controller with existing data processing, transmission, reception and broadcasting systems is mandatory. As such, the system operates using a technology subject to intellectual property that belong to the supplier selected in advance for the main controller, the energy controller as well as for the salinity-temperature-depth-fluorescence-oxygen profiling system (0 to 320 meters).

3. Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements)

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by means of a statement of capabilities that their product / hardware / system (as applicable) meet the following requirements: (Each of the items below must have been demonstrated in the Statement of Capability)

3.1 Essential structural and electrical characteristics of the buoy:

3.1.1 The buoy must use a single anchor line.

3.1.2 The buoy must have a power controller to manage all the electrical components that are connected to the main buoy controller. The power controller must monitor the output voltage of the solar panels, the wind turbine, each battery, and the recharging and consumption current. The wind turbine can also be stopped or started remotely or manually.

3.1.3 The buoy and its sensors has to be powered by two sealed deep-cycle batteries (AGM) that must be completely independent. They shall have a nominal voltage of 12 volts DC (10 to 15 volts) with a total minimum capacity of 400 ampere-hours.

3.1.4 The buoy shall accommodate all the instruments described in table #1 and provide physical protection, i.e. not on the outer periphery of the buoy.

3.1.5 To limit sinker weight (1500 kg.) and because of handling limitation, the buoy's total weight with instrumentation shall be between 1200 and 1400 kg.

3.1.6 All the structure's components shall be non-magnetic, meaning they do not affect the main magnetic compass or those of the ADCP by more than approximately 1 degree. Materials that can be used include but are not limited to 316L stainless steel, titanium, marine-grade aluminum, plastic or compressed foam.

3.1.7 By its design, the buoy, once on the water, shall orient itself in the direction of the sea surface currents. The same side of the buoy shall always face the sea surface current.

3.1.8 Because of logistical and handling considerations, the buoy's overall width shall be between 2.2 and 2.7 meters.

3.1.9 The buoy's overall vertical height with all components must be from 4.27 to 4.88 meters. However, it must be possible to transport the buoy vertically on a trailer (flatbed) 1 meter in height. Given that the maximum legal height of a load on the road is 4.15 meters, the buoy shall have one or more foldable sections that remain attached to the buoy, to limit its height to 3.15 meters during road transport.

3.1.10 On the water, the height between the water line and the overall upper portion shall be between 3.0 and 3.66 meters for weather data compliance.

3.1.11 The buoy shall be bright yellow and have the space to accommodate a buoy lantern.

3.1.12 The buoy shall be designed with 5 instrument wells (i.e. giving access to the water under the buoy), including a central one to hold the optical sensors such that the shadowing effect is uniform. All the instrument supports for the wells shall be made of titanium to resist to the corrosion cause by the chlorine which is used as anti-biofouling.

3.1.13 The center of gravity of the buoy must be at least 20 cm lower than the water line.

3.1.14 All the lifting components of the buoy must have a minimum safe working load of 4500 kg. They shall be accessible for inspection and must be replaceable within 2 hours.

3.1.15 Once on the water, the buoyancy reserve of the buoy must be at least 1500 kg.

3.1.16 By its design, (e.g. built-in ladder, access pit) the buoy shall easily accommodate two people for maintenance at sea and allow to access all the instrumentation without external elevation equipment.

3.1.17 The buoy shall be deployable at depth of up to 500 meters deep in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Atlantic and the Pacific.

3.1.18 Environmental operating limits
Temperature (air): -10 to +50°C
Marine relative humidity: 0 to 100%
Temperature (water): -2 to +35°C
Salinity (water): 0 to 36 PSU
Resistant to a sea state of 10 on the Beaufort scale

3.1.19 Environmental limits for storage
Temperature (air): -30 to +50 °C
Relative humidity: 0 to 100%

3.1.20 The buoy shall remain stable and in a vertical position during workshop maintenance while two people stand on it.

3.1.21 By its design the buoy in vertical position must be easy to move in the workshop with a pallet hand truck.

3.1.22 The buoy shall be equipped with a passive radar reflector.

3.1.23 The buoy must be equipped with 4 solar panels with a minimum total power of 200 watts. The solar panels must be set evenly around the buoy

3.1.24 The buoy must be equipped with a marine wind turbine with a minimum power of 400 watts that does not cause any interference with the weather station or electronic compass.

3.1.25 The main buoy controller must be able to drive the profiling system (see Table #1: MTE Mini-Winch).

3.2 Essential characteristics of the main buoy controller :

3.2.1 The buoy shall be equipped with a data acquisition and processing system, commonly called a main controller. This main controller is connected to the buoy's instruments and sensors (see Table #1). It must be equipped with an Iridium satellite modem and a cellular modem for bidirectional, real-time data transfer. The main controller shall be remotely programmable (communication modem) to change all its parameters, as well as those of all instruments and of the power controller. The main Controller also need to provide an additional bulkhead connector and an empty space of 15cm x 15cm x 5cm for the installation an additional mini-pc and modem (cellular or satellite) to accommodate the marine mammals detection system.

