DOE | The Contracting Education Academy

May 26, 2016 By AMK

U.S. Energy Secretary’s visit highlights Georgia Tech’s energy collaborations

During U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz visit to the Georgia Institute of Technology, he delivered the keynote address for the second installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review.

Georgia Tech President G.P. "Bud" Peterson, left, and Executive Vice President for Research Steve Cross, right, host U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz at Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute on May 24, 2016. — Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson, left, and Executive Vice President for Research Steve Cross, right, host U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz at Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute on May 24, 2016.

Moniz also toured the Southern Company’s Energy Innovation Center at Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute in Atlanta’s Tech Square and the Carbon Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory on the Georgia Tech campus.

In his opening address, Moniz said Georgia Tech has the opportunity to play a key role as a center of innovation in developing regional energy solutions. He described a new DOE initiative to establish regional innovation partnerships.

Moniz said different regions have different needs, opportunities and resources, including natural, human and institutional resources. He added that Georgia Tech could serve as an institutional resource for the Southeast.

“We think that is good policy because those portfolios will take on different characters in different parts of the country,” he said.

The Carbon Neutral Energy Solutions (CNES) Laboratory is designed to foster industry collaboration and support translational and pre-commercial research in clean, low carbon energy technologies. Research spans all aspects of the energy cycle from production and generation to distribution and use, and is focused on addressing the most pressing energy and environmental challenges. Core research conducted within the lab includes solar technologies, combustion, gasification, catalysis and bio-catalysis, as well as carbon capture and sequestration.

During a tour of the Carbon Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz receives a demonstration of a new design for a compact heat exchanger for supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle funded by the Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy University Program. Developer of the technology, Devesh Ranjan, associate professor of fluid mechanics in the School of Mechanical Engineering, explains the heat exchanger as Tim Lieuwen, Executive Director of the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech, looks on. — During a tour of the Carbon Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz receives a demonstration of a new design for a compact heat exchanger for supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle funded by the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Program. Developer of the technology, Devesh Ranjan, associate professor of fluid mechanics in the School of Mechanical Engineering, explains the heat exchanger as Tim Lieuwen, Executive Director of the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech, looks on.

“We’re honored to have Secretary Moniz back on the Georgia Tech campus, and it was especially meaningful to have him see one of our showcase facilities,” said Tim Lieuwen, executive director of the Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute. “We have a strong, mutually beneficial relationship with the Department of Energy as we work together to find clean, reliable, affordable and sustainable sources of energy.”

Lieuwen hosted the secretary for a tour of the CNES Lab, which has LEED Platinum status and was funded in part by Recovery Act funding through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST.)

The Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech was established to serve as a conduit for integrating, facilitating, and enabling Institute-wide programs in energy research and development.

Moniz also spent time with Georgia Tech partner, the Southern Company. Southern Company has worked with Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute on a number of research initiatives, including a promising 2005-2007 study on wind. DOE is a longtime supporter of and partner in Southern Company’s efforts to invent America’s energy future through robust, proprietary research and development (R&D).

Through the Energy Innovation Center, Southern Company is extending its R&D commitment by identifying better, more reliable and more efficient ways to increase value for customers through products and services. Many of the ideas being tested in the center come from the Southern Company system’s more than 26,000 employees, while others are surfaced through partnerships with leading universities, research organizations and like-minded companies such as Nest and Tesla.

Michael Britt, left, Vice President of Southern Company's Energy Innovation Center, demonstrates new technology being developed to U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. — **Michael Britt, left, Vice President of Southern Company’s Energy Innovation Center, demonstrates new technology being developed to U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.**

“Southern Company’s decades-long partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy has produced cutting-edge technologies that are reshaping electricity generation in America,” said Southern Company Energy Innovation Center Vice President Michael E. Britt. “Through the Energy Innovation Center at Tech Square and our partnership with Georgia Tech, Southern Company is expanding on its longstanding commitment to finding real energy solutions in coordination with like-minded leaders in R&D – from established corporations to fast-growing startups.”

