**Attachment A**

**STATEMENT OF WORK**

**A. BACKGROUND**

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is an independent
statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE). The EIA is the Nation\'s primary Governmental source of energy
information for the Executive Branch, Congress, State governments,
industry, and the public. EIA\'s major missions are the collection,
analysis, and dissemination of energy data. This entails: designing and
implementing surveys (including where appropriate, electronic reporting
systems for surveys or computer-assisted survey collection methods);
developing and maintaining necessary survey frames; developing
estimation and editing procedures; designing, developing, maintaining
and operating automated systems for survey processing, data analysis and
forecasting; and response to inquiries, disseminating paper and
electronic products, publication and document storage for all energy
areas.

All current and future EIA Offices and components will be supported
through this contract, including, but not limited to the following: the
Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels (CNEAF); the
Office of Integrated Analysis and Forecasting (OIAF); the Office of Oil
and Gas (OOG); the Office of Energy Markets and End Use (EMEU); the
Statistics and Methods Group (SMG); the National Energy Information
Center (NEIC); the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Office
of Resource Management (ORM).

EIA uses a Local Area Network (LAN) with over 60 Windows NT and UNIX
Servers and an Enterprise Server (currently an IBM S/390 operating under
MVS/ESA and UNIX), a nationwide telecommunications network, and an
expanding number of personal computers (most are linked to the LAN and
mainframe) to carry out EIA=s mission activities.

A variety of mainframe, server, workstation and personal computer (PC)
software is used to accomplish EIA\'s data processing and data
dissemination tasks. The software consists of high‑level computer
programming languages, client/server applications, n-tier browser based
applications, database management systems, spreadsheets, word processing
programs, graphics packages, statistical packages, data collection
software, document composers, communication packages, networking
packages, graphical validation tools, geographical information and
mapping programs/packages, and desktop publishing software. Also a
number of LAN and workstation operating systems are used, including
various versions of Windows workstation and server software, Unix, and
NetWare.

**B. SCOPE OF WORK**

### General Requirements

In order to fulfill its legislative mandate, EIA enlists a broad range
of contractor support. The contractor is required to meet both ongoing
and special requirements of the EIA mission.

Ongoing requirements consist of the following activities: survey
operations, including computer processing operations and routine data
collection via mail, computer-assisted survey information collection or
electronic data reporting; survey design, sample design, and frames
development and maintenance; preparation of reports and publications,
including graph/table generation and editorial, layouts and graphics
support for weekly, monthly, annual, ad hoc, and special reports;
data/information dissemination including web posting, analytic and
technical writing; national and international energy analyses, data
processing systems, and network operations and maintenance; development
and maintenance of energy models and data bases, outreach activities,
and total quality management.

Special requirements may include the following activities: system
enhancements, development of new systems or new linkage between systems,
data research projects, the conduct of special purpose or quick‑response
data collection, analysis projects, and support in response to energy
emergencies or training. The Contractor may also be required to conduct
focus groups consisting of potential respondents to investigate proposed
new areas of inquiry and/or groups of data users to determine user
needs. Accordingly, the Contractor shall be required to have in-depth
knowledge of designing and conducting focus groups, especially as they
apply to defining issues for questionnaire development. For
computer-assisted telephone and personal interviewing data collection
requirements, the Contractor will need a survey telephone center and the
capability to employ a staff of field interviewers throughout the United
States.

In addition, the contractor may be required to support specialized
financial data quality audits and review requirement(s) for data
collected by the Financial Reporting System (Public Law 95-91 Sec. 205
(h)). This requirement must be performed by a team of independent
Certified Public Accountants whose firm has no conflict of interest in
auditing the financial statements of major U.S. energy-producing
companies.

The contractor shall provide the necessary personnel, materials,
hardware and facilities (except as specified herein) to implement,
operate, and improve survey operations, data collection, data
processing, data analysis and forecasting, data integration, and
information dissemination systems for EIA products.

The desired services, deliverables, and schedules for specific projects
will be defined in EIA approved task assignments. These task assignments
will fall under major task areas as outlined in the following sections
of the Statement of Work.

The contractor shall have available statisticians with experience in
survey sampling. The contractor shall also have available survey
statisticians familiar with nonresponse, quality assurance, and
imputation techniques.

The contractor shall from time to time have access to proprietary
commercial software and data bases. All contractual terms limiting EIA
access to these software packages or data bases apply to the contractor
including legal penalties for divulging proprietary software or data.
The contractor shall also adhere to all DOE and EIA orders, regulations,
and standards concerning the treatment of EIA/DOE confidential
information as stated in DOE Order 1360.2B, EIA Standards Manuals, and
the Operations Security (OPSEC) Manual (note the **Operations Security
Program** below).

Under no circumstances is the contractor permitted to copy or cause
copies to be made of proprietary software or data, or provide access to
proprietary software or data to third

parties for any purpose.

The contractor shall be in compliance with EIA Standards addressing
virus protection procedures.

**[Operations Security Program]{.underline}**

***The Energy Information Administration (EIA) maintains a Program
(Operations Security (OPSEC)) that is designed to protect information
collected in EIA's surveys. The EIA security policies and program
requirements described in this Manual are the responsibilities of all
EIA Federal and EIA Contract employees. The Manual for this Program
takes the form of various elements such as: staff security training,
pre-hire certification, and integrity of EIA data systems, fair practice
disclosure policies, and physical security of proprietary/sensitive
unclassified EIA data. These and additional elements of this Program are
described in the [DOE/EIA Operations Security (OPSEC) Program Manual
(February 2002)]{.underline} available through the National Energy
Information Center, EI-30, Energy Information Administration, U.S.
Department of Energy, Washington, DC 20585. Phone: 202-586-8800/FAX:
202-586-8534 or 202-586-0727.***

####### 

####### 

####### TYPES OF WORK REQUIRED UNDER TASK ORDERS

> **The five (5) major functional areas are defined as follows:**

1.  **[Information Management and Product Production (Functional Area
    1)]{.underline}**

2.  **[Energy Analysis and Forecasting (Functional Area
    2)]{.underline}**

3.  **[Communications Services, Records Management and Administrative
    Support (Functional Area 3)]{.underline}**

4.  **[Information Technology (Functional Area 4A-4D)]{.underline}**

**4-A. Facility Management, Enterprise Server Support, Network
Operations, Network Communications, Internet/Intranet and Technical
Documentation**

**4-B. User Services Center**

**4-C. Database Administration and Support, Systems Development and
Software Maintenance**

**4-D. Security and Administrative Support**

5.  **[Energy End Use Surveys (Functional Area 5A-5F)]{.underline}**

> **5-A. End Use Surveys Sample Design and Selection**
>
> **5-B. 2003 CBECS Energy Supplier Survey**
>
> **5-C. 2005 RECS Household Survey**
>
> **5-D. 2005 RECS Energy Supplier Survey.**
>
> **5-E. 2007 CBECS Buildings Survey**

**5-F. End Use Special Studies, Statistical Analysis and Methodological
Development**

**[Functional Area 1. Information Management and Product
Production]{.underline}**

The contractor shall be responsible for the following operations:

> a\. Data Operations
>
> 1\. [Survey Data Collection]{.underline} ‑ The contractor shall be
> responsible for the distribution and collection of various survey
> forms for the EIA. These survey forms are reports that cover all
> aspects of the coal, nuclear, electric power, alternative fuels,
> natural gas, renewables, and petroleum industries/activities such as
> domestic oil and gas reserves, and products as well as environmental
> requirements, such as greenhouse gas emissions, and customer surveys.
>
> A listing and description of these survey forms is in EIA's forms
> directory, **[http://www.eia.doe.gov/oss/forms.html.]{.underline}**
>
> 2\. [Survey and Data Systems Operations]{.underline} ‑ The contractor
> shall be responsible for the following activities:

-   Performing data requirements studies, update data requirements
    documentation based on customer input, new and revised legislation,
    and structural changes in U.S. energy industries.

-   Developing, maintaining, and updating survey and data systems
    operations and users documentation. The contractor shall provide
    support as required for the design, development, maintenance and
    administration of EIA application and survey systems and databases,
    including new, current and legacy systems. Additionally, the
    contractor shall provide expert technical consulting and/or training
    on new and existing applications and databases as necessary.

-   Contacting potential or existing respondents to obtain survey data
    via mail, fax, magnetic tape, diskettes, telephone, and/or Internet.

-   Includes but is not limited to weekly, monthly, quarterly, and/or
    annual mail-outs of all materials to survey respondents.

-   Periodic mail-outs to new and non-respondents.

-   Receipt of survey instruments via mail, fax, phone, diskette,
    magnetic tape, electronic data transmission (e.g. PEDRO), image
    processing and/or new technologies.

-   Developing and preparing survey forms, instructions, and related
    material for survey respondent contact.

-   Performing data capture, entry, editing, and verification using
    survey collection and processing system.

-   Identifying and following-up on late and non-respondents.

-   Performing problem resolution, data correction, and
    recording/reporting on changes for tracking performance.

-   Performing statistical imputation.

-   Updating databases.

-   Maintaining universes, frames and survey control files.

-   Obtaining, processing, and maintaining private and public alternate
    source data.

-   Developing, maintaining and reporting survey performance statistics
    and then developing recommendations for changes in survey operations
    to improve performance.

-   Designing, developing, and pre-testing appropriate survey
    instruments and clearance material.

-   Preparing survey data in tabular, graphic and other forms for input
    to EIA systems and for publication and dissemination.

-   Aggregating survey data.

> 3\. [Frames, Samples and Survey Response]{.underline} ‑ The contractor
> shall operate a system and execute procedures for developing and
> maintaining the frame of companies required to report to the surveys
> under their responsibility. Activities will include constructing and
> maintaining name and address files of survey respondents; constant
> monitoring of the frame through reviews of literature and from
> respondent contacts, recommending additions and deletions from the
> frames, maintaining accurate audit trails for survey frames;
> determining ancillary variables for frame stratification; recommending
> changes in the appropriate survey samples, designing and selecting
> statistical samples, developing estimation and variance calculation
> procedures and monitoring company response rates and times.
>
> 4\. [Edit Support]{.underline} ‑ The contractor shall ensure that the
> survey edit and imputation systems are monitored and adjusted as
> necessary. Responsibilities shall include reviewing the edit and
> imputation methodologies and recommending changes for government
> approval, developing and employing methods for reducing non-sampling
> error through various data editing procedures; developing and
> employing methods for imputing missing data; implementing new
> government approved modifications to survey designs, edits, and
> imputations; and participating in the testing of edit and imputation
> software.
>
> 5\. [Sampling and Estimation]{.underline} - The contractor shall
> develop optimal sample designs that yield point estimates with
> specific coefficients of variation for both one‑time and periodic
> surveys of heterogeneous populations. The populations of interest are
> likely to be highly skewed with respect to the variables being
> estimated and, often, multiple variables must be considered. Each
> sample design must take into account the peculiarities of the
> particular sector being sampled with respect to organizational
> relationships, geographic distributions, custody/equity transactions,
> prevalent accounting practices, and probable levels of non‑response
> and reporting errors.
>
> The contractor shall incorporate special estimation procedures and/or
> allow for emergency preparedness needs in sample designs, as required;
> specify/ implement and document sample selection methodology;
> specify/implement and document procedures for computation of point
> estimates and variances, with provision for non‑response; and apply
> probability sampling techniques as required.
>
> 6\. [Data Integration/Analysis]{.underline} - Perform analysis of
> survey data, interpret survey data for studies, perform standard
> statistical/mathematical analyses of survey data. Perform analysis of
> time-series data using statistical packages to display relationships,
> trends, and statistical fit.
>
> 7\. [Quality Assurance/Control Activities]{.underline} - The
> contractor shall perform all activities necessary to ensure that data
> reported to and published by EIA are complete and accurate. These
> activities include, but are not limited to, data validation, forms
> editing, review of summary edit reports, and comparisons across
> surveys and with other energy data. The contractor shall develop and
> maintain a system for all forms and correspondence for its inventory
> to permit effective quality control and facilitate management decision
> making.
>
> 8\. [Disclosure Avoidance Techniques]{.underline} - The contractor
> shall develop, implement, and modify disclosure avoidance software and
> techniques for confidential data files in accordance with EIA
> standards.
>
> 9\. [Resolving Reporting Discrepancies]{.underline} ‑ The contractor
> shall monitor company response to the surveys, referring habitually
> late or non‑respondents to the government staff for action.
> Responsibilities shall include taking action to resolve reporting
> differences between weekly versus monthly versus annual survey data,
> and providing the government with statistics on comparisons of weekly,
> monthly, and annual reporting.
>
> 10\. [Accounting/Auditing/Systems Assessment and Evaluation
> Services]{.underline}

-   Financial Reporting System (FRS) Background and Requirements

> Section 205(h) of the Department of Energy (DOE) Organization Act,
> Public Law 95-91, mandates the collection of financial and statistical
> data from major energy-producing companies. The purpose is to \"\...
> allow comparison on a uniform and standardized basis among energy
> producing companies\...\" of such financial and statistical data.
>
> The contractor shall provide approximately 3,000 hours per year of
> professional accounting and auditing services to the Energy
> Information Administration (EIA) for:
>
> \- the review of the accuracy (and subsequent correction by amendment)
> of data filed by energy producing companies on the Financial Reporting
> System (FRS) Form EIA-28;
>
> \- preparation of a financial analysis report, related to the results
> of identifying the effect of non-operating financial items on
> differences between operating income and pre-tax income;
>
> \- accounting and financial reporting problem research, including
> analysis of deferred taxation issues, and research in connection with
> reporting practices in energy industries and financial reporting
> consequences of energy company mergers and acquisitions; and
>
> \- other specialized, topical research projects involving the
> application of professional accounting and auditing skills to Form
> EIA-28 and related data.

-   Internal System Assessments and Evaluations

> \- [Data Collection and Processing Systems Assessments, Evaluations
> and Audits]{.underline} - The contractor shall utilize EIA-assigned or
> approved methodologies to determine whether manual and automated data
> collection and processing procedures used by EIA surveys to assemble
> energy data for publications sufficiently ensure data reliability and
> produce accurate and timely information. The contractor shall assure
> that survey documentation accurately and effectively describes the
> most current data collection, processing and publication procedures
> utilized by EIA surveys. The contractor shall utilize system
> assessments, evaluations and audits to recommend more accurate and
> cost effective procedures for EIA data collection systems as well as
> modifications and improvements to existing procedures. The contractor
> shall be familiar with the utilization of emerging technologies such
> as artificial intelligence for improving the effectiveness of EIA
> system procedures.
>
> \- [Requirements Analysis]{.underline} ‑ The contractor shall review,
> assess, and analyze EIA survey data requirements and opportunities for
> revision or consolidation of data ­collection and reporting based on
> detailed knowledge of energy industries and current EIA data
> collection systems and EIA user community needs. Insight into data
> uses (e.g. decisionmaking, forecasting, model inputs, etc.) and
> industry practices is essential.
>
> \- [Editing and Imputation for Nonresponse]{.underline} ‑ The
> contractor shall evaluate methods of reducing nonsampling error
> through data editing procedures. These edit checks (which may be
> computerized) should include checks for out‑of-range codes, logical
> inconsistencies across items ­and more sophisticated statistical checks
> which use data from prior time periods or other respondents to
> determine whether there is a potential error in data (market share
> edits). The contractor shall also develop methods for imputing missing
> data. These methods could include multiple regression, time series
> approaches and other methods using information from existing data
> collections.
>
> \- [Measurement and Assurance of Data Quality]{.underline} ‑ The
> contractor shall evaluate quality control, error reduction and
> verification procedures. In addition to development of data editing
> and imputation procedures described above, work would include:
> development and monitoring of performance statistics (such as
> Nonresponse rates or number of items failing edits), comparison of
> data with other similar sources for consistency, and investigation and
> resolution of specific reporting and processing problems. The
> contractor shall also design and conduct field data verification
> studies intended to measure and enhance the quality of reported data.
>
> \- [Statistical Methods]{.underline} ‑ The contractor shall review and
> evaluate statistical methods utilized in the collection and
> dissemination of energy supply, price and consumption data. Typically
> these statistical methods involve design, estimation and
> implementation procedures. The contractor shall also perform
> statistical research leading to the development of new techniques.
> Examples of potential research areas include bench- marking, time
> series analysis and nonsampling error.
>
> b\. Data Integration
>
> 1\. [Acquire and Develop Data]{.underline} - The contractor shall (1)
> obtain, analyze, and incorporate domestic and international data from
> EIA offices, various outside agencies, and other public and private
> organizations, domestic and foreign statistical publications, and
> international organizations; (2) compile, verify, and update
> conversion factors used to calculate energy data in United States
> standard units, metric units, British thermal units (Btu) and other
> units; (3) organize, verify, and enter data into the integrated
> databases; and (4) monitor incoming data for reasonableness and
> consistency. The contractor shall also update, verify, process, and
> document energy quantities, Btu factors, prices, physical
> characteristics, infrastructure, etc., for petroleum, natural gas,
> coal, other solid fuels, electricity (hydro, nuclear, geothermal,
> solar, wind, etc.), alternative fuels and renewable energy. The
> acquisition of data includes delivering to EIA international and
> domestic oil and gas field-level and reservoir-level data and
> illustrations appropriate to geologic and engineering analyses.
>
> 2\. [Maintain Integrated Databases]{.underline} - The contractor shall
> perform systems analyses for program modifi­cations or enhancements
> made necessary by changing domestic and international integrated
> database require­ments. These analyses shall assess the feasibility of
> proposed modifications, evaluate design options, recommend solutions,
> and produce final designs in context with existing database structures
> and conventions.
>
> The contrac­tor shall also perform routine systems and database
> operations to update domestic and international data as needed on a
> continuing basis. These activities will include submission of computer
> jobs to run existing computing data linkages within EIA, update and
> run the production files, and archive the then current database using
> menus, command-lists, and Job Control Language (JCL) run parameters.
>
> 3\. [Perform Consistency and Quality Tests]{.underline} - The
> contractor shall identify, investigate, and resolve data anomalies and
> discrepancies to ensure consistency among energy sources, energy
> consuming sectors, and publications from other EIA offices. As part of
> this effort, the contractor shall develop and run procedures to
> compare various segments of the integrated historical databases to
> each other and to other EIA output.
>
> 4\. [Calculate Summary Statistics]{.underline} - Following
> verification and acceptance of all new and revised data during each
> production cycle, the contractor shall ensure that the integrated
> database formula files and other data processing programs have been
> updated and are consistent with any modifications or enhancements
> intended for implementation during the cycle. The contractor shall be
> responsible for running data aggregation programs and the production
> file programs to generate publication-level data series.
>
> 5\. [Other General Requirements]{.underline}

-   [Reports]{.underline} ‑The contractor shall provide reports that
    will include data quality comparisons, performance statistics,
    (e.g., records of non and late response), and system performance. In
    addition, the contractor shall participate in and provide data for
    preliminary and final data quality meetings to review data and
    statistical tables and publications.

