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Box 3: The GSA Federal Supply Schedule The General Services Administration is a federal agency that, in addition to running federal courthouses and buildings, offers federal agencies expedited procurement services. The Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) can save both the procurer and vendor months and even years of administrative effort.* For example, the FSS has a listing of PV companies that have contracts with GSA for indefinite quantity and delivery — that is, for no specific project in particular, but open to all orders. Companies get listed on the FSS for a broad category of products. The contract with GSA specifies prices for each product, with the listed prices based on the commercial prices offered for the products in the private market. The contract also contains a price adjustment policy that mirrors prices in the private market for a company’s products.** Contracting Officers from any agency that recognizes the FSS can then select any product from it to fulfill their project needs. By choosing products from a supply schedule, procurement officers can avoid a lengthy Request for Proposal (RFP) process for an individual project, since GSA has already screened and approved products through the standing RFP process. By placing their products on a supply schedule, companies can reach practically the entire procurement community through one process, saving valuable time and energy. Renewable energy products on the FSS currently are limited to distributed energy technologies. However, several GSA officials have hinted at making “green power” a new product category, giving agencies the opportunity to choose the cheapest (and, it is hoped, certified) green power. Because GSA receives a fee for each purchase it brokers, it will only list products if there is sufficient demand from its agencies. But how can agencies purchase renewables if they cannot do so easily from the FSS? This “chicken-and-egg” problem means that facility managers interested in using renewable energy may not know where to find a reliable vendor, or will avoid a lengthy contracting process. Conversely, supply agencies such as GSA will not list products that their customers do not want to buy. This points to the importance of renewable energy firms and advocates pushing GSA and similar agencies to list renewables on their supply schedules, combined with efforts that convince facility managers to buy clean energy and that push political leaders to make renewables a priority throughout the government. |
*(DoD’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) administers a similar schedule. DLA works closely with GSA to avoid listing
duplicate products. DoD facilities can also purchase from the GSA Federal Supply Schedule.
**Vicki Moore, GSA, Fort Worth, Tex., personal communication, June 22, 1998. For a copy of the Federal Supply
Schedule Request for Proposals for solar energy systems, call Vicki Moore at 817-978-8632.