3.2.2 Operating voltage: 9 to 18 volts DC
Maximum consumption: standby power consumption of 7 watts
Internal memory backup 1 terabits
Internal real-time clock on battery
Waterproof casing and Micro Wet Pluggable series connectors
20 RS-232 series ports (bidirectional)
10 16-bit analog inputs
2 digital inputs
4 switched power supplies (ON/OFF) 9 to 18 volts DC
1 48-VDC power supply for the ADCP current meter
1 12-VDC power supply for the Wetlabs Triplet-w

3.2.3 The sampling cycle of the main controller must be adjustable between 15, 30 and 60 minutes.

3.2.4 For each sampling cycles, the main controller shall process and monitor all of the buoy's instrument values.

3.2.5 The controller's internal clock shall be updated after each sampling cycle for which it receives a valid GPS value.

3.2.6 The modem data transfer timing must be programmable by the user for each buoy. Two choices shall be offered for data transfer by the communication modem: complete data not yet transmitted, or a series of compressed data (short string) to limit satellite communication fees.

3.2.7 A land-based receiving program must receive and process all the information received from one or more buoys. The receiving program generates daily files labeled with the buoy's name, the date and the time (UTC) for each group of instruments, including optical data, meteorological data, oceanographic data, CTD profiles, raw data, and power information.

3.3 Data management and control of the different sensors by the main buoy controller :

3.3.1 Both multispectral ocean color radiometers (OCR) are programmed at 6 Hz and shall be measured simultaneously at the start of the cycle at a frequency of 6 Hz for 1 minute (360 valid readings). Then, the main controller decodes and calculates an average, a standard deviation, and a median for each of the 7 wavelengths for both OCR.

3.3.2 The electronic compass is programmed at 6 Hz and the direction measurements shall be corrected with the magnetic declination and the information from the GPS. The true (corrected) direction, the pitch and the roll shall be measured simultaneously with the OCR. The main controller then calculates an average and a standard deviation for the three parameters.

3.3.3 The photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) sensor is programmed to calculate an average every 1 minute, simultaneously with the OCR, and transmit it to the main controller.

3.3.4 The meteorological station (WXT-536) is programmed to calculate an average every 1 minute for wind direction and speed. The main controller shall manage the sampling of all other meteorological station parameters and correct the wind direction value with the corrected value (based on the magnetic declination) of the electronic compass. The main controller shall reset the precipitation values from the meteorological station (WXT536) to zero each day at 00:00 UTC.

3.3.5 The anemometer (WMT-700) is programmed to calculate an average every 1 minute for wind direction and speed. The main controller shall manage the sampling and correct the wind direction value with the corrected value (based on the magnetic declination) of the electronic compass.

3.3.6 The acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) is set to autonomous mode, i.e. a 15-minute cycle with 27 cells of 4 meters and 120 pings measured during 1 minute. After each of these samples, the ADCP saves the information to its internal memory and transmits those values to the main controller. The main controller only decodes information from the first cell of the ADCP and displays it in m/s and knots. The ADCP's complete internal data will be store internally and collected at the end of the season.

3.3.7 The surface conductivity and temperature sensor (CTD) is programmed to calculate a 15-second average for water density, temperature and salinity. The main controller shall control sampling by the surface CTD.

3.3.8 The Seabird SBE 5P submersible pump is activated and controlled by the main controller. The controller requests salinity information from the surface before each start-up, and if salinity is greater than 10 PSU, the pump can be activated for the sampling cycle. When activated, the pump should be on 30 seconds prior measurements by the CTD or any other sensors, and run for a total of 120 seconds.

3.3.9 The Triplet-w is controlled by the main buoy controller, transmitting its three values in engineering units (physical units) to the main controller in addition to saving the raw data to its internal memory.

3.3.10 The SeaFet V1 or V2 pH sensor is controlled by the main buoy controller. It saves its calculated values to its internal memory in addition to transmitting those to the main controller.

3.3.11 The acoustic surface current meter is controlled by the main buoy controller to provide a 1-minute average of the surface (about 1 metre) current's velocity in m/s and knots.

3.3.12 The GPS transfers all NMEA standard information to the main controller, which must extract the necessary information, such as position (latitude and longitude), magnetic declination, UTC date, UTC time, and the speed and direction of the buoy's movement.