-   [Documentation]{.underline} ‑The contractor shall be responsible for
    the development and maintenance of all records of operations
    according to task instructions and EIA standards, including
    documentation. The contractor may be required, based on specific EIA
    direction as to content and position, to draft material in support
    of EIA/DOE submissions to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
    in accordance with EIA/OMB guidelines. Technical deliverables under
    this contract include captured data, captured survey forms, edited
    and complete, to the extent required, survey data files, written
    reports, research memoranda and/or other deliverables as specified
    in the task orders issued by the Contracting Officer.

c\. Product Production

> The review and clearance of publications is primarily an EIA staff
> responsibility. The contractor shall be required to prepare various
> forms used in the clearance process, edit and update the content of
> the publications, and help resolve issues that arise during the review
> process. The contractor shall be responsible for the release of data
> electronically; automated release of data to other EIA systems;
> desktop publishing of publications, articles and briefing materials;
> and as required, the preparation of special tables/graphs and
> integrated energy reports.
>
> The contractor shall prepare and maintain publication and data files
> on the EIA\'s web page and Internet servers (including the FTP server
> which includes, but is not limited to .PDF files and the Web server,
> which includes .HTML and .GIF files). The Contractor shall work with
> EIA\'s program offices to monitor web sites for new products. The
> contractor shall also maintain EIA databases posted to EIA\'s web
> page.
>
> The contractor shall provide expert editorial assistance, technical
> writing, and publication production expertise. This task will continue
> until the final report has been prepared for publication. Expertise is
> required in EIA Publication Standards as well as general conversance
> in energy subject matter. The contractor may likewise be requested to
> provide staff assistance to run models, operate evaluation software,
> and prepare tables.
>
> The contractor shall also ensure conformance with the **EIA Standards
> Manual: [http://www.eia.doe.gov/smg/Standard.pdf or
> http://www.eia.doe.gov/smg/Standard.doc](http://www.eia.doe.gov/smg/Standard.pdf or http://www.eia.doe.gov/smg/Standard.doc);
> EIA Publishing Style Guide:
> <http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/pubstyle/contents.html> ; EIA Graphics
> Style Manual: <http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/graphs/preface.html> ;
> Information Quality Guidelines:
> http://www.eia.doe.gov/smg/EIA-IQ-Guidelines.html**

1.  [Specific Requirements (but not limited to):]{.underline}

-   Producing graphical interpretations of data (including, but not
    limited to, charts and tables) for reports, using EIA software as
    directed. Producing text for reports, using appropriate EIA software
    as directed. This may include: transferring typed or electronic
    documents into computer software to be enhanced for final
    presentation or publication; or typing the text from original
    manuscripts, using the appropriate software as determined by the
    final mode of production of the report.

    -   Preparing reports for publication using automated
        photocomposition software. The reports may include text matter,
        graphic presentations, and miscellaneous artwork.

    -   Provide coordination support in interactions with the field, EIA
        program offices, other Departmental Offices, other Federal
        Agencies, and in response to Congressional, Administration and
        Stakeholder inquiries.

    -   Administrative support shall include, but not be limited to,
        clerical and professional support for the preparation and
        distribution of databases, reports and planning documents, and
        for planning, coordination and logistics for products and
        meetings, including large annual conferences.

[**Functional Area 2.** **Energy Analysis and Forecasting**]{.underline}

The contractor shall provide analytic, modeling and documentation
support, to include emissions modeling (base-line and policy options)
and the analysis of energy impacts on the macro-economy, in the
performance of energy analysis and forecasting in the following areas:

> a\. [General Analysis Requirements]{.underline}: The contractor must
> have the capability and expertise to support the analysis of
> historical data, the characterization of current energy markets and
> the forecasting of short-, medium-, and long-term trends. Areas of
> analysis include: petroleum, natural gas, coal, electricity (including
> nuclear energy), alternate fuels, renewable energy sources and energy
> producing and consuming segments of the international and domestic
> economy.
>
> The contractor shall also provide analysis support in the following
> areas: energy resource development; production and processing
> economics; production systems; transmission, distribution and capacity
> characteristics; geographic energy analyses; greenhouse gas emissions,
> legislative, regulatory, policy and other institutional aspects of the
> energy industry; financial accounting and other related energy issues.
> Contractor personnel must demonstrate expertise in quantitative energy
> analysis. The spectrum of disciplines includes econometrics, applied
> microeconomic analysis, operations research techniques, statistical
> techniques and methods, and engineering-based cost and performance
> technology analysis.
>
> The contractor shall respond to emergencies by providing, in quick
> turn-around time, various types of support including preparation of
> maps, written analytical reports on the events, graphics reports,
> background material, and briefing packages. Additionally, the
> contractor shall support, in the form of research, and analysis,
> special and/or ad hoc analysis studies.
>
> In addition, the contractor should be prepared to provide qualitative
> analysis and evaluation in support of EIA's mission \-- including goal
> planning and performance measurement.
>
> b\. [Analytical/Statistical Requirements]{.underline}: The contractor
> is required to exercise expert knowledge in energy analysis and
> statistical analysis of the data. The following are representative
> energy analysis/ statistical activities that will require contractor
> support as specified in specific task assignments:

-   The support of EIA energy analyses for the [Annual Energy
    Outlook]{.underline}, the [Short Term Energy Outlook,]{.underline}
    the [International Energy Outlook]{.underline}, [Emissions of
    Greenhouse Gases in the United States]{.underline}, [Voluntary
    Reporting of Greenhouse Gases]{.underline}, as well as, [Natural Gas
    Issues and Trends]{.underline}, and other EIA analysis reports.

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-   The analysis of a broad spectrum of energy issues that affect the
    production of energy at the source to the final consumption in the
    marketplace including dispersed electricity generation and niche
    markets.

-   The assessment of the suitability of existing and available data
    sources for use in the performance of specific tasks. This
    assessment may be required with respect to whether the data provide
    appropriate coverage, are compatible with other data series and
    whether they provide an acceptable measure of the key parameters
    covered by the analysis. This assessment could be required for
    either EIA data or data developed outside of EIA.

-   The evaluation of the impact of current and possible future
    scenarios on energy markets. These scenarios could include such
    areas as: variations in pricing levels; changes in legislative and
    regulatory requirements (environmental regulations and restructuring
    of the electric utility industry); the development of emerging
    energy technologies and markets; industry capacity requirements;
    geographic energy comparisons; various levels of economic growth and
    sudden supply disruptions in the energy marketplace.

-   The advanced analysis of time-series data using statistical packages
    to display relationships, trends, and statistical fit. Where
    required, the contractor shall exercise expertise in the selection
    of key independent variables to determine statistical relationships.

-   The gathering and evaluation (for accuracy, utility, and
    completeness) of data series from non-EIA sources (e.g., States,
    corporations, other Government agencies) which might serve as
    alternative data inputs to models, analyses, and interpretations
    where EIA data are unavailable or insufficient.

-   The acquisition and development of technology data such as: capital
    cost of energy production technologies, technological growth rates
    for oil and gas drilling, operating efficiencies of new and
    conventional electricity technologies, residential, commercial,
    industrial and transportation technologies, and geologic exploratory
    technologies.

> c\. [Model Development]{.underline}: Contractor shall be required to
> frequently exercise expert judgment in the development, maintenance
> and upgrading of highly complex, often integrated computer models,
> which draw upon a variety of techniques and disciplines. These models
> are used for short-, medium-and long-term point forecasts as well
> sensitivity and scenario development for policy analysis. In this
> regard, contractor shall be expected to demonstrate state-of-the-art
> knowledge of all modeling techniques employed by EIA under this
> contract. Such techniques include, but are not limited to the
> following:

-   Provision of specialized analytical expertise necessary to resolve
    energy market forecasting anomalies, ambiguities or inconsistencies
    in highly complex, integrated computational environments.

-   Knowledge of information theory as applied to statistical analyses.

-   Application of autoregression, integrated moving ­averages, transfer
    functions, monte-carlo, and seasonal adjustment procedures.

-   Development of sophisticated modeling approaches, including linear
    and non-linear programming and experience in modeling energy
    industries (e.g., coal mining and refineries) and end-uses (e.g.,
    industrial sector).

-   Evaluation of methods and algorithms of EIA mid‑ and long-term
    models.

-   Development of extensions, enhancements, and updates of existing EIA
    energy and economic models in such areas as energy resources,
    supply, conversion, distribution, consumption and emissions
    modeling.

> d\. [Model Documentation and Archiving Activities]{.underline} ‑ The
> contractor shall review and verify that EIA model documentation
> conforms to EIA standards and is consistent with the official version
> of the archive tape, that the archive operates as described in its
> installation manual and has calculations that replicate test cases and
> published results. The contractor shall be familiar with EIA
> procedures for models which involve verifying that model documentation
> and manuals enable the user to replicate functioning of the model.
>
> e\. [Qualitative Analysis and Evaluation]{.underline} - The contractor
> shall be prepared to assist in developing analytical tools and
> procedures for evaluating the quality of EIAs performance and
> achievement of its planned goals and objectives; the sequence of
> timing of key program events and milestones; and adequacy of EIA's
> planning activities to support such goals and time lines.

**[Functional Area 3 Communication Services, Records Management and
Administrative Support]{.underline}**

EIA is responsible for carrying out a central, comprehensive, and
unified energy data and information analysis program, which collects,
evaluates, assembles, analyzes, and disseminates data and information.
The dissemination of data and provision of information is a major
responsibility of the Office of National Energy Information Center
(NEIC).

This Functional Area covers the personnel and services necessary to
provide support for the NEIC. Work in this functional area may include:
operating a public reading room; distributing a variety of information
products; responding to requests for information and technical
assistance received via telephone, e-mail, and walk-in; performing
research and analysis to fulfill information requests; maintaining
databases that track requests and process management information
reports; designing and producing publications, maintaining portions of
the EIA web site, and performing records management activities. In
addition, records management work for EIA program offices may be
completed under the tasks resulting from this RFP.

### 

### 1. Inquiry Services 

-   The contractor shall provide a telephone response staff to receive
    and respond to inquiries, provide research and referral aid
    concerning inquiries, and record requests for EIA publications
    received by the NEIC.

-   The contractor shall review, classify, log, and respond to e-mail
    inquiries and requests received by NEIC that require in-depth
    research or special handling.

-   The contractor shall prepare responses in writing to controlled
    correspondence and written requests for information.

-   The contractor shall respond to walk-in inquiries for energy data
    and shall provide technical assistance to visitors requiring help
    with on-line services.

2\. [Dissemination Activities]{.underline}

-   The contractor shall maintain shelf and reserve stocks of EIA
    publications in the public access reading room and storage areas in
    order to fulfill publication requests.

-   The contractor shall maintain the capability, either on-site or
    off-site, to process automated orders and fulfill requests for
    single issue publications.

-   The contractor shall provide copies of EIA publications to walk-in
    visitors.

3\. [Support for Management Information Systems]{.underline}

-   The contractor shall provide on-site data entry, report generation,
    and systems maintenance support for the NEIC Customer Services
    System and the NEIC Publication Reporting System, used for tracking
    customer records, public inquiries, publication
    mailings/inventories, and generating mailing labels.

##### 4. [Support for EIA Electronic and Paper Products]{.underline}

4a. Printing Preparation Support

-   The contractor shall provide printing preparation expertise. This
    includes publication folioing, cover preparation, cutting and
    pasting, requisition preparation, distribution planning, mailing
    list acquisition, sales determination, and logging, filing, and
    tracking. Contractor must also prepare printing jobs for which
    electronic files are provided. Contractor assures that paperwork is
    complete and correct before submitting to DOE printing office.

-   Contractor shall provide advice and counsel on: (1) color and design
    issues, (2) methods to decrease printing costs, and (3)
    specifications in term printing contracts, and (4) any problems
    related to printing quality and delivery. Contractor provides other
    analytical services related to printing

5b. Graphic, Desktop Publishing & Web Publishing Support

-   The contractor shall provide expertise in electronic graphical
    design, desktop publishing, and Web design and coding. Contractor
    shall produce graphs, illustrations, brochures, and publication
    covers using the standard graphical software packages such as Corel
    Draw, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, etc.

-   Contractor shall format brochures and publications and other
    information products for printing using the standard desktop
    publishing software packages such as Corel Ventura, Adobe Pagemaker,
    Quark, etc.

-   Contractor shall produce Web and multimedia products using standard
    software packages such as Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, etc.
    Contractor must know HTML, XML, Java, Javascript, and CSS.

-   Contractor shall provide advice and counsel on all of the above.

6\. [Records Management Activities]{.underline}

The contractor shall provide support as required for records management
activities including but not limited to the off-site storage of EIA
documents, inventorying and scheduling records, and preparing various
records management guidance. This may include both direct support for
individual program offices and EIA-wide efforts. The requirements may be
any or all of the following:

-   The contractor shall update annually the EIA Records Management
    Polices and Procedures Manual, which provide guidance for managing
    the inventorying and disposition of records.

-   The contractor shall have the capability to support the inventorying
    and disposition of EIA records and the expertise to support the
    evaluation and selection of potential electronic records management
    systems.

-   The contractor shall provide support for storage of EIA documents,
    including survey forms that have retention schedules. The contractor
    shall coordinate the transfer of these records, ensuring that all
    records are properly indexed to facilitate retrieval. The contractor
    shall transfer to off-site storage up to 100 boxes of documents
    annually. The contractor shall facilitate the retrieval of boxes
    from storage and delivery to the program office upon request on an
    as-needed basis, requesting up to 50 boxes annually.

-   Records storage for end use surveys data collection and processing
    materials. The Contractor shall maintain a secure, off-site storage
    area for data collection forms, editing computer runs, data
    reconciliation sheets, and other survey-related materials, in
    addition to sampling maps and other sampling-related materials.
    These records will be in the form of paper records and various
    electronic media (primarily data diskettes).

Records pertaining to the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS)
and Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) are
maintained for three survey cycles. Due to confidentiality provisions,
these materials cannot be in EIA's possession and must be held off-site
in a secured location. The Contractor shall be required to maintain a
detailed inventory of the records and have the capability to ship the
required records to an EIA-specified location upon demand. It is
anticipated that the records will be sent to the contractor working on
the respective surveys during the data collection and processing of
those surveys, and then be returned to this records holding contractor
at the close of the surveys. It is estimated that records for both
surveys would total about 1200 boxes. The RECS and/or CBECS records must
be accessible for authorized EIA users to perform research using records
offsite at the Contractor's facility.

7\. [Administrative Support/Web Development/Database
Maintenance]{.underline}

The contractor shall provide all personnel and services necessary to
perform administrative support. The contractor shall provide
administrative and clerical support services for up to six EIA program
offices **(1)** the Office of Resource Management (ORM); **(2)** the
Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric, and Alternate Fuels, **(3)** the
Office of Energy Markets and End Use, **(4)** the Office of Oil and Gas,
**(5)** the Office of Information Technology, *\[which shall be
part-time, not to exceed 3 workdays/week \]* and **(6)** the Office of
Statistical Methods Group (SMG). The administrative support shall
include general secretarial/clerical duties, and agency-specific needs
as outlined under [Specific Requirements.]{.underline} All positions
shall be subject to the oversight and direction of the project manager.

Two positions will be special in scope (Positions located in **(1)** and
**(5)** above):

-   The position located in **(1)** above, the Office of Resource
    Management (ORM) shall include technical support as required,
    including but not limited to: data research/ query/ and ad hoc
    narrative, numeric, and/or graphic report preparation / data
    extraction, with DOE and EIA systems such as QuickHire \[an online
    personnel hiring package\], *DOEInfo* \[Departmental data on the
    Federal workforce\], DOCS \[Documents Online Coordination System;
    tracking and processing Office of the Secretary and congressional
    correspondence\], and CHRIS \[Corporate Human Resource Information
    System; personnel, training, payroll and benefits information\].
    Creates, develops, administers and/or enhances existing web site
    designs. Executes database development and maintenance, and dynamic
    web site development (to include but not limited to graphics, CSS,
    HTML4.0/XHTML, database interactivity) and maintenance (in
    accordance with published EIA Style and Standards for Electronic
    Products) using EIA standard HTML authoring software. This position
    also may serve as a back-up/ alternate for other administrative
    support positions described herein supporting ORM on an ad hoc
    basis.

-   The position located in **(5)** above, the Office of Information
    Technology (OIT) shall be part-time, not to exceed three days/week.

#  Specific Requirements (but not limited to):

The contractor shall provide and/or be responsible for the following
support:

-   Five (5) full-time and one (1) part-time \[not to exceed three
    workdays/week\] employees for the six program offices discussed
    above. (The Contractor shall not be paid for holidays, or other days
    that the Government is not open. If an employee is unable to come to
    work (due to illness or other unforeseen absence), the Contractor
    shall provide a replacement within three (3) hours of the starting
    work hours. Normal work hours for EIA are from 8:30 to 5:00 pm, with
    1/2 hour for lunch. The work hours may be adjusted to accommodate
    office needs.)

-   Responsible for payment of training costs for employees\' training
    required over the life of the contract to perform special duties,
    especially, but not limited to, the position located in the Office
    of Resource Management. The Contractor shall be responsible for
    payment of \"off-the-shelf\" training opportunities, when such
    training could reasonably be used during alternate employment . The
    Government shall be responsible for payment of training that is
    specific to EIA only, which could not be reasonably determined by
    the Contracting Officer to be advantageous in alternate employment.

-   Use DOE/EIA\'s automated time reporting system to prepare payroll
    data input for all staff; review staff submissions and submit time
    cards for approvals. Communicates with and collects preliminary time
    and attendance information from staff.

-   Use DOE/EIA\'s automated system to make travel arrangements for
    staff; prepare and submit authorization forms; make reservations and
    notify traveler when tickets are ready for pickup; reserve hotel
    accommodations; reserve rental cars; and prepare and submit vouchers
    as appropriate.

-   Use DOE/EIA\'s automated systems to make training arrangements for
    staff; prepare and submit appropriate authorization forms.

-   Provide telephone answering services; route incoming calls to
    appropriate staff (note: some calls should go to the National Energy
    Information Center (NEIC), or other offices outside EIA.) Takes
    telephone messages and promptly gives them to the staff. Makes
    arrangements for telephone coverage when away from his/her desk.

-   Perform general clerical and administrative duties for staff,
    including: (1) typing documents (including Congressional
    correspondence), address labels, forms, etc. (2) photocopying, (3)
    handling, sorting, packaging, delivering, and/or sending office
    mail, and (4) maintaining files for each work task.

-   Schedule meetings, conferences, and related events for the office
    staff including reserving conference rooms, contacting and notifying
    attendees and sending reminders via electronic mail or telephone.

-   Serve as back-up support for other offices when needed, including
    backing each other up for lunch and work schedule differentials.

-   Data input in accordance with prescribed formats using various
    software applications.

-   Retrieves, assembles, sorts, and/or calculates data for reports,
    prepare graphics material for electronic and paper presentations
    following established formats.

-   Delivers and retrieves documents daily from the offices within the
    Forrestal and 950 L\'Enfant Plaza buildings.

-   Performs duties in accordance with standard operating procedures
    when established.

-   Maintains document tracking logs in a variety of formats as needed.

[**Functional Area 4A**-**D Information Technology **]{.underline}

Functional Area 4, Information Technology is split into 4 major task
areas. These are:

**4-A. Facility Management, Enterprise Server Support, Network
Operations, Network Communications, Internet/Intranet and Technical
Documentation**

**4-B. User Services Center**

**4-C. Database Administration and Support, Systems Development and
Software Maintenance**

**4-D. Security and Administrative Support**

Functional Area 4A provides support for conducting all operations in the
facilities room housing the IBM enterprise server, storage devices, high
speed laser printer, UNIX/Linux servers, Internet/Intranet, NT and
Novell servers. This area also includes programming and related support
to the IBM enterprise server. Additionally, it also provides support for
all the various communications activities for the LAN, the Internet, and
communications with IT operations not located in the Forrestal Building.

