City of White River HVAC and Building Automation

Procurement Summary

Market research and industry outreach was conducted by the school district from October 2023 through August 2024. The school district reached out to multiple industry leading suppliers to determine whether any of their products/manufacturers could certify that the products met Build America, Buy America requirements. None of the manufacturers were able or willing to provide certification prior to receiving on order. The school district reached out to building automation controls manufacturers, including the company whose product is already installed in the district. While much of the manufacturing is performed in the US, none of the manufacturers could certify that they could meet the 55% US components requirement. The DOE Technical Project Officer utilized both online searches and email inquiries, and coordinated with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. These revealed that there does not appear to be any air-to-air heat pumps manufactured in the U.S. that provide the specifications the recipient requires, that are also BABA compliant. The school district also relied on and determined that the conditions listed in DOE BABA Waiver 2024-01 still apply.

Description of items, products and materials or categories of such anticipated to be covered by this waiver

• 4-Pipe Chilled & Heating Water central Utility Plant (CUP) with Thermal Ice Energy Storage (White River Main Campus) with Building Automation Controls: Dedicated Outdoor Units, Split-System Heat Pumps, Packaged Units, Chillers, Boilers, Pumps, Ice Storage Tanks, Air Handling Units, Energy Recovery Units, Hydronic Cassette Units, Hydronic Unit Heaters, Hydronic Accessories (Expansion Tanks, Air/Dirt Separators, Glycol Feed Assemblies, etc.), piping, fan coil units, Blower Coil units, and building automation system master controllers that enable scheduling, alarming, and monitoring of the systems to reduce energy and cost expenditures. • Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems (Norris School) with integrated Building Automation Controls: Dedicated Outdoor Units, Split-System Air-to-Air Heat Pumps, Packaged Units, VRF Heat Recovery Condensing Units, associated ducted and cassette type Fan Coils, and standalone VRF manufacturer building automation system master controllers that enable scheduling, alarming, and monitoring of the VRF system to reduce energy and cost expenditures. • Electrical Distribution Equipment: Switchboards, Distribution Boards, Panel Boards, and fused disconnect switches, and circuit breakers to power to main campus and Norris school.

Public comment link

Final waiver link