The state is seeking a software solution to help manage cost allocations for the State Water Project, a complex task that involves dozens of public entities and millions of dollars in allocations.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is working through the California Department of Technology (CDT) to phase in an “expedited” solution. The agencies have already held a bidders’ conference, and Tuesday was the last day for vendors to submit intents to bid and confidentiality statements. Vendors have until Monday to submit questions. The state will publish the questions on Nov. 4, and it will evaluate responses to Phase 1 submittals by Nov. 18. The next step — the state’s notification of bidders chosen to advance to Phase 2 (proof of concept) — is set for Dec. 6.
The State Water Project is a sprawling network of dams, reservoirs and other water storage facilities, pumping stations and power generation facilities that’s designed to deliver more than 4 million acre‐feet of water annually to 29 agricultural, municipal, and industrial water contractors. But because the amount delivered to each entity varies depending on the state’s water supply and fluctuating use and demand, the amount owed to the state by each entity varies and needs to be reconciled regularly.
DWR now uses several interfaces and systems to perform the complicated cost allocation routines for each of those contractors. DWR’s goal is to have a new, single system to handle these calculations and assessments. It’s using an expedited and phased solicitation process to that end.
The system will operate either on premise at DWR or on a public commercial or government cloud. The list of needs is lengthy, including everything from software licensing to staff recruitment.
“We’re very excited to use the expedited and phased solicitation process,” CAB program director Dena Uding said in a DWR blog post. “To our knowledge, it’s one of a handful of projects of this size and complexity to use this process, and we’re really hoping it will provide DWR with a best-in-class solution.”
More information about the project is available online.