Functional Area 4B provides technical expertise to support the EIA user
community in resolving computer-related issues such as local area
network and remote connection problems, PC operating system problems, PC
software and hardware problems, computer system validation problems, and
mainframe application problems.

Functional Area 4C provides support for all database activities for all
production systems and for systems under development and being tested.
It provides support for all software systems and software development
activities conducted within EIA and provides maintenance support for all
operational software programs used in EIA for survey and publishing
related activities.

Functional Area 4D provides support for maintaining security in all EIA
IT operations, updating the EIA's IT Security Policy as needed,
developing or updating other IT policies, and administrative support.

####### Information Technology Background

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) provides EIA‑wide hardware,
software, database, communications, desktop and other Information
Technology (IT) support to the EIA offices. This includes direct support
for individual offices IT activities, as well as the development and
implementation of EIA‑wide crosscutting enterprise applications. OIT is
responsible for identifying and applying the emerging technology
solutions to EIA's business processes, and recommending innovations in
capability, efficiency, and effectiveness that can be gained by adopting
these solutions. OIT is responsible for all plans, standards, maintains
and supports all computers and related technologies within EIA.

This statement of work covers support for the Computer Technology
Infrastructure in EIA. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) is
responsible for the overall design, implementation, technical support,
maintenance, and end-user support of the computing hardware, networking
equipment, operating systems, and third party software in use by OIT and
EIA. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) requires contractor
support to provide administrative, computer data center operations,
database administration, server administration, systems programming,
application programming, procurement, asset management, configuration
management, technical writing, and telecommunications administration
support.

In accomplishing its mission, EIA has several types of hardware such as
the IBM enterprise server, SUN Sparcs, Compaq, personal computers (PCs),
local area networks (LAN), Routers, Switches, Cables, Fibers, and a
nationwide data communications network. The operating systems include
the enterprise server, NT, UNIX (Solaris), Linux, Novell, and Microsoft
2000.

EIA's computing environment includes software programs providing
high-level programming languages, modeling and analysis tools, database
management systems, word processing, desktop publishing, document
composing, web tools, statistical analysis tools, geographical
information systems, electronic reporting, graphical validation, and
graphics packages. Throughout the period of this contract, it is
anticipated that the computing environment shall change based on
advancements in the computer software and equipment used by EIA.

In order to operate successfully in the EIA computing environment, the
contractor must be able to effectively operate a wide variety of
computer hardware and software, including PCs, mainframes, LAN, UNIX,
Linux, NT, Novell, and Windows based servers, communication devices,
switches, sniffers, remote access units, cabling, Category Type-5e,
fibers, routers, various types of storage devices, and have the
capability to adapt to new advances in hardware and software
applications.

During the performance of this contract, the contractor shall, whenever
possible, provide suggestions and options for improving the efficiency,
availability, and reliability of the computer environment. Such options
may include proposals to improve the interaction of diverse components
of the EIA computer system. Goals for such improvement would include:
greater uniformity and standardization of data and systems operation;
flexibility and modularity from one system to the next; expansion of EIA
information and analysis in terms of outreach to new customers via the
Internet and other electronic media; and better integration and
efficiency of the office automation applications.

The contractor shall provide support as required for hardware, software,
database, communications, and other Information Technologies (IT) to the
Office of Information Technology (OIT). This includes both direct
support for individual offices and also the development and
implementation of EIA-wide enterprise applications crosscutting the
entire organization. OIT is responsible for identifying and applying
emerging technology solutions to the business processes being employed
and recommending innovations in capability, efficiency, and
effectiveness that can be gained by adopting these solutions. OIT is
also responsible for all plans, standards, and security activities
relating to IT:

-   OIT consists of the EIA Chief Information Officer (CIO) and three
    divisions (Infrastructure and Operations, Systems, and Security and
    Policy). The CIO directly supervises IT management and liaison
    functions (budget, procurement, etc.) and IT projects and studies
    (strategic planning, site visits, etc.).

-   The contractor shall provide technical support to EIA in
    implementing new information technologies that shall enhance the
    quality of EIA\'s outputs and improve productivity. This shall
    include such technologies as Electronic Commerce, the eXtensible
    Markup Language (XML), Web-based application development using an
    n-tier architecture, and Java-based enterprise development under
    J2EE and its successors. Technologies for analyzing and verifying
    data such as data warehouses, data marts, data mining, and graphical
    validation included. The contractor should provide support for
    emerging technologies for Web site development and management such
    as portals technology and content management systems.

# 

**4-A. [FACILITY MANAGEMENT, ENTERPRISE SERVER SUPPORT, NETWORK
OPERATIONS, NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS, INTERNET/INTRANET AND TECHNICAL
DOCUMENTATION]{.underline}**

**[Facility Management:]{.underline}** Located at the Forrestal building
in Washington D.C., EIA's central computer facility that includes, but
is not limited to, the following: IBM Enterprise Server, EMC storage
device, IBM Automated robotic tape storage unit, IBM high-speed
printers, local controllers and system consoles, LAN-base color printer,
paper burster, Novell servers, NT backup servers, plus UNIX and NT
servers, which are all connected to both the enterprise server and EIA
LAN Network. The contractor shall operate this facility and support the
IBM enterprise server and its associated equipment. All operations shall
be conducted in accord with EIA's IT security policy standards.

*Computer Operations*: Operations support includes, but is not limited
to, the following: Provide staff coverage for hours as designated by the
OIT director; [currently the support of operations is 24/7, but OIT
plans to reduce this time to16/5.]{.underline} The operations staff
shall control the enterprise server by executing a series of systems
commands. Monitor the operating system consoles for errors and make
service calls as necessary. Oversee the operation of the printers and
deliver printouts to designated distribution sites. Execute backups of
the enterprise system and monitor backups of the NT, Novell and UNIX
servers. If needed, call the appropriate enterprise, NT, Novell and UNIX
personnel when a backup problem occurs. Initiate recurring jobs, monitor
execution of jobs, run tracking/reporting procedures, and evaluate the
success/failure of jobs. Conduct disaster recovery operations; monitor
the computer room alarm systems and response as noted in the "EIA/OIT
Computer Operations Procedures" book. Carry out other assigned tasks
that are necessary to run the EIA/OIT computer facility center.

Operations shall upon notification of the government initiate and
maintain a courier service to the remote computer facility at 950
L'Enfant Plaza (950 LEN), South Building, Sixth floor, Room 6108, a
location within one mile of the Forrestal Building. This courier service
shall collect printed output from the high-speed printers noted in this
SOW and deliver the printouts to 950 LEN. Schedule for delivery shall be
a minimum of every two hours between the hours of 7 AM and 5 PM daily,
Monday through Friday.

Operations shall provide the necessary personnel at all times to perform
the services and functions described in the SOW to ensure the timely and
cost effective delivery of computer operation service. In addition,
operations shall provide the required support necessary to organize,
control, and respond to government requests in a cost-effective manner.

Operations of a computer facility are by nature an integrated endeavor.
However, the government has elected to meet operational requirements
through a variety of ways and by using a variety of contractors, making
the facility a multi-contractor environment. The contractor shall work
in this environment sharing operational information and insuring that
the processing needs of the EIA are satisfied.

Operations shall develop and document system operational procedures.
These procedures shall cover all equipment operated by the contractor,
be approved by the government prior to publication, and have the same
look and feel (standardization) across the different system components.
Operations shall publish an initial set of the document and updates the
sets on a semi-annual basis. Procedures shall be maintained
electronically and automated as necessary in accordance with established
EIA/OIT change control procedures.

Since the contractor is expected to work in a multi-vendor environment,
the following is expected with relation to availability/reliability. The
contractor shall maintain contact with other vendors and government
personnel responsible for the GFE maintenance. When any surveillance
condition arises that is beyond the contractor's ability to handle,
after opening a trouble ticket, the contractor shall attempt to notify
the vendor(s) and then the appropriate government technical
representative personnel about the situation thereby providing early and
prompt warning resulting in a quicker response. In effect, the
contractor shall approach problem resolution as a team effort, dedicated
to maximization of system availability and take all steps deemed
reasonable and prudent at the contractor level to maintain system
availability. The team goal for system availability is 99% uptime for
each functional computer system, including LAN servers and 98% uptime
for each component at the central site.

Overall daily workload shall be processed in 24 hours a day. Therefore,
it is the responsibility of the contractor that no work shall remain in
the system for more than 24 hours before beginning execution except when
specifically delayed by any authorized commuting facility user:
authorization of the government technical monitor or exceptionally long
down time due to the repair and diagnostic cycle.

**[Enterprise Server Support:]{.underline}** The contractor staff shall
provide support for the enterprise server, which shall includes, but is
not limited to the following: Operate and maintain all technical aspects
of the enterprise server and associated software products and hardware
equipment. Maintain the operating systems logs on the enterprise server;
apply upgrades and patches for applications that are currently operating
on the system and applications that could become part of the operating
system, which include the enterprise server operating system, MVS/VM,
UNIX, and Linux.

The contractor helps in identifying all security aspects of the
enterprise system operations, which include configuring and operating
ACF2 and assisting with building firewalls and other Internet security
tasks. Conduct system tuning, capacity planning, and partition
construction. Help facilitate the installation and upgrades of system
software used on the enterprise system, operate and maintain data
processing software. Partake in testing and evaluating new hardware and
software under consideration for installation on the enterprise system
or to replace the enterprise system. Operate the IBM Web Sphere Java
application server software and similar software.

The enterprise server systems administration support includes the
management and administration of all operating systems, OEM software,
hardware and Database Administration related to the S/390 Enterprise
Server.

*Functions include:*

-   Enterprise Server operating system installation, maintenance and
    use. This includes but is not limited to: all IBM based operating
    system software such as OS/390, VM, JES2, TSO, ISPF/SDSF, SMS, RMF,
    SMF, HNC, HCD, IO Gen., SMP/E, and other enterprise tools from third
    party vendors.

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-   Enterprise server backup and recovery.

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-   Implement and maintain Enterprise Server backups using FDR tools and
    techniques including but not limited to: Full volume dumps,
    incremental backups, backups to both physical tape and VTS devices,
    application type backups and file based backups.

-   Restore volumes and datasets as needed.

-   Ensure disaster recovery plans can be met with Enterprise Server
    backups.

-   Maintain backup schedule through JOBTRAC scheduling software
    ensuring the OIT batch / backup window is maintained.

-   Implement and maintain dataset archiving for both batch and on-line
    functions.

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-   Enterprise server telecommunication links to external equipment
    using VTAM and TCP/IP

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-   Computer system console operations (managing printers, tape storage,
    consoles, and other hardware)

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-   Operating system documentation -- create and update

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-   Production Control using CA-JOBTRAC

-   Special projects

-   Installation, maintenance, and support of 3^rd^ party software,
    including but not limited to: FDR, CA-JOBTRAC, ACF2, SAS, ABABAS,
    Natural, and Superwylbur

-   System tuning, capacity planning, utilization reporting for the CPU,
    memory, DASD, tape, and other system resources

-   Assist the User Services Center as needed

-   Programming support

-   Provide technical assistance to other groups, divisions and offices
    for new or on-going projects

-   Enterprise server security using ACF2.

*ADABAS Support:* The ADABAS DBA supports two separate production
databases and one test & development database. The databases consist of
over 200 data files and contain over 300 user and system libraries. Over
50 production systems, both on-line and batch are run under ADABAS.
Eight hundred Natural user accounts are maintained through Natural
Security for access to the databases. The ADABAS databases are run as 24
by 7 started tasks on the Enterprise Server. On-line backups and
database logging ensure full time availability.

*Functions include:*

-   Develop, implement, and monitor critical production ADABAS backups

-   Provide database and data file restoration function

-   Design and/or modify database files based on user requirements

-   Install and/or upgrade ADABAS, Natural, Natural security and Predict
    as needed

-   Maintain DDMs, file and database extents, user security profiles,
    libraries, and groups

-   Create new groups and libraries as needed

-   Maintain user accounts through Natural security

-   Assist Natural programmers as needed.

# [Network Operations]{.underline}: OIT maintains over 30 production NT servers and over 13 test servers. The servers are running a combination of NT and Windows 2000 operating systems. There are also 3 production Novell servers. 

*Functions include use, administration and maintenance of the following
software:*

-   Compaq Insight Manager

-   Microsoft Exchange Administrator

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-   Microsoft IIS Administrator

-   Microsoft TechNet

-   Microsoft Terminal Services

-   Network Associates Remote Desktop 32

-   Novell Netware Syscon, Pconsole, and Rconsole

-   NTP Software Quota Manager

-   Veritas Backup Exec and ExecView.

##### *E-Mail Administration Support:* The EIA email system consists of multiple servers with specific functions for mail storage and message transmittal. External transmissions use SMTP connectors, which are both dependent on the DOE e-mail system. 

SMTP e-mail for MS Exchange is required to connect to the DOE SMTP
gateway servers so Internet e-mail can be sent from and delivered to
EIA.

*Functions include:*

-   Setup and administration of SMTP email for MS Exchange

-   Administration of NT Gateway Services for Novell, in order to
    monitor and administer the transmission of email and directory
    information to and from the Central DOE system

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-   Use Compaq Insight Manager on Compaq Proliant servers to update
    Compaqs and firmware, and to setup and support Compaq server
    hardware

-   Configure and maintain NT 4.0 server, NT 4.0 Terminal Server and
    Windows 2000 software

-   Use software tools to maintain and administer EIA\'s LAN, NT
    Resource kit utilities, NAI Remote Desktop, Norton Enti-Virus,
    Veritas Backup Exec, NT Terminal Server client.

-   Provide support for network and communication protocols relating to
    email and LAN/WAN connectivity - TCP/IP, SMTP, LDAP, etc.

-   Use SMTP, telnet and command line utilities to troubleshoot email
    transmission issues external to the MS Exchange system

-   Configure, monitor and maintain MS Exchange Server versions 5.5
    through 2000

-   Resolve problems with communication connections to and from Central
    DOE email system, Internet

-   Provide support for EIA email-enabled web applications that use IIS,
    ASP, Coldfusion, and UNIX send mail

-   Provide configuration, operations, and troubleshooting support for
    Lyris List Manager software e-mail functions

-   Use MS Outlook 97, 98, 2000, and XP to administer Public Folders and
    troubleshoot and resolve client side email problems using MS Outlook
    or the MS Exchange client

-   Coordinate with other EIA and DOE technical staff to troubleshoot
    and resolve email problems

-   Communicate with user community to provide direct help with email
    questions and problems.

*UNIX Servers support functions include:* Sun Solaris (9 servers)

-   System administration support for Solaris version 2.6 and 2.8

-   Install, maintain and upgrade the following products as they are
    enhanced or patched: iPlanet version 4.1 from Sun/Netscape Alliance,
    NcFTPd version 2.6.2, BIND version 9.1 RC1, BIND version 9.1 RC3 and
    security software (TCP_Wrappers, Tripwire, and COPS)

-   Maintain a backup Internet web server ready to be deployed into
    production if the primary Internet web server fails.

*Compaq Alphaserver ES40 (1 server)*

-   System administration support for TRU64 version 5.1

-   Install, maintain and upgrade the following products as they are
    enhanced or patched: LSM (disk mirroring software), Advanced File
    System, STEPS, Base SAS, SAS/AF, SAS/Assist, SAS/Connect,
    SAS/Insight, SAS/Share, SAS/Graph.

**[Network Communications]{.underline}:** The contractor shall support
the EIA LAN Network systems by providing technical and operations
support and shall train staff to power down/up, check for errors and
failures in the Network Communication area. The contractor shall confirm
and maintain connectivity and conductivity to the EIA network and to the
Internet, recommend changes so EIA remains current. All network and
Internet operations shall conform to EIA's Security policies standards.

The contractor shall monitor the operation of EIA's Local Area Network
(LAN) at the Forrestal and 950 L'Enfant facilities. These two sites
enable users to access the mainframe computer from their PC workstation,
and allow other computing resources connection to the network. The
network equipment consists of VPN (Virtual Private Network), CISCO
routers, and asynchronous remote terminal servers. The network presently
supports 600+ users, with the potential to expand in the future if
necessary.

Support remote terminal activity including user\'s PCs connected from
off site to the EIA networks. Once access is granted, user(s) is able to
log on to the IBM mainframe, EIA Email, and access to any data just as
if working locally. The remote access is opened for EIA users who have
valid access authority to 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

By monitor, the contractor shall observe the operation of the LAN as
displayed on system terminals, respond to errors and alarms as
necessary, conduct basic troubleshooting procedures in accordance with
equipment SOPs and standard maintenance practices, initiate HEAT tickets
on all system problems, and inform the appropriate OIT personnel as
indicated in the pass down log.

Specifically, the facility acts as a hub for networking communications
with five other computer facilities (Germantown HQ, Abacus, Z Inc,
Dallas Field Office, and L\'Enfant Plaza). The facility supports
communications within the Washington DC area through a high speed T-1
Link and fiber (FNS) lines.

The contractor shall monitor network communications. By monitor, the
contractor shall observe the operation of the network as displayed on
system terminals, respond to error and alarms as necessary, conduct
basic troubleshooting procedures in accordance with equipment SOPs and
standard maintenance practices, initiate HEAT tickets on all system
problems, and inform the appropriate OIT personnel as indicated in the
pass down log.

**[Internet/Intranet:]{.underline}** The contractor shall perform Web
Master functions, which shall include designing, developing, deploying,
and maintaining EIA Internet and Intranet sites. Consult with the
program offices to ensure current and accurate content. Operate and
maintain Web site systems for content management or other purposes that
may be implemented.

The EIA Internet and Intranet web sites are on NT and Sun servers. The
EIA Internet web site is the major means of disseminating energy data,
analyses and reports generated by the EIA program offices. The average
monthly usage is about a half million-user sessions and 4 million
downloaded pages. The EIA Intranet web site provides information for EIA
staff.

The information on the website is also available through a listserv
implemented in the Lyris List Manager software with 60 lists that send
messages to about 65,000 members.

*Functions include:*

-   Web page design

-   Internet and Intranet support

-   Web application support

-   Web administration and monitoring

-   Web usage reporting

-   Web (UNIX) backups Install, maintain and configure Unix and NT
    website server software and application software including the
    search engine

-   Assist in development of EIA-wide Cold Fusion and Frontpage
    applications

-   Monitor iPlanet access and error logs daily to check for suspicious
    activity

-   Test EIA website and produce reports regarding non-functioning items
    such as broken links

-   Work with EIA's Information Products and Services Committee which
    sets website policy to insure a well maintained and accurate website

-   Make recommendations for software improvements using off-the-shelf,
    well tested and supported products

-   Provide advice to EIA website authors regarding technical problems

-   Generate daily and monthly statistics about access to website from
    web pages and via FTP. Maintain statistics on EIA Intranet

-   Maintain EIA listserv using Lyris List Manager software: set-up and
    maintain lists, monitor and analyze listserv performance, resolve
    user problems, upgrade software and generate monthly statistics for
    EIA Intranet.

**[Technical Documentation:]{.underline}** The contractor is responsible
for the writing technical reports that are comprehensive and thorough
but not overly burdened by esoteric technical terms. The contractor will
use the available and most standards word processor products such as MS
Word, PowerPoint and related software used for documentation and
presentations. The contractor must demonstrated ability to design,
write, maintain and organize technical documentation related to
hardware, software and operating procedures and to design and write
technical reports for management on a variety of hardware, software and
procedural issues. The contractor must demonstrate ability to conduct a
wide range of tasks involving preparation of documentation, manuals, and
descriptions of operation procedures.