In addition to the work taking place at the Energy Innovation Center, Southern Company operates DOE’s National Carbon Capture Center in Alabama and has received DOE support for the development of the world’s most advanced coal plant in Mississippi and two of the first new carbon-free nuclear units in a generation of Americans in Georgia.

Moniz also took the opportunity during his remarks to recognize leaders at Georgia Tech such as former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, namesake and distinguished professor in Georgia Tech’s Nunn School of International Affairs, and Provost Rafael Bras for their roles in advising federal energy and national security policy makers.

“We get lots of advice from Georgia Tech and we appreciate it,” Moniz said.

August 13, 2015 By AMK

Energy’s OIG responds to hotline complaint re: Bonneville Power’s procurement system

The Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has substantiated allegations regarding the acquisition of the hiring system acquired by the Bonneville Power Administration as well as general concerns about Bonneville’s procurement office’s operations.

The Department of Energy’s Bonneville Power Administration, which markets wholesale power produced primarily from Federal hydroelectric projects in the Pacific Northwest, operates and maintains about three-fourths of the high voltage transmission in the area. Bonneville has about 3,000 federal employees, which represents approximately 20 percent of the Department’s total federal workforce. In support of its various mission activities and human resources needs, Bonneville makes a number of procurements each year. By statute, Bonneville is exempt from the requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and is permitted to acquire goods and services using its own requirements published as the Bonneville Purchasing Instructions. In an effort to streamline its recruiting and hiring processes, Bonneville acquired the automated Talent Acquisition System (hiring system) in July 2012.

The OIG received a hotline complaint alleging fraud, waste, and abuse related to the acquisition of information technology (IT) systems. The complaint included specific concerns regarding the acquisition of the hiring system, as well as general concerns about the procurement organization’s operations. The allegations made in the complaint were, in part, substantiated in an August 3, 2015 report issued by the OIG. Most prominently, regarding the acquisition of the hiring system, the OIG found that Bonneville spent about $5.2 million for a system that did not meet its needs. The OIG identified significant weaknesses with the system planning, acquisition, and contract administration.

The issues identified were due, in large part according to the OIG, to the accelerated planning, development, and deployment approach used by Bonneville for this particular project. Other contributing factors included a lack of adequate due diligence and accountability on the part of key personnel responsible for acquisition and monitoring of the hiring system and insufficient involvement of Bonneville’s IT Project Management Office. The OIG also noted that Bonneville failed to apply lessons learned from a previous IT system failure, leading to the repeat of past mistakes.

Read the OIG report at: http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/08/f25/DOE-IG-0943.pdf

October 23, 2014 By AMK

Contract management continues to be a challenge at Energy

Contract management at the Energy Department continues to be a significant challenge, says an Oct. 7, 2014 DOE inspector general report.

The DOE is the most contractor-dependent civilian agency in the federal government. It awards contracts, grants and other financial assistance to industrial companies, small businesses, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations.

About 90 percent of the DOE’s budget is spent through those contracting vehicles, the report says.

The Government Accountability Office has included the DOE on it’s high-risk list since 1990 because of inadequate contract oversight.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/doe-oig-contract-management-continues-be-challenge-doe/2014-10-13

May 21, 2014 By AMK

DOE paid more for contractor BYOD than if it had issued government phones

The Energy Department ended up paying more to contractors that brought their own mobile devices than it would have if it had paid to given them government devices, an April 15 DOE inspector general report says.

The DOE pays out a stipend to those contractors that use their own devices, but frequently the phones are loaded up with unlimited voice and data plans that end of costing the DOE more than if they’d paid to supply the contractors with government mobile devices, the report says.