3.3.13 The power controller monitor and transmits all the available power supply data to the main controller in volts (i.e. the voltage of each battery, of the wind turbine, of each solar panel and of the main controller itself) as well as the power consumption or production (amperes) (i.e. current for each solar panel, the wind turbine, each battery and the main controller). It also manages the charge of each battery with the power from solar panels and wind turbine.

3.3.14 The CTD O2 Fluo profiler is controlled by the main controller witch needs to determine whether the conditions have been met and insuring buoy's sampling will not be interrupted before carrying out a cast. The data recorded by the CTD profiler and the monitored messages and errors from the winch are sent to the main controller during and after each cast. CTD profiler data are sent through the communication modem based on the user's selection.

3.3.15 The nutrient sensor (SUNA) is controlled by the main controller and programmed to send a 1 minute mean.

3.3.16 The partial pressure of carbon dioxide sensor (pCO2) is controlled by the main controller and programmed to send a 1 minute mean.

3.3.17 The main buoy controller must allow the transmission of the fish tag detection recorded by the acoustic monitoring receiver (VR2C).

3.3.18 The main buoy controller must house and control a wave sensor (Multi-Électronique or Seaview). The wave sensor must be programmed to output maximum height, mean height and period of the wave for a 10 minutes period.

Table #1 : Available upon request

4. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement

This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement(s):
o Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
o Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA)
o Canada-Columbia Free Trade Agreement
o Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement
o Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement
o North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
o Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement
5. Set-aside under the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business

Not applicable.
6. Comprehensive Land Claims Agreement(s)

Not applicable.
7. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier

Since 2013 DFO has an autonomous ocean buoy network to increase its capacity to collect real-time data on the state of the ocean and to serve as a platform for the development of new marine technologies. This network consists of ten (10) identical “Viking” type buoys developed by the selected supplier. Each of these buoys is therefore part of a national system. Consequently, the transmission, management and broadcasting of data by the terrestrial reception program, maintenance, repairs, deployments, recoveries and innovation of this network is centralized. Any implementation on this network must imperatively be done by considering the compatibility of the buoy with the current network and this on many levels. DFO has been working for over 15 years for the development, upgrade and innovation of this network. In addition, 2 years ago, DFO had implemented a completely new system for detecting marine mammals on his buoy network. The protection of marine mammals is now a department priority, so it is imperative that the present acquisition is compatible with this new system. The main controller for which the supplier holds the intellectual property titles already use the required interface for its integration into the system. Any product offered must therefore, in addition to the other requirements, be able to integrate these technologies i.e. the on-board profiler and the marine mammal detection system.
8. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)

The following exception to the Government Contracts Regulations is invoked for this procurement under subsection 6(d) - "only one person is capable of performing the work".

9. Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons

The following exclusion(s) and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under the:

o Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) – Article(s) 513
The Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) limited tender procedures where "for technical reasons there is no competition and the goods or services can only be provided by a particular supplier and there are no alternative products or services.

o North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – Article(s) 1016
In accordance with the NAFTA which allows, due to compatibility, the upgrade of equipment in place. The compatibility factor meets the spirit of Section 1016.2 (b) of the NAFTA applies where, for works of art, or for reasons connected with the protection of patents, copyrights or other exclusive rights, or where there is an absence of competition for technical reasons, the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists.

10. Ownership of Intellectual Property

The manufacturer and designer of the oceanographic buoy subject to this ACAN holds the intellectual property title of the main controller, the power controller and the profiling system.

11. Period of the proposed contract or delivery date

The product must be delivered on or before March 31st, 2020.

12. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier

Multi-Électronique
1, 8e Avenue
Rimouski, Québec, G5L 2L9
13. Suppliers' right to submit a statement of capabilities

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

14. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities

The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is (e.g. February 7th, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. EST).

15. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities

Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:

Vincent DeBlois, eng. mba
Supply Specialist (Marine)
Public Works and Government Services Canada
Government of Canada
601-1550, avenue D’Estimauville,
Québec (Québec) G1J 0C7
Tel. : (418) 649-2712 * Facsimile : (418) 648-2209
Email : vincent.deblois@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca

Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

You are hereby notified that the government intends to negotiate with one firm only as identified above. Should you have any questions concerning this requirement, contact the contracting officer identified above.

An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows departments and agencies to post a notice, for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that it intends to award a good, service or construction contract to a pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contracting authority may then proceed with the award. However, should a Statement of Capabilities be found to meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, then the contracting authority will proceed to a full tendering process.

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services/goods described herein, may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this Notice on or before the closing date of this Notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

The PWGSC file number, the contracting officer's name and the closing date of the ACAN must appear on the outside of the envelope in block letters or, in the case of a facsimile transmission, on the covering page.

The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.

Opportunity closing date

07 February 2020

Value of contract

to be confirmed