**The contractor staff must be experienced in, but not limited to:**

-   UNIX Operating System (Solaris V2.7 and up)

-   Microsoft Exchange and Outlook

-   IBM S/390 Operating System (V2.10 and up)

-   USS (Unix System Service) running under OS/390 Operating system

-   Linux Operating System (running on both S/390 and distributed
    environment)

-   TCP/IP Protocols Suite

-   Computer System Console Operations

-   All IBM's related third part software products

-   Database products such as Oracle, SAS, Adabas, Natural, Natural
    Security and Predict

-   Programming Language such as Assembler, Cobol, PLI, C, C++, Visual
    basic, Java and SML

-   FDR, FDR/ABR, FDR/Compactor

-   Uni-Center TNG Framework product consists of ACF/2, CA-1, TPX,
    JOBTRAC, and Easy-Trieve

-   Novell LAN Server Operating System

-   Windows NT, Windows 2000, and successor Environments

-   Windows NT Terminal Server

-   Switches, Sniffers, Remote Access Routers

-   Cabling CAT. Type-5e and Fibers

-   Ethernet topology/ATM

-   Solaris 2.6 or higher

-   Wide area network operations and problem diagnosis

-   PC hardware and software problem diagnosis

-   IBM OS JCL, CLISTS, TSO, SDSF, ISPF, IBM Utilities such as Access
    Methods Services, VSAM, BDAM, and REXX

-   Maintenance of Internet list servers

-   Storage Area Networks (SAN)

-   Performing LAN administration functions

-   Performing nightly, weekly, and monthly system backups from disks to
    tapes.

-   Restoring files from backup medium

-   Enforcing LAN security procedures and requirements

-   Providing technical assistance to servers, operations, networking,
    and systems software

-   Test and evaluate software/hardware

-   Maintain existing and configure all new Cisco or similar routing and
    switching equipment

-   Develop procedures for LAN operations

-   Computer Software/hardware planning, installation, and testing

-   Insure system reliability, availability and integrity

-   Maintain the system software

-   Maintain up‑to‑date LAN administration documentation

-   Maintain World Wide Web servers and their system software

-   Maintain network equipment at remote sites

-   Maintain an up-to-date list of EIA's computer equipments including
    all servers on the LAN, their function, their configuration, their
    maintenance history, and their date of expected retirement

-   Wide area network operations and problem diagnosis

-   Network Security software

-   Cisco Secure

-   Cisco Works 2000

-   Netview

-   Network Analysis

-   Virtual Private Networks (VPN)

-   Microsoft Terminal Services

**4-B. [USER SERVICES CENTER]{.underline}**

The User Services Center (USC) provides technical expertise to support
the EIA user community in resolving computer-related issues such as
local area network and remote connection problems, PC operating system
problems, PC software and hardware problems, computer system validation
problems, and mainframe application problems. The USC has two locations
-- a primary location and a remote site. The primary location is in the
DOE Forrestal Building and the remote site is at 950 L'Enfant Plaza.

The USC staff provides first call resolution to approximately 600 users,
including walk-up, e-mail, and telephone requests during the normal
business hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The contractor shall be required to provide the following services,
support, and activities:

-   Physical and logical relocation services and support for computer
    applications, systems, and sub-systems.

-   Transition, migration, and maintenance services and support for COTS
    applications.

-   Transition, migration, and maintenance services and support for
    mainframe (MVS/OS390), client/server, network (Novell, NT, 2000) and
    other information technology environments, and other infrastructures
    such as VPN.

-   Remediation services and support for systems and applications.

-   Renovation and/or upgrade of information technology and its
    infrastructure.

-   Support of office automation and upgrades, and/or migration of all
    operating systems that become part of the operations environment.
    These are currently MVS/OS390, UNIX, Linux, Novell, and Windows
    operating systems.

-   Support, install, troubleshoot, and repair PC hardware and software.

-   Administration services for HEAT, T.S. Census, and other systems as
    assigned.

-   Support of DOE Administrative software (ETA, Travel Manager,
    PeopleSoft).

-   Migration and implementation plans as systems are upgraded or
    replaced.

-   Enterprise (mainframe) software application support and user
    assistance with specific problems related to application migration
    as platforms change.

-   Internet access support for EIA survey respondents who are accessing
    Web-based data collection tools.

-   Remote access support for the EIA user community and for survey
    respondents who are using EIA-proprietary PEDRO software.

-   User validation/invalidation functions.

-   Receipt of all incoming computer systems and supplies ensuring that
    they are properly tagged, tracked in the database, and distributed.

Currently EIA uses Dell OptiPlex PCs and Dell Precision Workstations for
the desktop. The configuration of new PCs is upgraded over time to
reflect the availability of advances in technology. The PC may contain
SCSI, IDE and EIDE devices. New PCs are configured by the USC and
delivered to the purchaser. The PC being replaced by a new PC is
reconfigured by the USC for use by another person. The USC determines
the minimum hardware configuration needed to run the current operating
system and slate of software as a guide for determining when a desktop
PC has become obsolete. The USC staff is expected to keep up to date in
their knowledge about current PC hardware and software and to make
recommendations to OIT about upgrades to the operating system, office
suite, other software, and specific hardware items.

The USC is responsible for acquiring the most recent version of the
anti-virus software specified by OIT and providing the latest version of
the virus definition files used by the software. The USC alerts EIA
staff about virus threats that have recently occurred and how to protect
their computers against them. The USC operations should conform to EIA's
IT Security Standards.

The Contractor shall support the core products used by EIA. These may
change through time and currently include:

-   Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000 Professional

-   Microsoft Outlook 97 and 2000

-   Microsoft Office 97 and 2000

-   WordPerfect 7.0, through version 10

-   Ventura 7 and 8

-   Visio

-   Netscape Navigator

-   Microsoft Internet Explorer

-   Microsoft FrontPage

-   Symantec Norton Anti-Virus

-   Attachmate EXTRA!

-   Travel Manager, including the administration of

-   PEDRO (EIA developed product)

-   FDR/ABR

-   SuperWylbur

-   SuperWylbur Macros

-   TSO/ISPF

-   TSO CLISTS

-   TPX

-   SAS for the enterprise server

-   PC SAS

-   JCL

-   ACF2

-   ADABAS/Natural

-   TPL

-   HEAT

-   Crystal Reports

-   MS SQL Server Administration

-   MS Access

-   PeopleSoft

-   Adobe Acrobat

-   T.S.Census

-   MS Exchange Server and its client software

####### Remote Access Support

The Contractor shall be required to provide support for the various
methods used to access EIA's network resources remotely. This includes
supporting the connection issues with EIA's VPN, Microsoft Dial-Up
Networking on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000 Professional, and XP as
well as the configuration used to access the EIA Network Access Server.
The contractor shall also be required to support the installation and
configuration of EIA's VPN client software.

The Contractor shall be required to support the connection problems
encountered by the survey respondent companies using the PEDRO software.
This includes supporting PEDRO on Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, XP, and
Windows 2000 Professional operating systems.

The Contractor shall be required to support the connection problems
encountered by the program office survey respondent companies using
Internet browsers. This includes supporting clients on Windows 95, 98,
NT 4.0, Windows 2000 Professional and XP operating systems.

##### Automated Tools

The Contractor shall be required to make use of the automated tools
provided (including T.S.Census, TechNet, Support on Site, and HEAT) in
the performance of all tasks. The Contractor is encouraged to propose,
as part of its technical response, recommendations to enhance the
delivery of support services based on use of current USC automated
tools.

##### Validations and Passwords

The Contractor shall be required to perform user validations and
invalidations to the various platforms and systems in use at EIA. The
Contractor shall also perform password changes as required and shall
provide new system users with passwords. The Contractor shall record all
new users and remove all departing users in the primary system used to
track the universe of users of the EIA systems. All EIA computer
security policies shall be adhered to in the performance of these
duties.

##### EIA Enterprise Services

The Contractor shall provide processing control, archiving, restoring
and other user assistance to the users of the Enterprise-wide services
at EIA.

##### Administering Problem Tracking System and PC Inventory System

The Contractor shall be required to administer the database and client
software used by the problem tracking system and the PC inventory system
utilized by the User Services Center.

##### Knowledge Sharing

The Contractor shall propose an effective approach to facilitate
knowledge sharing. The approach should reflect current industry and best
practices in providing a high level of help desk services. The
Contractor shall ensure that all support personnel of the User Services
Center participate in such information sharing processes. The Government
staff of the User Services Center may also participate in knowledge
sharing.

The Contractor shall ensure that their support personnel work together
to share their knowledge and experiences and promote an attitude of
willingness and eagerness toward sharing knowledge.

##### Computer System Documentation

The Contractor is required to update the EIA Resource Guide that
describes the proper usage of the various EIA computer systems. In
addition, the Contractor is required to create and maintain
documentation for the operating procedures of the User Services Center.
The Contractor shall have demonstrated experience and staff expertise in
developing and maintaining such documentation.

##### Other Services

The Contractor shall be required to perform other services as requested
including the distribution of messages to all EIA computer users and the
operation of certain administrative systems.

The Contractor shall create and/or maintain a web page or web pages on
the EIA Intranet for the User Services Center that provides information
to the EIA user community. The information on this page shall contain
information about how to contact the User Services Center with questions
and shall assist users who wish to learn more about how to support
themselves.

**4-C. [DATABASE ADMINISTRATION SUPPORT, SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND SOFTWARE
MAINTENANCE ]{.underline}**

**[Database Administrator and Support:]{.underline}** Administer the
EIA-wide and selected office specific databases and data warehouses.
Most of EIA's data processing systems use Oracle as the relational
database management system (RDBMS), although there are a few system
based on Microsoft SQL Server and other DMS. The contractor must
demonstrate a high degree of expertise through experience,
certification, and training in administering Oracle databases and
experience with MS SQL Server is required.

Database Administration tasks include, but are not limited to, the
following:

-   Create databases and table spaces

-   Create and maintain instances and schemas

-   Evaluate logical data models and create physical models

-   Install the RDBMS on the enterprise server, UNIX, Linux, and NT
    servers, and PCs for developers and testers

-   Test new versions of the RDBMS

-   Develop and conduct procedures for database backups and restores

-   Develop/revise and document standard operating procedures for all
    DBA activities

-   Develop, document and maintain standards for database modeling.

-   Write, test, implement, and document stored procedures and triggers

-   Design, implement and maintain database security procedures in
    cooperation with the Security Team and Policy Division staff

-   Performance tune databases

-   Design, implement, and be prepared to operate rapid recovery systems
    for the databases associated with r essential data processing
    systems

-   Work with the Data Administrator to maintain and use a common
    EIA-wide data dictionary

-   Support and maintain products and systems for data storage on a
    daily basis.

*ORACLE:* The contractor shall be responsible for the installation,
testing, implementing, and monitoring ORACLE, ORACLE 9ias, and SQL
server databases. The contractor shall use ORACLE Enterprise Manager,
including performance manager, SQL Analyze, ORACLE Expert and TOP
Sessions to obtain quantitative data on the health of the database. The
contractor shall also use third party tools, such as SDSF on the
enterprise server, performance monitor in Windows NT and VMSTAT on UNIX.
This shall include obtaining benchmark results for each application
using the ORACLE infrastructure.

The contractor shall monitor performance and shall use automated
procedures and built in features of the RDBMS where possible. The ORACLE
Enterprise Manager (OEM) shall be used to monitor and configure the
ORACLE infrastructure. The OEM Tuning and Diagnostic tools shall be used
where applicable. SQL Server shall be monitored using Windows NT
performance Monitor and SQL Server Enterprise Manager.

*Functions Include:*

-   Monitor existing databases.

-   Implement policies and procedures.

-   Migrate systems to appropriate revision levels.

-   Provide support and expertise for planning, installation,
    configuration and management of Oracle Enterprise Edition for the
    enterprise server.

-   Provide support and expertise for planning, installation,
    configuration and management of Oracle Enterprise Edition for
    Windows.

-   Provide support and expertise for planning, installation,
    configuration and management of Oracle 9ias application server
    running on UNIX/Linux and Windows.

-   Provide on going support.

-   Backup procedures.

-   Emergency on call procedures.

-   Enforce standards.

-   Defining systems resource requirements and establishing environment.

-   Adding users to Databases.

-   Distributing and installing client software.

The contractor shall be responsible for Configuring IBM\'s WebSphere
Application Server product on the enterprise server and the APACHE Web
Server on Windows NT and Solaris. The contractor shall be responsible
for integrating JAVA, JDBC, ORACLE, WebSphere and APACHE and must have
shown prior experience in administering a similar environment.

**[Systems Development and Software Maintenance]{.underline}:** The
contractor shall provide support as required for the design and
development of EIA application systems and databases. Additionally, the
contractor shall provide expert technical consulting, mentoring and/or
training on application development and database development topics as
necessary.

The contractor shall provide Joint Application Design (JAD)/Rapid
Application Design (RAD) facilitation and selected database and
applications technology training.

The contractor shall provide support for all phases of the software
development process. The development process should be in accord with
the current version of the Department of Energy's Software Engineering
Methodology (SEM) guidelines. This support shall include:

-   Planning ‑ establishing the task\'s scope, schedule, and
    feasibility.

-   Requirements Definition - demonstrating an understanding of internal
    customer requirements and establishing system requirements
    feasibility.

-   Preliminary Design ‑ selecting hardware and software, defining
    system architecture, and defining systems and subsystems.

-   Detailed Design ‑ developing database specifications, developing
    program specifications, and completing development approach.

-   Programming ‑ prototyping and programming all modules.

-   Testing ‑ unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and
    acceptance testing.

-   Implementation - system turnover, including system documentation and
    user training.

The contractor shall provide Data Administration support, working with
program offices to administer data and to develop and maintain a common
EIA-wide data dictionary.

The contractor shall be experienced in, but not limited to the following
tools:

-   Rational Rose Unified Modeling Language (UML)

-   ErWIN database modeling

-   J2EE development tools

-   Visual Intercept tool for incident tracking

-   Visual Source Safe configuration management tool

-   Microsoft Project planning tool

-   Java-based web and application servers and related Java server
    software

-   Microsoft SQL Server and other DMS

-   Problem isolation and resolution

The contractor shall provide complete support as required for the
maintenance of EIA application systems and databases. Working in
conjunction with the OIT and Program Offices, the contractor shall
troubleshoot, design, develop and deploy fixes or enhancements to such
application systems and databases.

The contractor shall provide complete life-cycle software maintenance
support. This support must be accomplished in accordance with the
current version of the Department of Energy's Software Engineering
Methodology (SEM) guidelines. This support shall include:

-   Problem/Modification Identification: identify, categorize, and
    prioritize changes

-   Analysis: assess feasibility and scope and develop preliminary
    project plan for design, test and delivery

-   Design: modify design of appropriate modules and update design
    baseline

-   Programming: code the modifications

-   Software Integration and Testing: unit testing, integration testing,
    regression testing, and system testing

-   Installation and Acceptance: system turnover, including modified
    system documentation and user training

In order to maintain EIA's current and legacy systems, the contractor
shall be experienced in a substantial number of the following tools. The
work is not necessarily limited to the tools on this list.

-   Rational Rose Unified Modeling Language (UML)

-   ErWIN database modeling

-   J2EE development tools

-   Visual Intercept incident tracking

-   Visual Source Safe configuration management tool

-   MSProject planning tool

-   ADABAS/Natural

-   Natural Security

-   Predict

-   Cobol

-   PL/1

-   Fortran

-   Assembler

-   TPL

-   Superwylbur

-   SAS

-   Oracle

-   Oracle 9ias

-   Oracle Developer tools

-   Bookmaster

-   Clipper

-   Tell-A-Graf

-   SQL

-   PowerBuilder

-   IBM Utilities

-   Uni-Center TNG Frameworks including ACF2, CA-1, JOBTRAC, TPX, and
    Easy-Trieve

-   Various third party vendor program products

**4-D. [SECURITY AND ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT]{.underline}**

The contractor shall develop, maintain, and enforce a cyber-security
program plan (CSPP) covering unclassified information
resources/activities under the following CSPP functional areas:

a\. Mainframe Automated Information Security Support -- The contractor
shall provide operational and analytical support related to security for
mainframe information assets. Such support includes, but is not limited
to, the capability to:

-   Provide analytical support of mainframe security system software,
    e.g., ACF2

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-   Provide support necessary to evaluate the integrity of mainframe
    operating systems and environments

-   Ensure the operation of trusted computer systems consistent with
    strategic plans

-   Support full compliance with the Computer Security Act of 1987 (PL
    100-235) and DOE Order 205.1 "Unclassified Cyber Security Program"

-   Ensure that users, both internal and external, are not unreasonably
    impacted by the operation and administration of security system
    software

-   Provide assessments/audits to include conduct of audits by an
    outside independent organization who shall provide unbiased
    assessment of the FIPS security environment and provide draft and
    final audit plans to the OIT prior to commencing work

b.  Disaster Recovery, Continuity of Operations, and Contingency
    Planning -- The contractor shall provide disaster recovery,
    continuity of operations, and contingency planning support including
    those for software applications, which are processed on various
    computer platforms (PCs, mainframe, mini-computers). Such support
    includes, but is not limited to the capability to:

-   Perform risk analysis

-   Review and/or develop and incorporate disaster recovery and
    continuity of operations plans

-   Recommend mitigation plan

-   Recommend ways to increase the effectiveness of the plans and the
    continuity of service

c.  Computer Security Awareness and Training -- The contractor shall
    provide computer security awareness and training. Such support
    includes, but is not limited to the capability to:

-   Design and develop cyber security awareness and training material
    for both briefing presentation and classroom-based courses as well
    as conducting training

-   Provide a participant material packet, which shall provide the
    participant with the materials discussed in the course/briefing for
    future reference

-   Design, develop and present a course and handbook on EIA's CSPP to
    educate EIA user community on security policy and procedures. This
    would include initial and annual refresher courses

    d.  Computer Security Incident Response -- The contractor shall
        provide computer security incident response support. Such
        support includes, but is not limited to the capability to:

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-   Form an Incident Response Team to increase the client organization's
    ability to respond to computer security incidents

-   Have the team communicate important information about threats and
    vulnerabilities to the organization in a timely manner

-   Perform research on system vulnerabilities, conduct system
    penetration studies, and acquire and implement computer security
    incident response tools

-   Monitor the client organization network(s) to detect intrusions.
    Correlate information on network intrusion incidents; create
    incident reports; brief client organization management and client
    security personnel on the incidents; develop automated tools to
    assist in the network monitoring, intrusion detection, and reaction
    to incidents

e.  Virus Detection, Elimination, and Prevention -- The contractor shall
    provide virus detection, elimination, and prevention support. Such
    support includes, but is not limited to the capability to:

-   Be responsible for specific activities that include
    incident-handling guidelines, software tools, etc. in an ongoing,
    multi-year effort

-   Identify, isolate, neutralize, and be responsible for handling
    malicious programs infecting the client organization's systems
    and/or networks

-   Perform research on viruses, conduct system attach studies, and use
    computer security tools which provide knowledge that the contractor
    can use and information to issue before and during incidents

-   Maintain a clearinghouse of relevant information, i.e., description
    of viruses, removal/recovery instructions, etc.