DOE could save at least $2.3 million over the next three years if it could better manage the mobile devices used by contractors, the IG says.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercemobilegovernment.com/story/doe-paid-more-contractor-byod-if-it-had-issued-government-phones/2014-04-22

January 14, 2014 By AMK

DOE awards Georgia Tech, GTRI contract to detect cyber attacks on utilities

Today’s cyber attacks aren’t just a threat to computer networks. Those with malicious intent can disrupt important infrastructure systems such as utilities and power grids.

The trick is to identify when such attacks are underway.

Through a cooperative, cross-campus effort, the Department of Energy awarded the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Georgia Tech and its cost-sharing partners $5 million to help detect cyber attacks on our nation’s utility companies.

By partnering with the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s National Electric Energy Testing, Research and Applications Center (NEETRAC) and the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI), GTRI’s Cyber Technology and Information Systems Laboratory (CTISL) will work together with renowned experts in SmartGrid technology to develop protocols and tools to detect such attacks.

“Utilities and energy delivery systems are unique in several ways,” said CTISL researcher Seth Walters, one of the principal investigators on the project. “They provide distribution over a large geographic area and are composed of disparate components which must work together as the system’s operating state evolves. Relevant security technologies need to work within the bandwidth limitations of these systems in order to see broad adoption and they need to account for the varying security profiles of the components within these power systems.”

To detect adversarial manipulation of the power grid, the cyber security tool suite will consist of advanced modeling and simulation technologies and a network of advanced security sensors capable of acting to protect the power system in real-time on the basis of this modeling and simulation.

“This project is particularly exciting as it integrates GTRI’s cyber security expertise, with the expertise in grid and electrical power of NEETRAC and ECE,” said SEI Executive Director Tim Lieuwen. “A key piece of our campus energy strategy is promoting certain signature energy areas where Georgia Tech combines unique breadth and depth into best of class capabilities – the area of electrical power is one of those, and this project further demonstrates Georgia Tech’s commitment to this space.”

The project will consist of three phases, which include research and development, test and validation at Georgia Tech, and technology demonstration at operational utility sites with the assistance of multiple utility company partners.

“GTRI’s expertise in systems engineering and cyber security will be a great advantage for execution on this award,” Walters said. “We also have the singular advantage in being able to collaborate with professors from Georgia Tech. The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering was instrumental in bringing emerging research ideas to the proposal narrative.”

A truly collaborative proposal process, GTRI worked with professors Sakis Meliopoulos, Santiago Grijalva and NEETRAC engineer Carson Day, who are experts in power grid and smart grid technology, and Raheem Beyah, an expert in cyber security.

“My group, the Communications Assurance and Performance [CAP] Group, will work with GTRI researchers to develop, test and deploy a context-aware network-based intrusion detection system [NIDS],” Beyah said. “Working with a power grid simulator, the NIDS will have the ability to prevent network packets containing application-layer commands that render the power grid unstable from entering the network.”

A Georgia Power Distinguished Professor and SEI Associate Director, Grijalva will integrate a cyber-power co-simulator where numerous cyber-attack mechanisms can be simulated, including their effects in the physical power infrastructure. He will also develop real-time decision-making algorithms that evaluate the impact of potential cyber-induced power infrastructure malfunction.

“The proposed cybersecurity system is complex, so a disciplined approach to delivering a system of systems which embodies this complexity will be required,” Walters said. “Furthermore, as part of research and development, we will be working to ensure that the tool suite, as conceptualized by the team, remains relevant to current and emerging industry needs.”

CTISL Emerging Threats and Countermeasures Division Chief Andrew Howard noted that this is a unique part of this proposal. “This proposal isn’t just about the research,” Howard said. “In addition to the extensive modeling and simulation, it’s also about developing a commercialization plan for other utilities to benefit.”

Source: http://gtri.gatech.edu/casestudy/doe-awards-gtri-contract-detect-cyber-attacks-util

During U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz visit to the Georgia Institute of Technology, he delivered the keynote address for the second installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review.

The Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has substantiated allegations regarding the acquisition of the hiring system acquired by the Bonneville Power Administration as well as general concerns about Bonneville’s procurement office’s operations.

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