2 additional biomass companies win Army MATOC contracts

On Feb. 20, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, working with the Army Energy Initiative Task Force announced two additional biomass energy companies were awarded contracts that will enable them to bid on $7 billion in future renewable energy task orders. The two companies, Ameresco Inc. and Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., received Multiple Award Task Order Contracts. The Army awarded similar contracts to 15 solar and three wind companies. The program is also open to geothermal energy.

The Army originally announced the $7 billion MATOC request for proposal (RFP) in August 2012. The contracts are designed to help the Army procure reliable, locally generated, renewable and alternative energy through power purchase agreements. During an initial round of announcements in September 2013, 13 biomass companies were selected to receive the contracts. According to information released by the Army, this second round of MATOC awards keeps with the original RFP, which allowed for immediate awards to firms within the competitive range and additional awards to firms that qualified after further evaluation by the government.

"We are adding these additional companies to those already in the technology pools to ensure we have enough pre-qualified companies ready to submit proposals on task orders as they come up," said Col. Robert Ruch, commander, Huntsville Center.  "Huntsville Center is doing everything we can to ensure task orders for future projects will be awarded as quickly as possible."

The qualified MATOC companies are eligible to bid on future renewable energy task orders. As renewable energy opportunities at Army installations are assessed and validated, the Huntsville Center said it will issue a competitive take order RFP to the prequalified MATOC companies for the specific technologies.

Currently we are working projects and expect to deliver a task order in the next several months," said Amanda Simpson, executive director of the EITF. 

There are now 79 MATOC qualified companies, including 15 biomass companies. The 13 biomass companies that originally received the contracts include Acciona Energy North America Corp., ECC Renewables LLC, EDF Renewable Energy, Emerald Infrastructure, Energy Answers International Inc., EIF United States Power Fund IV L.P., Needham, Mass.; Energy Management Inc., Honeywell International Inc., MidAmerican/Clark Joint Venture, Pacolet Milliken Enterprises Inc., Siemens Government Technologies Inc., Stronghold Engineering, and Energy Systems Group LLC.

The MATOC involves third-party financed renewable energy acquisitions and involves no Army or U.S. Department of Defense capital, or military construction appropriation. The Army or DOD will purchase power from the contractors, which will own, operate and maintain the generating assets. The estimated value of $7 billion capacity refers to the total dollar value of the energy available for purchase under all power purchase agreement task order for their entire term, which is up to 30 years. The contracts will support the Army’s mandated goal to source 25 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2025.