-   Initiate proactive efforts to include developing virus detection,
    elimination, and prevention guidelines and identifying software
    tools for responding to incident/events

f.  Cyber Security Program Plan Preparation -- The contractor shall
    provide computer security plan preparation support. Such support
    includes, but is not limited to the capability to provide a system
    security plan which:

-   Performs risk analysis

-   Reduces the risk and magnitude of harm that could result from the
    loss, misuse, or unauthorized access to or modification of
    information in federal computer systems

-   Identifies the system purpose and operating environment; the
    sensitivity of information; management, operational, and technical
    controls to be applied; and is required for all general support
    systems and major applications

g.  Security for Telecommunications and Client/Server -- The contractor
    shall provide security for personal computers, telecommunications,
    and client server support. Such support includes, but is not limited
    to the capability to:

-   Provide operational and analytical support related to security for
    personal computers, file servers, and LAN information assets

-   Provide operational and analytical support related to
    telecommunications and network security

-   Analyze and evaluate new and emerging security technologies as well
    as vendor security products for the applicability and feasibility of
    use for personal computers, LANs, telecommunications, and networks

-   Support customer security operations, including assisting customers
    with developing and implementing security methodologies and
    safeguards to protect the PCs, file servers, LAN, and network assets

-   Recommend Back-up Storage and Protection plan

-   Perform special projects and tasks to remedy existing security
    weakness

-   Conduct network security monitoring to detect intrusions; conduct
    electronic vulnerability assessments of systems; conduct electronic
    vulnerability assessments of web sites

h.  Authenticate Computer Systems -- The contractor shall provide
    support in the authentication of computer systems. Such support
    includes, but is not limited to the capability to:

-   Formally test the system's controls (depending on the scope of the
    certification review as determined by the size and nature, (e.g.,
    general support systems and major applications) to determine whether
    they are turned on, actually work, and provide the intended
    protection

-   Perform an assessment and evaluation on computer systems through:

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-   a series of tests of the security controls implemented to ensure the
    security and integrity of the system ad its software and data

-   preparation of a simplified test plan

-   conduct of appropriate validation tests

-   conduct of vulnerability assessments of systems through the use of
    automated tools such as SATAN, CYBERCOP, Black Ice, Patchworks,
    Crack, etc.

-   certification of systems under development, generally prior to
    implementation (usually coinciding with System Design Testing)

i.  Software/Hardware Maintenance and/or Licensing -- The contractor
    shall provide support for software/hardware maintenance and/or
    software licenses from 3rd party vendors in support of tasks falling
    within this functional area. The contractor also shall provide and
    support security procedures and polices (in writing) for all
    hardware and software products.

j.  Security Policies, Standards and Procedures -- The contractor shall
    provide resources to develop, maintain, and implement security
    policies, standards and procedures.

The contractor shall support the development of an EIA IT strategic plan
that complements the EIA Strategic Plan. The contractor shall monitor
EIA's Strategic Plan and other sources to identify and prioritize future
OIT projects and obligations. The contractor shall develop, coordinate,
and monitor EIA IT policies and standards to achieve DOE and OIT goals
and objectives for IT resources.

The contractor shall create, maintain and/or enhance procedures for
ensuring the management of the hardware, system software, and
application software resources of EIA. The contractor shall review these
procedures and their implementation on a scheduled basis, correcting
deficiencies whenever reasonable.

The contractor shall implement, and operate a system for electronic
records management that satisfies EIA's record management policies and
shall monitor the operation of the system to ensure that EIA's policies
are followed.

The contractor shall provide the support of an administrative assistant
to the OIT. The contractor shall be able to make certain that management
policies are completed effectively; review and evaluate administrative
requirements, instructions, and procedure to identify problems and to
recommend changes; analyze matters of concern to the CIO and provide
findings and recommendations; schedule conferences and meetings, and
coordinate arrangements, including travel, space, equipment, agenda, and
attendees. The contractor shall be able to prepare and/or assembles
required documents and materials such as speeches, reports, overheads,
and computer generated presentations, and handouts. The contractor shall
work closely with the CIO, division directors, project leaders, and
office staff to ensure that the CIO's schedule for meetings, trips,
speaking engagements, and other official activities are up-to-date and
accurate; communicate the schedule (including travel, leave, and other
time away from the office) to all appropriate management and staff
within EIA; assist in the preparation of the Department of Energy
Personnel Management system reporting for OIT employees; assisting in
the preparation of requests for procurement of office equipment and
services; sort and distribute mail; reviews memoranda, letters, and
reports prepared by the Office for consistency with applicable EIA and
DOE policies and guidelines.

# 

# 

**[Other Information Technology/Management Requirements]{.underline}**

The technical deliverables under this contract include models, software
packages, documentation and analysis reports, as well as other specified
deliverables such as written reports, research memoranda, computer code,
systems and data models, use case diagrams, diagnostic reports, and
other support as specified in task orders issued by the Contracting
officer.

The final versions of all computer models shall be expressed in coding
compatible with the platform on which the production software is to be
run. Delivery of all computer code is to be on electronic material
compatible with EIA equipment and standards. In general, deliverables
shall also include all software packages necessary for operation on that
platform. All electronic deliverables shall be in compliance with EIA
Standards addressing virus protection procedures.

Microcomputer models must be designed to be compatible with the IBM PC
series standards operating in the EIA computing environment and shall
include all software packages necessary for operation on existing EIA
PCs, LANs, Internet Servers, and/or mainframe computer.

All models developed under this contract are the property of the U.S.
Government and must be delivered with all software and documentation.
The contractor retains no proprietary rights to models, data, software
or documentation developed under this contract.

The contractor shall use the DOE Headquarters Software Life Cycle
Standard (SLS) as its primary life‑cycle resource for software
development. The contractor shall ensure that all system related
checkpoints and documentation conform to the **Energy Information**
**Administration Standards Manual,
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oss/Standard.html.** The contractor shall consult
with EIA's Office of Statistical and Methods Group if a clarification of
standards is required.

**Reports**

The contractor shall provide reports that shall include data quality
comparisons, performance statistics, (e.g., records of non and late
response), and system performance. In addition, the contractor shall
participate in and provide data for preliminary and final data quality
meetings to review data and statistical tables and publications

**Documentation**

The contractor shall be responsible for the development and maintenance
of all records of operations according to task instructions and EIA
standards, including documentation. The contractor may be required,
based on specific EIA direction as to content and position, to draft
material in support of EIA/DOE submissions to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) in accordance with EIA/OMB guidelines. Technical
deliverables under this contract include captured data, captured survey
forms, edited and complete, to the extent required, survey data files,
written reports, research memoranda and/or other deliverables as
specified in the task orders issued by the Contracting Officer.

**Sign-off Process for EOP II IT Tasks:**

Due to the increased responsibilities given to each Federal Agency's
Chief Information Officer (CIO) under the Clinger-Cohen Act, the EIA CIO
has determined that review and sign-off on all proposed tasks that are
wholly or partially IT-related is required. These shall be conducted
under EOP II in order to insure that these tasks:

-   Conform to Federal, DOE, and EIA IT policy, standards and
    procedures, and

-   Are consistent with EIA's information architecture, IT strategic
    plans, and the operational plans for upgrading and maintaining EIA's
    computer infrastructure in a cost-effective manner.

To effectively carry out these responsibilities, the EIA CIO requires
that EIA Program Offices send proposed task orders and associated
descriptions of work to the EIA CIO for review prior to transmitting
these procurement requests to the Office of Resource Management for
action. Program Offices are also encouraged to contact the CIO before
initiating contract tasks with IT components, to discuss their
requirements and learn of ongoing and planned IT activities that could
alter the timing, cost, or technological aspects for their task. IT
tasks are defined herein to include any EOP contract task that is
identified as belonging to the IT functions area or is identified as
belonging to another functional area but includes subtasks involving
program or database/file maintenance.

**[Functional Area 5A-5F Energy End Use Surveys]{.underline}**

Functional Area 5, Energy End Use Surveys is split into 6 major task
areas. These are:

> **5-A. End Use Surveys Sample Design and Selection**
>
> **5-B. 2003 CBECS Energy Supplier Survey**
>
> **5-C. 2005 RECS Household Survey**
>
> **5-D. 2005 RECS Energy Supplier Survey**
>
> **5-E. 2007 CBECS Buildings Survey**

**5-F. End Use Special Studies, Statistical Analysis and Methodological
Development**

The six functional areas (5A through 5F) pertain exclusively to the
energy end use surveys. Detailed statements of work for all six of these
functional areas follow the background and surveys information.

Following is background and general description of the End Use Surveys
and a work overview for those surveys. A proposed timeline with the
approximate dates for the six functional areas follows the work
overview.

####### 

####### End Use Surveys[^1] Background and General Description

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) has a mandate to provide
meaningful, timely, objective, and accurate data on energy consumption
to the Executive Branch, Congress, State governments, and to the public.
EIA presently conducts three end-use consumption surveys. The surveys
are directed to end users (i.e., consumers) of energy. They collect data
on the characteristics of the end users and the quantities of energy
sources actually consumed. These end-use surveys are: Commercial
Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), Residential Energy
Consumption Survey (RECS), and Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey
(MECS). The MECS is conducted under the authority of the Department of
Energy Organization Act, as amended. The RECS and CBECS are conducted
under the authority of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, as
amended (FEAA), and the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT). The results
of the end-user surveys are released via the Internet in survey-specific
tables and analyses and published in other EIA publications.

The end-use consumption surveys are presently conducted quadrennially.
All consumption surveys are designed to cover the 50 States and the
District of Columbia. Table 1 provides a summary of key characteristics
of the consumption surveys.

> Table 1. Summary of Characteristics of Current Energy End Use Surveys

  --------- ---------------- ------------ -------------- ---------------- -------------- ------------
  End-Use   Population       Population   Present        Principal        End-Use Energy Smallest
  Survey    Covered          Size         Approx-imate   Activity         Consump-tion   Geographic
  System                                  Sample Size    Classification   (Quadrillion   Area for
                                                                          Btu)           Published
                                                                                         Estimates

  RECS      Occupied Housing 101.5        5,000          5 Housing Types  10.7           9 Census
            Units            Million                                                     Divisions; 4
                                                                                         States: CA,
                                                                                         FL, NY, TX

  CBECS     Commercial       4.5 Million  6,000          14 Building      5.3            9 Census
            Buildings                                    Activity Types                  Divisions

  MECS      Manufacturing    350,000      18,000         57 Industry      23.7           4 Census
            Establishments                               Categories                      Regions
  --------- ---------------- ------------ -------------- ---------------- -------------- ------------

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

The total annual end use energy consumption in the United States in 1999
was approximately 73.2 quadrillion British thermal units. Thus, the
estimates prepared from the end-use consumption surveys account for
approximately 55 percent of that total U.S. end use energy consumption.
Agriculture, mining, construction, forestry and fisheries, and
transportation account for the vast majority of the remaining
consumption. These sectors are not presently covered by the end-use
consumption surveys.

The end-use consumption surveys fulfill a variety of needs. At the most
basic level, the survey estimates are presented in a series of reports
and databases that provide basic bench marking data for a variety of
analytical and forecasting undertakings throughout the U.S. energy
community. The RECS and the CBECS provide consumption and expenditures
data for the residential and commercial buildings sectors. The RECS are
a major data set used for evaluation of the Low Income Home Energy
Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The MECS provides data for reports on
energy consumption and changes in energy intensity for the manufacturing
sector. The RECS and CBECS data are available via the Internet (in EIA's
web site) in tables and public use datasets. The MECS data are contained
in a special Census Bureau file that may be used only at
Census-authorized sites for analytical purposes by sworn Census
employees. However, MECS data tables are available via EIA's MECS web
site. To obtain more information about the consumption surveys and to
view the data tables from the surveys, go to the survey web sites at
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs>, <http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs>,
and <http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/mecs> .

The end-use consumption surveys also provide the basis for special
analytical reports and articles within the EIA and the Department of
Energy (DOE). For example, EIA used the MECS data, in combination with
economic data from the Bureau of the Census, to examine the impact of
structural economic shifts on changes in energy intensity. The results
of this analysis were published in EIA's [Monthly Energy
Review]{.underline}. Related studies have been undertaken by researchers
in both the public and private sectors using the end-use consumption
data. The CBECS data were used in a special EIA analysis report on
lighting in commercial buildings. RECS data have been used for a
weatherization program evaluation. The surveys also provide input for
EIA's Congressionally- mandated forecasts of energy consumption. These
forecasts are published in the [Annual Energy Outlook]{.underline}.

A key feature of the consumption surveys is that they are not static.
Both questionnaire content and the sample design have been modified and
will in the future be modified to respond to special needs. For example,
special sections have been included in the CBECS and RECS questionnaires
to collect specific information for other Federal agencies, such as the
Census Bureau, Department of Health and Human Services, and the
Environmental Protection Agency.

Another example of possible change is the mode of data collection.
Presently, data are collected using computer-assisted telephone
interviewing (CATI) and computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI)
techniques, as well as mailed questionnaires. Improved technology now
provides several potential alternative data collection methods. Among
these are Computerized Self-Administered Questionnaires (CSAQ),
Facsimile (FAX), Touchstone Data Entry (TDE), and electronic data filing
by respondents via E-mail or the Internet. The feasibility of fully or
partially converting portions of the data collection procedures for the
CBECS and/or RECS to one or more of these or other approaches will be
considered.

####### Energy End Use Consumption Surveys Work Overview

The energy end use surveys are the responsibility of the Energy
Consumption Division (ECD), in EIA's Office of Energy Markets and End
Use; the ECD is the Program Office.

Contractual efforts for the CBECS and RECS shall involve implementation
of the 2003 CBECS (functional areas 5B and 5F), 2005 RECS (functional
areas 5C, 5D, and 5F), and 2007 CBECS (functional areas 5E and 5F)
including methodological work and some analysis. Sample design and
selection for the 2005 RECS and 2007 CBECS are specified in Functional
Area 5A. Contractual efforts for the MECS shall be limited to
methodological work and analysis (functional area 5F). Functional Area
5F also covers any contractual work that may be required in the
development of other data systems for energy end-use consumption such
as, for example, a farm energy consumption survey, or transportation
database.

Work in Functional Areas 5A through 5F may include:

-   developing, constructing, validating, and updating sampling frames
    (including longitudinal components, if any);

-   designing and implementing procedures for sample selection;

-   conducting and evaluating pilot studies of new and alternative
    survey designs;

-   designing and testing survey questionnaires;

-   pretesting all survey materials and procedures;

-   implementing data collection procedures, including interviewer
    training; programming of survey operations including control
    management systems;

-   data processing; including editing, imputation, parameter and
    variance estimation, data base management, and other procedures
    necessary for preparation of data for delivery to EIA;

-   maintaining confidentiality of individually-identifiable data;

-   compiling of survey results and supporting data release using the
    most recent versions of Statistical Analysis Systems (SAS), MS Word,
    HTML, XML, Excel, BLAISE, MapInfo, and Harvard Graphics or other
    software required by EIA;

-   preparation of tabulations and public use data files, include
    disclosure avoidance procedures;

-   preparation and collection of supplemental information, related to
    the consumption surveys, for other governmental agencies as either
    part of the end use surveys or as a supplemental survey;

-   special analytical and methodological tasks; and

-   documentation, to standards as specified by EIA, of all work
    performed in Functional Areas 5A through 5F.

These services may be provided for existing energy end use surveys, and
if funding becomes available, supplemental surveys, and new surveys.

The current contract for consumption data surveys (DE-AC01-96EI23968)
does not expire until May 21, 2004. As a consequence, there will be a
time period where both the current contract and any tasks resulting from
this RFP are in force.

Unless notified otherwise, in writing, by the Contracting Officer (CO),
the Contractor shall maintain the confidentiality of all individually
identifiable data collected in Functional Areas 5A through 5F.. The
Contractor shall submit a plan detailing the procedures to be followed
in order to guarantee protection of the data. Upon task award, the
Contractor shall receive name and address information of the RECS or
CBECS for the previous 3 cycles of the survey from the previous
Contractor, as necessary. For the duration of the task, the Contractor
shall retain possession, at the Contractor's site, of all these energy
end use survey individually-identifiable data. These data shall be
available to EIA-approved personnel for review at the Contractor's site,
for monitoring, methodological development, special editing, and
validation purposes. These materials shall be transferred to a
subsequent Contractor, as necessary. All CBECS and RECS records are
retained for the three survey cycles; therefore, the Contractor
performing the current data collection may be required to store the
confidential records from previous survey cycles.

EIA may provide to the Contractor (or require the Contractor to obtain),
when necessary, data files and programs from nonsurvey data sources such
as weather data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), electricity price data from EIA and the
Department of Agriculture, the F.W. Dodge New Construction Reports
and/or any other files deemed necessary to design and conduct the end
use consumption surveys or related data programs/analyses.

Response rates for the 1997 RECS personal interview and the 1999 CBECS
telephone interview were 81 percent and 86 percent respectively.
Response rates for the Energy Suppliers portion of the 1997 RECS and the
1999 CBECS were 91 percent and 87 percent respectively. For the surveys
covered in Functional Areas 5B through 5F, the Contractor shall achieve
comparable response rates, which will be specified by the Program Office
in the respective functional area task descriptions.

The Contractor shall use BLAISE for the computer-assisted data
collection techniques (CATI and CAPI) in Functional Areas 5C and 5E. The
Contractor will be responsible for either using BLAISE or compatible
software, such as SurveyTrak, for the Control Management System to
manage the surveys in those functional areas. In addition, the
Contractor may be required to obtain other specialized software to
implement Internet or electronic data reporting, as required for the
various components of the RECS or CBECS. Should one or more methods be
selected for use, EIA may provide appropriate software if available,
otherwise, the Contractor shall provide appropriate software as
necessary. The software shall meet criteria specified by EIA. These
criteria include, but are not limited to a menu driven system; access to
ancillary databases; ability to accommodate use of several types of
questions as well as large numbers of survey questions; back-up
capabilities; and complex editing and branching capabilities that
include the ability to skip forward and backward within the
questionnaire without having to re-enter data.

For all the end use survey-related Functional Areas (5A through 5F), the
Contractor shall evaluate and propose alternative, more efficient, more
rapid, and less costly data collection and processing procedures,
including Web-based data collection. All new procedures and all
contractor-proposed modifications to existing procedures shall be
approved by DOE prior to implementation. After approval by the CO, the
Contractor may be directed to implement the new procedures.

For Functional Areas 5C and 5E, the Program Office (ECD) will provide a
RECS Household Questionnaire or CBECS Building Questionnaire programmed
in BLAISE. The Program Office shall prepare all of the necessary
questionnaire design services including item development, skip pattern
placement, internal checks and edits, and layout. The Contractor will be
required to design and implement a case management system that is
seamless with the Blaise questionnaire.

Functional Area 5F requires the Contractor to conduct special studies
and analyses in support of the End Use Surveys. This includes:

-   Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS) methodological and
    MECS analysis projects;

-   projects related to the development of end-use information programs
    or data sets for other sectors, such as transportation, mining, and
    agriculture;

-   response analysis surveys or cognitive studies of respondents to
    existing questionnaires to determine the accuracy with which data
    were provided on previous surveys by respondents and the viability
    of proposed changes;

-   methodological studies to improve data collection procedures;

-   formal pretest of any proposed questionnaire;

-   focus groups consisting of potential respondents to investigate
    proposed new areas of inquiry and/or groups of data users to
    determine user needs; and

-   editorial support for the preparation of data reports and analysis
    for publication by EIA.

In providing the support as specified above for Functional Area 5F, the
Contractor shall use appropriate software such as MS Word, HTML, XML,
EXCEL, SAS, MapInfo, and Harvard Graphics, or other software requested
by EIA. In addition, the Contractor shall be required to have in-depth
knowledge of designing and conducting focus groups, especially as they
apply to defining issues for questionnaire development. The Contractor
will have knowledge and experience in methodological studies.

**Timeline**

Following is a general timeline for the six functional areas for the
Energy End Use Surveys. This is provided as a guide to give an idea of
the sequence and duration of work for the different functional areas.
These dates are approximate and are provided for planning purposes.

+----------------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| **Functional Area**              | ###       |          | **Appr    |
|                                  |  Approxim |          | oximate** |
|                                  | ate Dates |          |           |
|                                  |           |          | **D       |
|                                  |           |          | uration** |
+----------------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+
|                                  | **Task    | **Task   |           |
|                                  | Start**   | End**    |           |
+----------------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 5A: End Use Surveys Sample       | March,    | March,   | 12 months |
| Design and Selection             | 2004      | 2005     |           |
|                                  |           |          |           |
| 5A-1: 2005 RECS Sample           |           |          |           |
+----------------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 5A-2: 2007 CBECS Sample Design   | July,     | July,    | 12 months |
|                                  | 2006      | 2007     |           |
+----------------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 5B: 2003 CBECS Energy Supplier   | October,  | April,   | 18 months |
| Survey                           | 2003      |          |           |
|                                  |           | 2005     |           |
+----------------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 5C: 2005 RECS Household Survey   | S         | March,   | 18 months |
|                                  | eptember, | 2006     |           |
|                                  | 2004      |          |           |
+----------------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 5D: 2005 RECS Energy Supplier    | S         | March,   | 18 months |
| Survey                           | eptember, | 2007     |           |
|                                  | 2005      |          |           |
+----------------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 5E: 2007 CBECS Buildings Survey  | June,     | June,    | 24 months |
|                                  | 2006      | 2008     |           |
+----------------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 5F: End Use Special Studies,     | Anytime   |          | Varying   |
| Statistical Analysis and         | t         |          |           |
| Methodological Development       | hroughout |          |           |
|                                  | the       |          |           |
|                                  | entire 5  |          |           |
|                                  | year      |          |           |
|                                  | period of |          |           |
|                                  | this      |          |           |
|                                  | contract  |          |           |
+----------------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------+

[**5**-**A.** **END USE SURVEYS SAMPLE DESIGN AND
SELECTION**]{.underline}

The Contractor shall develop and implement all necessary sampling
procedures for the 2005 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) and
the 2007 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). Each of
these efforts will be a separate task within this functional area, 5A-1
will be the 2005 RECS Sample, and 5A-2 will be the 2007 CBECS Sample.
Functional areas 5A-3 through 5A-5 apply to both the RECS and CBECS
sample tasks.

The energy end use surveys sampling frames are periodically redesigned
based upon new information from the Decennial Census of Population.
Prior to the start of interviews for the 2003 CBECS, all stages of the
survey design for CBECS will be redesigned. The 2000 Census population
data will be used in the redesign of the primary stage for the 2003
CBECS. A major redesign to include data from the 2000 Census is expected
for the 2005 RECS. Both redesigns are being discussed and several
methodologies are being considered; more information on sample design
and implementation needs will be provided after major decisions have
been made. For a general description of sampling work required for the
energy end use surveys, see the RECS and CBECS home pages at
[www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs](http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs) and
[www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs](http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs).

Both RECS and CBECS utilize a complex, multistage area probability
sample design. For CBECS, the sample also includes a sample from lists
of special buildings. This combination of list samples and an area
sample is a particularly complex sampling method, where very experienced
statisticians are required. In order to adequately perform the work in
this functional area, the contractor staff must, at a minimum, have the
following:

-   Experience in complex multistage area probability sample design,

-   Experience in area listing techniques,

-   Experience in calculating sampling weights for observations with
    such a complex sampling design,

-   Experience in variance estimation in order to optimize the sample
    size, data quality, and costs.

It is especially critical to have people experienced in applied
statistics. People who have dealt with "real world" situations in a
survey setting are crucial to the success of these tasks.

**Special Work Requirements**

Work in this functional area requires that the Contractor address two
important issues explicitly in their proposal. The first is the special
confidentiality procedures, which must be taken to protect the energy
end use data. The Contractor must ensure that the identities and
location of the sampled units are kept confidential from both EIA and
the data users. This will involve processing the
individually-identifiable survey data on the Contractor's computers. Any
micro data provided to EIA must have names and addresses removed. In
addition, the Contractor may have to mask the micro data to prevent EIA
or users from identifying the specific location or sample unit. Section
5A-3.2 provides more detail concerning these data confidentiality
procedures.

The second major issue, data storage, is related to the data
confidentiality requirements of the energy end use data. Because EIA
cannot take possession of the survey data collection documents or
records, the Contractor will have to provide secure storage of these
records either at their site or at another contractor facility. In
addition, the Contractor is required to keep an inventory of these
records and be ready to transfer these records to a subsequent
contractor. These procedures are further defined in 5A-4, Transfer of
Materials.

### 

### **5A-1: 2005 RECS Sample** 

This task is to design and implement a new sample design for the 2005
RECS. The sample will be selected and materials provided to the data
collection contractor selected to conduct the interviews at the housing
unit.

The universe for the RECS sample design includes all housing units
occupied as the primary residence in the 50 States and the District of
Columbia. The definition of "household" is the same as that used by the
U.S. Bureau of the Census. This definition excludes group quarters, such
as military barracks, dormitories, and nursing homes, which are
considered to be out-of-scope. Housing units on military installations
are included.

The basic RECS sample should be designed to represent the total
population of households in the United States, with specified levels of
precision for each of the geographically defined Census Divisions: This
basic sample should yield 5,000 completed interviews.

In addition, other Federal agencies may request supplemental RECS
samples specifically designed to meet their special analytical needs.
These samples would be designed to provide a disproportionately large
sample of households for a specialized population, such as those living
below the poverty level or receiving energy assistance from Federal or
State agencies.

**5A-1.1: RECS Sample Design Background**

The 2005 RECS sample design will be a multistage area probability
cluster sample design. The three stages of the design are as follows:

# Primary stage

# Secondary stage

# Elementary unit stage 

During the primary stage, the country is divided into PSU's and a sample
of PSU's is selected using stratified sampling with probability
proportional to the number of people (or households) in the PSU as
measured by the 2000 Census. Each PSU will be a county or group of
counties.

EIA will specify the primary stage. The Contractor will review the
primary stage design proposed by EIA and offer comments (including the
cost of using the proposed first stage design) and suggestions for
changes. The Contractor will develop and implement the secondary and
elementary stages of the design.

During the secondary stage, the following steps are performed:

# SSU Definition

# SSU Selection

# Rough Counting

# Segment Definition

# Segment Selection

The Contractor will investigate how to optimally develop and implement
the secondary and elementary stages of the design. The investigation
shall also include a study of the feasibility of using the lists of
housing units that the Census Bureau may develop as part of the plans
for the American Community Survey. The Contractor shall investigate the
cost effectiveness of the new survey design approaches that other
agencies or organizations develop between now and the time for the
design of the 2005 RECS.

During the SSU selection step, a sample of SSU's is selected using
stratified random sampling with probability proportional to the number
of people (or households) in the SSU as measured by the 2000 Census or
updated estimates.

During the rough counting step, field workers are used to obtain rough
counts of the number of housing units in each block face of the larger
SSU's.

During the segment definition step, the larger SSU's are divided into
segments using the rough count data.

During the segment selections step, a single segment is selected from
each SSU (for smaller SSU's the segment is equal to the entire SSU).

The last major update for the RECS sample frame was prior to the 1993
RECS. For the 1993 RECS, the SSU's were small geographic areas whose
boundaries correspond to the boundaries of Census Blocks.

During the elementary unit stage of the 1993 RECS, a list of all housing
units in the segment was developed for each segment selected during the
secondary stage. From these lists, a penultimate cluster of from 50 to
96 housing units was selected. (The penultimate cluster contained 50
housing units if the SSU was from the core sample and 96 housing units
if the SSU was from the "new" housing unit supplement.) Randomly
selecting a housing unit and placing either the next 50 or the next 96
housing units in the penultimate cluster chose the penultimate cluster.
The ultimate cluster of housing units that form the assignments given to
interviews for RECS was selected for the penultimate cluster.

EIA may want to incorporate a longitudinal panel into the 2009 RECS
sample design; therefore, provisions for this need to be built into the
2005 RECS sample design.

#### 

#### **5A-1.2: 2005 RECS Sample Work**

The Contractor will:

1.  Prepare overall plan for second and subsequent stages including
    number of SSU's and the target size of SSU's,

2.  Develop plan for second stage including the procedure to define and
    sample SSU's and procedures to divide a selected SSU's into segments
    and select a segment when the selected SSU is too large, implement
    second stage plan

3.  Develop plans for listing housing units in selected SSU's (or
    segments), list housing units in selected SSU's (or segments)

4.  Develop plans for selected housing units

5.  Select housing units for the 2005 RECS

6.  Deliver the housing units lists with the selected housing units
    marked to the contractor chosen to interview the occupants of the
    housing units. The delivered product will include the selection
    probabilities for each stage.

7.  Develop procedures to handle housing units that are missed during
    the listing stages.

8.  Document the sample design and deliver all materials to the
    contactor chosen to conduct the household interviews

# 5A-2: 2007 CBECS Sample Update

The sample for the 2007 CBECS will be an update of the sample design for
the 2003 CBECS. The sample design for the 2003 CBECS is currently being
developed under an existing contract. It is anticipated that the basic
sample design developed for the 2003 CBECS will also be used for both
the 2007 and 2011 CBECS. The primary purpose of this functional sub area
is to update the 2003 CBECS sample frame for buildings built after the
2003 sample was selected. The contractor will then select the sample and
deliver the list of sample buildings to the data collection contractor,
along with all the related materials and maps to help the interviewer
locate the correct sampled building.

The target population for the CBECS consists of all commercial buildings
in the United States larger than 1,000 square feet, with the exception
of commercial buildings located on manufacturing sites. To be eligible
for the survey, a building has to satisfy three criteria: (1) it has to
meet the CBECS definition of a building, (2) it has to be used primarily
for some commercial purpose, and (3) it has to measure 1,001 square feet
or more.

A "building" as opposed to an "establishment" is the basic unit for the
CBECS because a building is the most common unit associated with energy
consumption. A building is defined by CBECS as a structure that is
totally enclosed by walls that extend from the foundation to the roof
and is intended for human access. To be used primarily for some
commercial purpose, the building must have more than 50 percent of its
floor space devoted to activities that are neither residential, nor
industrial, nor agricultural. The 1999 CBECS estimated that there were
4.7 million commercial buildings in the target population.

**5A-2.1: CBECS Sample Background**

The sampling frame for the 2003 CBECS will be a multistage sample. The
stages of the design are:

# The primary stage

# The secondary stage

# The elementary unit stage

It is anticipated that it will include both an area sample component and
a sample from lists for buildings or facilities. The list sample
proportion and the area sample proportion may diverge at the secondary
stage or the primary stage.

The primary stage may or may not be the same for the 2003 CBECS and the
2005 RECS.

The secondary and elementary unit stages of the CBECS area sample design
are different than those for the RECS.

For the 1995 CBECS, the SSU's were small geographic areas whose
boundaries correspond to the boundaries of the ZIP Code service areas
rather than the Census boundaries used for the RECS. The definition of
SSU's for the 2003 CBECS sample design is currently being determined.

During the area sample proportion of the 2003 CBECS sample design, the
following steps are being performed during the secondary stage:

# SSU Definition

# SSU Selection

# Rough Counting

# Segment Definition

# Segment Selection

During the SSU definition step, the PSU's that were selected during the
primary stage are divided into Secondary Sampling Units (SSU's).

During the SSU selection step, a sample of SSU's is selected using
stratified random sampling with probability proportional to the
estimated number of commercial buildings in the SSU.

During the rough counting step, field workers are used to obtain rough
counts of the number of commercial buildings in each block face of the
SSU's.

During the segment definition step, the SSU's are divided into segments
containing roughly 100 commercial buildings using the rough count data.

During the segment selection step, a single segment is selected from
each SSU.

During the elementary unit stage, a list of all commercial buildings in
the segment will be developed for each segment selected during the
secondary stage. From these lists, the ultimate clusters of buildings
that form the assignments given to the interviewers were selected.

The sampling procedure for the area sample was combination of
probabilities proportional to size (PPS) and equal probabilities
sampling. The SSU's were selected from the PSU's with PPS sampling. A
measure of size for the SSU's is yet to be determined. Segments within
SSU's were selected with equal probabilities and all in-scope buildings
within them were listed. Finally, buildings were selected from the
segment listings with equal probabilities within size/usage strata.

The list sample for the 2003 CBECS may include "large" buildings as well
as specialized buildings such as Federal government buildings, post
offices, hospitals, colleges and universities, elementary and secondary
schools, and new construction. The cut off for "large" is yet to be
determined.

The definition of the sampling unit and the sampling procedures for
strip shopping centers, school campuses, health care facilities, and
prisons is being studied. The definitions and procedures used for the
2003 and subsequent CBECS may not be the same as was used for the 1999
CBECS.

**5A-2.2: New Construction Update for CBECS Sample Design**

As with the RECS, the CBECS sampling frame is periodically redesigned
based on new Census sampling population data. Proceeding each survey
cycle, the sample frame is updated to include new construction, that is
buildings built since the last update of the sample frame.

For the 2007 CBECS sample design, the Contractor shall:

1.  Develop plan for identifying buildings built from 2003 through 2007.

> This includes both new large buildings and new small buildings.
> Different update procedures may be used for large buildings and for
> small buildings.

2.  Investigate sources of data about new commercial construction.

3.  Recommend a procedure for new construction updates, evaluating the
    pluses and minuses of all procedures proposed.

4.  Implement the sample frame update procedure chosen by EIA

5.  After the 2003 frame has been updated with the newly constructed
    buildings, select the sample for the 2007 CBECS.

6.  Deliver the listing of the selected buildings to the data collection
    contractor chosen to interview the occupants of the buildings.

7.  Selection probabilities for each building (for each stage) will also
    be delivered.

8.  Document the update procedures and deliver all materials (listings,
    maps, explanatory notes) to the contactor chosen to conduct the
    building interviews.

######### 5A-3: Survey Management Plan, Confidentiality Procedures, Documentation and Final Task Report

The Contractor shall provide complete documentation for the sample
design and selection for each of the surveys, in accordance with
standards as specified by EIA, of all work including sampling
procedures; sample design; sample frame listing; instructions to
listers; data processing; sample selection and transfer of sampling
materials to data collection contractor. The Contractor shall revise and
update existing EIA documentation from the previous sample work, where
applicable. For new procedures, the Contractor shall prepare new
documentation.

The Contractor shall use a version of Microsoft Word (compatible with
the same version of Word used by EIA) to prepare all documentation and
shall provide all documentation in hard copy and diskette forms.

All documentation must meet or exceed the standards for data systems
documentation as specified in the [Energy Information Administration
Standards Manual, April 1989]{.underline} (or its successor).

Interim documentation is required quarterly throughout the task, in
addition to the final documentation deliverables due after work has been
completed. The interim documentation will be the portions of the
documentation that are completed as work progresses. Where appropriate,
the sample documents prepared for previous survey cycles will be used as
the starting point for the 2007 CBECS and the 2005 RECS documentation.

Before preparing interim documentation for a major data processing
activity, the Contractor shall submit an outline to EIA. After written
approval is received the Contractor shall prepare the documentation
including, but not limited to, a full description of data input, output,
decision rules, copies of program listings (including spreadsheets or
other PC programs) or actual runs, Job Control Language (JCL) necessary
to run the programs, and system test procedures and results. The
Contractor shall also document computer programs internally within the
programs.

**5A-3.1: Survey Management Plan**

The Contractor shall prepare a Survey Management Plan (SMP) at the
beginning of each task. The SMP will be a detailed, step-by-step plan to
conduct the survey sampling work. The SMP shall identify all the
procedures for the sampling (manual and automated), proposed staffing,
and time schedule to meet the deliverable due dates.

**5A-3.2: Data Confidentiality Procedures**

The Contractor shall design and implement procedures for protecting the
confidentiality of respondent identification as specified in the
contract. These procedures must be compatible with the codes and
standards of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations and
the American Association of Public Opinion Research. The Contractor will
submit a plan to EIA, which describes in detail how the data
confidentiality procedures will be implemented. The Data Confidentiality
Plan may be included as a separate section of the Survey Management
Plan.

The confidentiality procedures will include the need for the Contractor
to:

-   Secure all data that would allow identification of survey
    respondents

-   Protect the electronic transmission to and storage of respondent
    information on laptop computers

-   Train affected personnel in the procedures to be followed in
    maintaining confidentiality

-   Secure the necessary confidentiality pledges, and

-   Provide secure areas for processing the data and locked files for
    storage of returned questionnaires.

The procedures must also be designed to allow EIA personnel access to
the confidential data at the Contractor\'s site for monitoring,
methodological development, and validation purposes, although these
personnel will not take possession of these data.

The names and addresses of household, rental agent and commercial
buildings respondents are confidential. The Contractor shall maintain
such data separately from the data files provided to EIA; EIA will not
take possession of these name and address data unless legislation, which
provides EIA with the capability to protect the confidential data, is
passed by Congress.

######### 5A-3.3: Sample Frame Documentation

For all sample design, sample update, and sample selection work done
under this contract, the Contractor shall fully document and prepare
complete machine-readable files of the sampling frame to prepare
complete machine-readable files of the sampling frame to standards as
specified by EIA. All sample frame documentation reports shall include,
but are not limited to, the following:

-   A description of the sampling procedures employed;

-   File layouts for the listings file;

-   Names, locations, and listings of computer programs used; and

-   A description of the procedures used to produce maps of secondary
    sample units such as Census tracts and block groups. The description
    shall include the database (such as the "Topologically Integrated
    Geographic Encoding and Referencing" (TIGER) system developed by the
    Bureau of the Census), the computer hardware, the software, and the
    customer programs sued to produce the maps.

######### 5A-3.4: Final Task Report

At the conclusion of the activities for this task, the Contractor shall
prepare a final report detailing all work performed on the completed
task. This report shall include, but is not limited to, the following:

-   An analysis of resources used in terms of the cost of creating a
    sampling frame, including costs of buying data, cost per sampling
    unit, Contractor hours per sample case, and other sample performance
    statistics;

-   Contractor recommendations for any improvements to the sampling
    procedures to improve response rates or efficiency, lower costs, or
    shorten processing time;

-   A discussion of any known limitations or problems with the data or
    procedures applied to the data.

##### 5A-4: Transfer of Materials 

The Contractor shall transmit all survey-related materials,
documentation, computer software and specific programs, sampling
materials, and confidential elements of computer and paper records to a
contractor specified by the Program Office. This includes all maps,
notes, and other listing materials that might help an interviewer
identify the correct sampled buildings.

The Contractor shall maintain an inventory of materials received and
generated in the performance of this functional area. The inventory will
be used to transfer materials to another Contractor at the termination
of this work. This inventory will also be delivered to EIA at the end of
the task as a final deliverable. All materials shall be clearly
documented and identified, and transmitted in a timely manner as
specified by EIA.

**5A-5: Transition**

Materials and data generated as a result of work performed in this
functional area will be used in other functional areas associated with
the end use surveys. The Contractor shall ensure that all necessary
materials and computer programs are provided to the next Contractor in a
timely manner and that transition briefings and crosswalks be provided,
as needed. ECD personnel shall be present at these meetings.

**[5-B. 2003 CBECS ENERGY SUPPLIERS SURVEY]{.underline}**

**Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) Background**

The CBECS provides comprehensive, national and regional information on
the consumption of, and expenditures for, energy in the commercial
building sector of the U.S. economy. The CBECS also provides information
on the characteristics of buildings.

The CBECS is a national multistage area sample survey, supplemented by
lists of special buildings. The survey was first conducted in 1979 and
then triennially between 1983 and 1995. Beginning in 1995 it is
conducted quadrennially with the most recently completed survey covering
data year 1999. Prior to 1989, the CBECS was known as the Nonresidential
Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (NBECS).

The target population for the CBECS consists of all commercial buildings
in the United States larger than 1,000 square feet. A commercial
building is defined as a building with more than 50 percent of its floor
space devoted to commercial activities.

In the 1999, CBECS, of the 6,313 commercial buildings that were eligible
for interview, 5,430 or 86 percent were successfully interviewed. Thus,
unit nonresponse was 14 percent for the building interview.

The CBECS is a two-part survey. Physical characteristics data and other
information such as use patterns, ownership, etc. of the buildings are
first collected from building owners and managers by either
Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) or by Computer-Assisted
Telephone Interviewing (CATI). In addition, building respondents are
asked for energy consumption and expenditures (C&E) data. However, if
building respondents cannot provide these data, a mail survey of
individual energy suppliers to the buildings is initiated. In 1999, 40
percent of the buildings could not provide this energy information.

Building respondents were asked to provide the name, address and account
numbers for all suppliers of energy to the building. In addition,
respondents were asked to sign an Authorization Form that gave
permission to the suppliers to release the building's monthly billing
data to EIA.

For the mail survey, the Contractor will send copies of the
Authorization Form to the suppliers to secure the release of the
buildings' billing records. Attempts will be made to contact all
suppliers of electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, district energy (steam,
hot water, and chilled water) that were identified during the Buildings
Characteristics Survey as types of energy used in the building.

Because CBECS is interested in both the energy consumption and energy
expenditures (C&E) associated with the specific sampled buildings,
special attention was paid to collecting both C&E data. Additionally,
special attention was paid to the various types of purchasing
arrangements that are available to buildings owners. They can have
multiple energy suppliers for one particular energy source, they can
purchase the energy from one supplier (respondent most knowledgeable
about the energy expenditures) and have it delivered by a different
energy supplier (respondent most knowledgeable about the energy
consumption) and one energy supplier may have many energy accounts
within one building.

Under coverage in the sampling procedures and unit nonresponse bias are
taken into account by adjusting the sampling weights. For each
commercial building selected for CBECS, the initial sampling weight
equaled the inverse of the probability of selection. The initial
sampling weights, for buildings where interviews were obtained, were
increased to account for the buildings whose owners, managers, or
occupants did not respond. Poststratification procedures were not used
because of the absence of independent data that give accurate estimates
of the total number of commercial buildings in the country.

Editing procedures are used to identify missing data, obvious incorrect
data, and contradictory data. Disaggregation and aggregation procedures
are used to allocate the correct amount of energy to specific buildings
when more than one building was on an energy account or one building had
multiple energy accounts. Annualization procedures are used to aggregate
the monthly billing data to account for one year's worth of energy use.

Regression-based procedures are used to impute missing data on energy
consumption and expenditures. The imputation procedures need to be
designed so that the variance of the estimates derived from the survey
results are not artificially reduced nor unnecessarily increased.
Knowledge of advanced statistical imputation procedures and how to
implement these procedures on computers is necessary in the design of
the imputation procedures.

Sampling errors were estimated using jackknife procedures. The
development of the procedure for estimating sampling errors for CBECS
requires knowledge of complex survey design procedures and what
requirements these procedures place on the procedures used to estimate
the sampling errors.

During the development of all the CBECS procedures (data collection,
editing, imputation, and the procedures used to estimate sampling
errors), extensive communications and person-to-person interactions
between the Contractor and EIA's Program Office are necessary.

The Contractor for this functional area must have, at a minimum, the
following requirements:

-   Staff with experience in advanced statistical imputation procedures
    and application of these to a complex survey;

-   Capability to use Blaise software;

-   Experience in fielding a complex mail survey, including experience
    in tracking multiple responses per survey case (i.e., building) from
    multiple sources;

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-   Capability to implement special confidentiality procedures, such as
    error inoculation, to prevent EIA and data users from knowing the
    identities and location of sample units (see Section 5B-11); and

-   Experience in managing multi-year tasks.

In addition, the process of developing the imputation procedures
requires some knowledge of:

-   Characteristics of commercial buildings

-   Commercial Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems

-   Other energy-intensive equipment common in commercial buildings

-   Characteristics of energy use patterns in commercial buildings

-   Interaction between the different components listed above.

**Special Work Requirements**

Work in this functional area requires that the Contractor address two
important issues explicitly in their proposal. The first is the special
confidentiality procedures, which must be taken to protect the energy
end use data. The Contractor must ensure that the identities and
location of the sampled units are kept confidential from both EIA and
the data users. This will involve processing the
individually-identifiable survey data on the Contractor's computers. Any
micro data provided to EIA must have names and addresses removed. In
addition, the Contractor may have to further mask the micro data to
prevent EIA or users from identifying the specific location or sample
unit. Section 5B-10.2 provides more detail concerning these data
confidentiality procedures.

The second major issue, data storage, is related to the data
confidentiality requirements of the energy end use data. Because EIA
cannot take possession of the survey data collection documents or
records, the Contractor will have to provide secure storage of these
records either at their site or at another contractor facility. In
addition, the Contractor is required to keep an inventory of these
records and be ready to transfer these records to a subsequent
contractor. These procedures are further defined in 5B-12, Transfer of
Materials.

### 

**CBECS Energy Suppliers Survey Work Overview**

The Contractor shall be responsible for: keeping track of all the
building account numbers and Authorization Forms, and energy supplier
forms; identifying suppliers and linking them with the appropriate
building; mailing the forms; follow-up of nonresponders; keying,
editing, verifying that the correct billing data have been received;
collecting additional billing data when there are more than one account
for the unit; identifying billing records that may contain data for
other than the survey unit; processing the data; performing
disaggregation and aggregation procedures; purchasing and processing the
weather files and assigning the appropriate weather data to each
building; annualizing the consumption and expenditures (C&E) data; and
preparing and delivering data files with cleaned, annualized, and
imputed data.

The Contractor shall collect annual or a minimum of 12 months of data on
energy consumption and expenditures from each utility or entity that
supplies a fuel or energy source to each respondent building. For CBECS,
data are collected from electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and district
heat suppliers.

The Contractor shall consider innovative and new ways of collecting
these data that include but are not limited to collecting the data
electronically.

The Contractor may be requested to prepare, with EIA guidance and
approval, the energy supplier data collection materials, including any
instructional materials and letters to energy suppliers. Energy account
numbers and an Authorization Form authorizing access to energy
consumption billing records held by the energy supplier shall be
collected as part of the Buildings Survey data collection. These
Authorization Forms and other information necessary from the Buildings
Survey will be provided to the contractor performing the CBECS Energy
Suppliers Survey.

The Contractor shall send the data collection materials for each energy
source for each responding building to the appropriate energy suppliers.
In many cases, several energy accounts for a single fuel type will be
associated with one building. For each billing period and annual periods
of consumption, the Contractor shall purchase from the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data on local weather conditions
(such as daily area minimum and maximum temperatures) and shall process
these data in machine-readable forms. The contractor may be required to
process additional weather data affecting air-conditioning and solar
potential.

The Contractor shall provide a data file with billing period data linked
to the weather data for the individual responding buildings and a data
file with the consumption by fuel type annualized to an agreed-upon
period.

**Detailed Work Description**

**5B-1: Buildings Characteristics Survey-Related Materials and
Interactions**

The 2003 CBECS Buildings Characteristics Survey is being conducted under
a separate contract. Information from the Buildings Characteristics
Survey shall be provided to the 2003 CBECS Energy Suppliers Survey
contractor. These materials include:

-   Case Management System which includes all the Buildings Survey
    respondents and their response status,

-   Annual C&E data collected from Buildings Survey respondents,

-   Authorization Forms, and

-   Lists of energy suppliers by building respondent.

Throughout the Energy Suppliers Survey, there will be considerable
interaction required between the CBECS Buildings Survey contractor and
the CBECS Energy Suppliers Survey contractor. For example, the Energy
Suppliers Survey contractor will have to work with the Buildings Survey
contractor to reconcile differences in the responses of the building
respondent and energy supplier. Results from the Energy Suppliers Survey
will update the Buildings Survey data file and these changes will have
to be coordinated and data files exchanged.

**5B-2: Supplier Control File**

A file of energy supplier names, addresses and identifiers will be
prepared and maintained. This file will be used for generating mailing
labels and for survey control purposes to ensure that every building
that uses a fuel is listed under at least one energy supplier and that
the energy suppliers listings contain all buildings receiving or
purchasing energy from them**.** The survey control file will also
include an indicator if the C&E data were collected during the Buildings
Survey. The basis for the supplier name and address file will be the
previous survey cycle's supplier list. The names and addresses of
electric and natural gas suppliers shall be checked and updated using
the address listings from the Form EIA-861 (electricity) and Form
EIA-176 (natural gas). EIA will provide these listings to the
Contractor.

The effort to collect the billing data from the energy suppliers shall
be expected to achieve similar response rates to those in previous CBECS
cycles.

**5B-3: Data Collection**

A mail survey shall be conducted of all energy suppliers of electricity,
natural gas, fuel oil, and district heat (steam and hot water) servicing
the buildings that completed the Buildings Characteristics Survey, but
did not provide the C&E data. It is anticipated that electricity-billing
records will be collected for 90% of the sample, natural gas records for
85% of the sample, fuel oil for 75% of the sample, and district heat 45%
of the sample. The energy supplier will be asked to provide annual C&E
data or the monthly billing records for a 13 to 15-month period of time.
The extra months of data are necessary to ensure that an entire calendar
year can be obtained, no matter when the billing period is during the
month.

**5B-3.1: Data Collection Questionnaires**

There is a different data collection questionnaire for each of the 5
energy sources (fuels); these are Forms EIA-871C through F. Because
there are minor differences in data items by energy source, there are
corresponding variations in the reporting forms as well. For example,
the electricity forms request kilowatt (kW) demand; the natural gas
forms provide for reporting variable units of measures (therms, cubic
feet or 1,000 cubic feet), electricity and natural gas forms include
separate reporting for both purchasing and delivery. Despite the
differences, the forms are similar in terms of data requested. In each
case, the supplier is asked to report the: quantity of specific energy
source consumed or delivered; total cost; unit of measure; dates of
deliveries or consumption; and the number of customers included in both
the consumption and cost data reported on the form.

Energy suppliers shall be given an option of returning the information
in a format that is preferred by the energy supplier. The options
include transfer of the annual or monthly consumption and expenditures
data to the EIA-871 form provided, printout of the billing records in
the supplier\'s format, electronic filing using a preformatted diskette,
or via the Internet.

**5B-3.2: Preparation and Mailing of Materials**

EIA will be responsible for the printing of any survey data collection
questionnaires and EIA introductory letters. Materials to be used by the
Contractor for tracking respondents, data processing and editing
instructions, field control and other internal purposes will be prepared
and duplicated by the Contractor, after EIA approval. In order to
minimize the respondent burden on the energy suppliers, data collection
forms will be grouped by supplier and sent out in 2 or 3 main batches.

Where appropriate, Government bulk mailing and franking privileges will
be used for large mail outs. The Contractor may incur other
survey-associated mailing costs. The Contractor will take advantage of
cost-saving techniques, such as bar coding, to lower postage and other
mailing costs.

**5B-3.3: Minimizing Nonresponse**

Extensive efforts shall be used to obtain usable energy supplier data.
Letters and telephone prompts are necessary throughout the data
collection period to remind suppliers to provide the data within the
required time period. The Contractor shall set up a toll-free "Hot Line"
that is maintained by knowledgeable staff that can answer the most
frequent technical problems encountered by suppliers and the
instructions to be given to suppliers calling with these questions.
Additionally, the Contractor must be able to assist the supplier in
identifying the buildings when the account numbers are missing or the
building identification is unclear. This will necessitate coordination
with the Buildings Characteristics Survey contractor.

**5B-4: Data Retrieval**

The Contractor shall perform data retrieval when the respondent returns
survey forms with missing or inconsistent [critical]{.underline}
information. The list of critical data items will be provided to the
Contractor by the Program Office. Either buildings or energy supplier
respondents may need to be recontacted. Buildings respondents have to be
recontacted when the supplier indicates that their company never
supplied energy to the building or did so for only a partial year or if
the account number was incorrect. Suppliers have to be recontacted to
check inconsistencies in the data or to obtain missing consumption and
expenditures data.

**5B-5: Data Editing and Processing**

As energy supplier forms are received, a preliminary manual edit scan
will be made to ensure that the building is correctly identified and
that the data form has been completed. The Contractor shall key (or
other approved data reduction method) the energy supplier forms into a
machine-readable format using standard, pre-specified data formats
approved by the Program Office. The billing record files shall then be
edited to locate outliers and to ensure that the records are in the same
chronological order. Edit specifications will be provided by the Program
Office.

**5B-5.1: Data Review and Coding**

Each returned data collection form shall be subjected to a series of
manual review procedures to ensure that the data forms are complete and
to code key pieces of information about the status of the data. In many
cases, the energy supplier returns an "alternate" form that was directly
printed from their computer system. These alternate formats must be
reviewed independently, a template or key produced and then keyed
separately. In the cases where monthly data have been reported, the data
will have to be summed to provide an annual figure. The energy supplier
respondent is contracted if any additional information is needed.

**5B-5.2: Data Keying**

Each data collection form shall be keyed into the Blaise Building Survey
Questionnaire as they are received at the Contractor's site. Each form
is entered by two different keying staff. The keyed forms are compared
and any differences are resolved.

**5B-5.3: Data Edits**

The Energy Suppliers Survey uses an extensive program of automated
machine edits including: basic energy range, logic and skip checks that
are specified by EIA; consistency checks among data items; and technical
edits, specified by EIA. Some of these edits will be run within the
Blaise. A series of consistency and outlier edits shall be run by the
Contractor. The basic consistency checks confirm that the energy bills
are complete and are in order. A series of outlier edits are run. Bill
to bill edits identify any inconsistency between the bills for an
individual unit. Unit-to-unit edits identify any inconsistency among
different buildings within the same energy supplier. Total file outlier
edits identify inconsistencies with fuel usage data.

The technical edits are a series of sophisticated edit checks to ensure
that, to the extent possible, errors of the following types were
detected and corrected: a too-long or too-short billing period; a
consumption ratio that indicated there was extreme variability across
the periods; a failure to report expenditures despite the presence of
consumption and vice versa; reported expenditures that were out of range
for the consumption amount, for the price per unit of consumption based
on known market prices, or for the metered demand. The Contractor may
have to recontact the energy supplier to ascertain whether the
information supplied was accurate or in some instances, may have to
recontact the building respondent for additional account or supplier
information.

These edit programs shall be programmed in SAS, unless EIA approval is
granted for another software to be used.

**5B-6: Annualization, Aggregation, Disaggregation Modeling, and
Imputation Procedures**

The purpose of these procedures is to transform any monthly billing data
into an annualized amount, to aggregate or disaggregate the data to
assure that the amount of energy reported is consumed in the sample
building, and to impute data values for units for whom billing data were
not obtained.

**5B-6.1: Annualization**

The Contractor shall use the monthly billing files to create annual C&E
figures. Generally, data are filed for the 15-month period. The
Contractor shall annualize the data for the period January 1 through
December 31. The Program Office will provide detailed specifications for
the procedures to be used for records with incomplete or partial data.
Annualization procedures will be different for different energy sources.
In summary, a series of computer programs shall: 1) select the set of
monthly bills that best match the annual period, 2) cumulate the
selected bills, and 3) adjust the total value to a 365-day period.

**5B-6.2: Aggregation and Disaggregation**

Aggregation occurs when the supplier reported consumption for only a
portion of the building, usually a subset of customers. The Contractor
shall review these types of cases and generate an inflation factor based
on the proportion of customers/meters for which the consumption
information was obtained. Disaggregation occurs when the supplier
reported consumption covered more than the sampled building. The
Contractor shall use the square footage information from the building
file to calculate a factor that will allow the consumption for the
sample building to be reduced. These factors shall be placed on the data
files.

**5B-6.3: Imputation**

Imputations for missing C&E data shall be carried out using nonlinear
regression equations according to detail specifications provided by the
Program Office. The regression models are used to impute annual
consumption and expenditures data for buildings that do not have
annualized estimates from billing data.

The utility data or fuel supplier data can be missing for many reasons.
The respondent may have refused to sign a waiver allowing the Contractor
access to the data, the building respondent may have given an incorrect
energy supplier, the utility or fuel supplier may not have been able to
locate the data based on the account number that was provided, or the
utility bill for the building may be included in the bill for other
buildings, or facilities.

The need for item imputations is identified during the editing process.
Therefore, the editing process and the item imputation process are
closely interrelated.

The process of developing the editing procedures and the imputation
procedures requires knowledge of the characteristics of commercial
buildings, energy-using equipment, how energy is used, and how the
different characteristics interact. The imputation procedures need to be
designed so that the variance of the estimates derived from the survey
results are not artificially reduced or unnecessarily increased.
Additionally, knowledge of advanced statistical imputation procedures
and how to implement these computer-based procedures is necessary in the
design of the imputation procedures.

The Contractor may be requested by EIA to perform item nonresponse
imputation. The Contractor shall review the patterns of item nonresponse
and recommend the type of imputation procedures to use. These procedures
may include hot decking, random selection from known values of a
variable, deductive and allocation procedures, regression-based
procedures, multi-imputation techniques, and other statistical methods.
The Contractor may be required to develop variance estimation techniques
that take into account the amount of imputation for nonresponse. All
imputation and variance estimation procedures shall be approved by EIA
prior to implementation.

**5B-7: Supplier Survey Data Files**

The Contractor shall provide EIA with clean, edited, and fully
documented data files that shall not contain any data that would allow
respondent identification. These files must be linked to the Buildings
Characteristics Survey data to ensure that the consumption and
expenditures data are for the correct sampled buildings. Any changes to
the data need to be coordinated with the Buildings Survey contractor to
ensure that the Buildings Survey data files are up-to-date.

The Contractor shall maintain all individually identifiable respondent
records. The Contractor shall transcribe all data into machine-readable
form using standard specified formats and shall verify 100 percent of
all data entries. Transcription shall be to disk, diskette, or some
other electronic medium as approved by DOE. The Contractor shall provide
data files both prior to and following imputations. The Contractor shall
prepare and deliver a data file with the billing period consumption and
expenditures data linked to the weather data for each responding
building.

Energy Suppliers Survey files provided to EIA will include, but not be
limited to: annualized billing data, monthly billing data, if
appropriate, weather data, price data, imputed C&E data, and aggregation
and disaggregation factors.

The Contractor shall append the annual C&E data, including the end-use
estimates, if appropriate, and the total regression estimate, to the
Buildings Characteristics Survey data file so there is only one survey
data file. Data file processing is an iterative process in which the
Program Office will have considerable input. In some cases, changes will
have to be made to the Buildings Characteristics Survey data file
depending on data obtained from the Energy Suppliers Survey. The
Contractor shall update all data files as requested by the Program
Office.

The files will not contain any data that will allow individual
respondent identification in accordance with the requirements for
maintaining confidentiality. The contents of the files will be specified
in the detailed Survey Management Plan and be subject to EIA approval.
In general, EIA is to receive file copies of all data sets produced,
except for data sets that contain respondent identities. Direct access
storage or CD-ROM\'s may also be used.

The Contractor shall use EIA-approved software for work in this
functional area. The Contractor shall transfer to the EIA any software,
which is necessary to perform work in this functional area. All data
sets used for processing will be archived with appropriate identifying
information at the end of the survey.

The Contractor shall provide preliminary draft data files including
linked Buildings Characteristics Survey and Energy Suppliers Survey data
prior to delivery of the final clean data file. (NOTE: The number of
data files provided by the Contractor is subject to change depending on
EIA\'s review of the data.) The Program Office will thoroughly review
the data on the draft data files and the Contractor may be asked to
clarify either by research or callbacks to respondents, the correct
values of several data items. Once the Program Office is satisfied that
their questions have been resolved, the Contractor shall prepare the
final data file deliverable.

The energy supplier monthly data files shall be delivered to the Program
Office in a minimum of two deliveries. The first delivery shall include
heating and cooling degree-days attached to each billing record
representing the weather for the period of the billing record. The
second delivery shall be an inoculated billing record file in which the
billing periods have been adjusted by moving the dates for the period
forward or backward up to 3 days and the C&E adjusted to the revised
billing periods. The inoculated file shall contain weather data for the
adjusted billing periods.

**5B-8: Weather Data and Energy Price Data**

The Contractor may be requested by EIA to calculate data values from
data collected in the survey and from nonsurvey data sources. The
Contractor shall purchase weather and climate data from NOAA to match
the consumption time periods for the data acquired from the energy
suppliers. An appropriate weather station shall be selected for each
Secondary Sampling Unit. The annual weather data shall consist of
heating and cooling degree-days to base 65 degrees Fahrenheit and the
average daily temperature for calendar year 2003 and its standard
deviation and shall be attached to each building record. Heating and
cooling degree-days data and matching the time periods for the billing
records shall also be attached to each billing record.

The Contractor shall be provided data files by the Program Office from
the annual survey of natural gas suppliers (Form EIA-176) and from the
annual survey of electric utilities (Form EIA-861). These files can be
used to extract an average cost for electricity and natural gas.

**5B-9: Quality Control and Performance Statistics**

**5B-9.1: Weekly Performance Statistics**

Performance statistics will be provided by the Contractor to monitor the
progress of the Energy Suppliers Survey and to provide feedback on ways
that survey processes can be improved for subsequent iterations of the
survey. Energy Suppliers Survey status will be reported to EIA weekly.
The status categories for these components should match the categories
used in past cycles, so that comparison statistics are available.

**5B-9.2: Change Process Statistics**

Performance statistics shall also be maintained to indicate the extent
of change throughout the editing and data cleaning process. This means
that differences must be identified between the first available
electronic file and the final data file for each variable. The purpose
of these performance statistics is to allow for continuous improvement
in subsequent iterations of the survey.

**5B-9.3: Energy Suppliers Survey Performance Statistics**

For the Energy Suppliers Survey, the Contractor shall maintain the
following statistics:

-   Number of Energy Suppliers, by Energy Source

-   Response rates by type of survey form, energy supplied, and supplier

-   In-scope and Out-of-scope responses

-   Usable responses

-   Number of callbacks and nonresponse conversion rates

-   Number of edits failed

-   Number of edits resolved and method of resolution

-   Status of reconciliation efforts for suppliers reported differently
    in the Buildings and Energy Suppliers Surveys

-   Number of imputed billing records

-   Number of item nonresponse imputations

**5B-9.4: Costs Statistics**

The Contractor shall also record, or be able to derive, the following:

-   Cost per form received

-   Number of contacts to obtain a completed energy supplier form

-   Average number of callbacks/follow-ups to energy suppliers

-   Edit cost per energy supplier questionnaire

-   Cost per Energy Supplier response, by energy source (e.g.,
    electricity)

Note: Additional cost statistics are required as part of the Monthly
Cost Report.

######### 5B-10. Survey Management Plan, Confidentiality Procedures and Documentation and Final Task Report

The Contractor shall provide complete documentation for the CBECS Energy
Suppliers Survey, in accordance with standards as specified by EIA, of
all work including data collection forms, instructions, and letters;
data collection; data processing; statistical procedures related to
estimation, annualization, aggregation, disaggregation, imputation, and
data analyses; report preparation; and public use data file preparation.
The Contractor shall revise and update existing EIA documentation from
the previous CBECS, where applicable. For new procedures, the Contractor
shall prepare new documentation.

The Contractor shall use a version of Microsoft Word (compatible with
the same version of Word used by EIA) to prepare all documentation and
shall provide all documentation in hard copy and diskette forms.

All documentation must meet or exceed the standards for data systems
documentation as specified in the [Energy Information Administration
Standards Manual, April 1989]{.underline} (or its successor).

Interim documentation is required quarterly throughout the task, in
addition to the final documentation deliverables due after work has been
completed. The interim documentation will be the portions of the
documentation that are completed as work progresses. The documents
prepared under previous contracts will be used as the starting point for
the 2003 CBECS documentation. Final documentation shall be due at the
end of the task.

Before preparing interim documentation for a major data processing
activity, the Contractor shall submit an outline to EIA. After written
approval is received the Contractor shall prepare the documentation
including, but not limited to, a full description of data input, output,
decision rules, copies of program listings (including spreadsheets or
other PC programs) or actual runs, Job Control Language (JCL) necessary
to run the programs, and system test procedures and results. The
Contractor shall also document computer programs internally within the
programs.

**5B-10.1: Survey Management Plan**

The Contractor shall prepare a Survey Management Plan (SMP) at the
beginning of the task. The SMP will be a detailed, step-by-step plan to
conduct the survey. The SMP shall identify all the procedures for the
survey (manual and automated), proposed staffing, and time schedule to
meet the deliverable due dates. In particular, the SMP will address how
the Contractor will interact with the Buildings Survey contractor in
order to reconcile differences between the Buildings Survey responses
and Energy Suppliers Survey responses and to provide updates to the
Buildings Survey data file.

**5B-10.2: Data Confidentiality Procedures**

The Contractor shall design and implement procedures for protecting the
confidentiality of respondent identification as specified in the
contract. These procedures must be compatible with the codes and
standards of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations and
the American Association of Public Opinion Research. The Contractor will
submit a plan to EIA, which describes in detail how the data
confidentiality procedures will be implemented. The Data Confidentiality
Plan may be included as a separate section of the Survey Management
Plan.

The confidentiality procedures will include the need for the Contractor
to:

-   Secure all data that would allow identification of survey
    respondents

-   Protect the electronic transmission to and storage of respondent
    information on laptop computers

-   Train affected personnel in the procedures to be followed in
    maintaining confidentiality

-   Secure the necessary confidentiality pledges, and

-   Provide secure areas for processing the data and locked files for
    storage of returned questionnaires.

The procedures must also be designed to allow EIA personnel access to
the confidential data at the Contractor\'s site for monitoring,
methodological development, and validation purposes, although these
personnel will not take possession of these data.

The names and addresses of building respondents are confidential. The
Contractor shall maintain such data separately from the data files
provided to EIA; EIA will not take possession of these name and address
data unless Congress passes legislation which provides EIA with the
capability to protect the confidential data.

To further protect the privacy of respondents, the Contractor may be
directed by EIA to conduct a series of data adjustment procedures prior
to the release of the data. These adjustments may include error
inoculation, micro aggregation of data, normalization of consumption and
degree-day data to the calendar month, and other procedures specified by
EIA. The Contractor may, with the approval of EIA, redesign and upgrade
these procedures to make them more efficient and/or more effective.

######### 

######### 5B-10.3. Documentation for Data Collection Activities

The Contractor shall produce documentation, which complies with
standards as specified by EIA that includes, but is not limited to, the
following:

1.  Copies of all forms used, including those used for tracking data
    receipt and quality control activities;

2.  Copies of all respondent form letters, including advance letters
    mailed to energy suppliers, standard follow up letters to
    respondents designed to increase response rates, and letters signed
    by EIA.

######### 5B-10.3.1. Documentation for Automated Data Collection Techniques

In the event that the Contractor is authorized to use automated data
collection techniques such as CSAQ or electronic filing via Internet,
the contractor shall produce documentation, which complies with
standards as specified by EIA that include but are not limited to the
following:

-   A description of the procedures for inputting the questionnaire into
    the selected software;

-   A description of the skip patterns and branching procedures
    programmed into the selected software;

-   A description of edit routines and internal consistency checks
    programmed into the selected software;

-   A description of the resulting data file.

This documentation shall include narrative descriptions accompanied by
flowcharts and computer program statements as specified by EIA.

######### 5B-10.4. Documentation for Data Systems

The Contractor shall produce documentation that includes, but is not
limited to, the following:

-   A copy of coding and editing instructions used in the energy
    supplier processing;

-   A description of the imputation procedures used with each question
    or variable;

-   A description of the disaggregation and aggregation procedures,
    annualization procedures, weather data procedures, estimation
    procedures including weighting, nonresponse adjustments, and other
    ratio adjustments;

-   A description of stratification variables required for estimation of
    variances;

-   A copy of all cleaning and editing specifications used in cleaning
    the various data files;

-   Complete documentation for all data files created; and

-   Complete documentation for all software systems created or acquired.

######### 5B-10.5. Final Task Report

The Contractor shall prepare a final report detailing all work performed
on CBECS Energy Suppliers Survey. This report shall include, but is not
limited to, the following:

-   Survey form--level response statistics which report on individual
    energy source records or link records;

-   Supplier-level response statistics which report on the electricity,
    natural gas, fuel oil and district heat suppliers;

-   Building-level response statistics which report on the C&E response
    rates by building characteristics;

-   Response rates achieved within EIA-provided classifications, such as
    Census Division, Principal Building Activity, or building size;

-   Copies of all forms and correspondence used, in the CBECS Energy
    Suppliers Survey, including but not limited to those used for survey
    data collection, internal Contractor control, edit/update, and
    collecting other information. Also include suggestions for
    improvements to any of those forms;

-   An analysis of resources used in terms of cost per completed
    sampling unit, Contractor hours per completed case, number and cost
    of nonrespondent conversion attempts, and other survey performance
    statistics;

-   Contractor recommendations for any improvements to the collection or
    processing procedures to improve response rates or efficiency, lower
    costs, or shorten processing time;

-   A discussion of any known limitations or problems with the data or
    procedures applied to the data.

Final Reports from previous CBECS shall be used as a guide when
preparing this Final Report.

##### 

##### 5B-11. Data Disclosure Analysis, Error Inoculation, and Public Use Data

The Contractor shall prepare the data for release including final data
editing, creation of statistical and relative standard error tables, and
disclosure analyses where required. The micro data for CBECS have always
been made available to the public after all individually-identifiable
data have been removed. Therefore, prior to releasing the micro data, it
is necessary to mask any data items that could be used to identify the
individual respondents. A disclosure analysis is used to determine which
data items could potentially be used to identify respondents. The
responses for data items that do present a problem are masked or
altered. The Contractor shall be prepared to run these error inoculation
procedures.

The Contractor shall prepare, if requested by DOE, disks, diskettes, or
some other electronic medium, such as an ACCESS database, as approved by
DOE for release to the public. The Contractor shall perform an
EIA-approved disclosure analysis procedure. Pursuant to EIA guidelines,
the Contractor shall mask or alter data items that could be used to
identify individual respondent. EIA, not the Contractor, will release
public use data and diskettes.

If requested by DOE, the Contractor shall provide documentation for
public use data release and diskettes.

##### 

##### 5B-12: Transfer of Materials

The Contractor shall transmit all survey-related materials,
documentation, computer software and specific programs, completed
questionnaires, sampling materials, interview information, and
confidential elements of computer and paper records for the current and
3 previous survey cycles to another contractor, as requested by the
Program Office. The Contractor shall maintain an inventory of materials
received and generated in the performance of this functional area. The
inventory will be used to transfer materials to another Contractor at
the completion of work in this functional area. This inventory will also
be delivered to EIA at the completion of work in this functional area as
a final deliverable. All materials shall be clearly documented and
identified, and transmitted in a timely manner as specified by EIA.

##### 

##### 5B-13: Transition

Materials and data generated as a result of work performed in this
functional area will be used in other functional areas associated with
the CBECS. The Contractor shall ensure that all necessary materials and
computer programs are provided to the next Contractor and that
transition briefings and crosswalks be provided, as needed. ECD
personnel shall be present at these meetings.

##### 

##### [5-C. 2005 RECS HOUSEHOLD SURVEY]{.underline}

####### Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) Background

The RECS provides comprehensive, national and regional information on
the consumption of, and expenditures for, energy in the residential
sector of the U.S. economy. The RECS is the oldest of the consumption
surveys, having been conducted since 1978. The 2005 RECS will be the
11^th^ cycle of RECS.

The target population for the RECS consists of all housing units
occupied as a primary residence. A housing unit is defined as a
structure or part of a structure where a household lives. Housing units
do not include group quarters or nursing homes where 10 or more
unrelated person live. A primary residence is a housing unit in which a
householder spends the largest part of the year; it is the householder's
usual or permanent residence. This would normally be a year-round
housing unit. It would generally exclude migratory and seasonal units.
However, if a seasonal unit happens to be occupied over half of the year
by the householder, that unit would be considered the primary residence.

The 1997 RECS sample consisted of 8,310 housing units, of which 1,025
were out-of-scope. Of the remaining 7,285 units, responses (either
personal interviews or shortened mail questionnaires) were received from
5,900 for an overall response rate of 81 percent.

The RECS is a two-part survey. This functional area covers the Household
Survey where household characteristics data are collected through
computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI) with householders in their
homes. The second part of RECS is the Energy Suppliers Survey where
energy consumption data are collected via a mail survey from energy
suppliers; this will be a separate task. The energy suppliers are
identified by the respondents to the Household Survey.

In addition to the Household Survey, a telephone survey of rental agents
is undertaken to verify information from household respondents in rental
units on fuels and main heating equipment used. The names, addresses and
telephone numbers of the rental agents are collected during the
Household Survey. The Rental Agent Survey is also part of this
functional area.

The RECS sample design is a multistage area probability cluster sample.
The 2005 RECS design will be revised to reflect the 2000 Census of
Population.

Under coverage in the sampling procedures and unit nonresponse bias are
taken into account by adjusting the sampling weights. For each housing
unit selected for RECS, the initial sampling weight equals the inverse
of the probability of selection. The initial sampling weights, for
housing units whose occupants provide responses, are increased to
account for the housing units whose occupants did not respond. The
calculation of the final weights for the RECS observations involves the
use of poststratification adjustments using Currents Population Survey
(CPS) estimates as control totals. This poststratification adjustment
insures that the sum of the final weights for the RECS observations
agree with the CPS estimates of the number of occupied housing units in
the U.S.

Editing procedures were used to identify missing data, obviously
incorrect data, and contradictory data.

Item nonresponse was handled by imputation procedures on about
two-thirds of the items for which some nonresponse occurred. No
imputations were done for the remaining items. Hot deck imputation was
the method used most frequently. Regression-based procedures were used
to impute missing data on the square footage of housing units and
missing data on energy consumption and expenditures. Less frequently
used imputation methods included random selection from the known values
of a variable and deductive and allocation procedures. The process of
developing the imputation procedures required knowledge of:

#### Behavior and demographic characteristics of households

-   Characteristics of residential housing units

-   Residential space-heating equipment; water-heating equipment and
    other energy intensive household appliances

-   How energy is used in housing units

-   How theses different components interact.

The imputation procedures need to be designed so that the variance of
the estimates derived from the survey results are not artificially
reduced nor unnecessarily increased. Knowledge of advanced statistical
imputation procedures and how to implement these procedures on computers
is necessary in the design of the imputation procedures.

Sampling errors were estimated using balanced half-sample replication.
The development of the procedure for estimating sampling errors for RECS
required knowledge of complex survey design procedures used to estimate
the sampling errors.

During the development of all the RECS procedures, (interviewer
training, data collection, editing, imputation, and the procedures used
to estimate sampling errors), extensive communications and
person-to-person interactions between the Contractor and EIA's Program
Office are necessary.

The Contractor for this functional area must have, at a minimum, the
following requirements:

-   Staff qualified in implementing complex multistage sample surveys;

-   Staff qualified in developing and implementing the weighting
    procedures for the results of complex survey designs;

-   Experience in developing and implementing variance estimation
    procedures for results of complex survey designs;

-   Staff experienced in data editing and imputation procedures for
    results of complex surveys;

-   Capability and experience in employing interviewers in the field
    throughout the United States,

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-   Capability to implement special confidentiality procedures, such as
    error inoculation, to prevent EIA and data users from knowing the
    identities and location of sample units (see Section 5C-15);

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-   Experience in using Blaise software for data collection,

-   Experience in case management systems for personal interview
    surveys, and

-   Experience in managing multi-year tasks.

**Special Work Requirements**

Work in this functional area requires that the Contractor address two
important issues explicitly in their proposal. The first is the special
confidentiality procedures that must be taken to protect the energy end
use data. The Contractor must ensure that the identities and location of
the sampled units are kept confidential from both EIA and the data
users. This will involve processing the individually-identifiable survey
data on the Contractor's computers. Any micro data provided to EIA must
have names and addresses removed. In addition, the Contractor may have
to further mask the micro data to prevent EIA or users from identifying
the specific location or sample unit. Section 5C-14.2 provides more
detail concerning these data confidentiality procedures.

The second major issue, data storage, is related to the data
confidentiality requirements of the energy end use data. Because EIA
cannot take possession of the survey data collection documents or
records, the Contractor will have to provide secure storage of these
records either at their site or at another contractor facility. In
addition, the Contractor is required to keep an inventory of these
records and be ready to transfer these records to a subsequent
contractor. These procedures are further defined in 5C-17, Transfer of
Materials.

##### 

##### Household Survey Work Overview

##### 

The Contractor shall perform all work associated with the collection of
information about the housing units selected for the RECS. The
Contractor may be asked to prepare some or all of the following: survey
questionnaires and other materials related to conducting the survey;
procedures to be followed to collect the data; specification of a
detailed time table for fielding the survey; pilot studies where
necessary; pretesting of the questionnaire and data collection
procedures; training personnel; collecting survey data; debriefing the
interviewers; editing and processing the data; preparing a clean data
file for the Program Office; and preparing a report on all activities
performed.

Data collection for this survey will be multi-mode; the Contractor shall
use a variety of methods for data collection, such as personal and
telephone interviews and mail surveys. Subject to EIA's approval, the
Contractor shall implement CATI, CAPI, TDE, CSAQ, VR, FAX, Web-based
data collection, or other alternative data collection methods.

All Contractor-proposed modifications to existing fielding procedures
must be approved in advance by EIA.

# Detailed Work Description

##### 

##### 5C-1: Sample Materials

The Contractor will be provided with a list of the names and addresses
of the households to be contacted and related sampling materials, such
as maps, listing sheets, and other pertinent sampling information.
Included, as part of these materials will be the probability of each
household's selection, which will be used to calculate the weights, as
specified in 5C-9.

##### 

##### 5C-2. Questionnaire Procedures and Materials

The Contractor shall review existing RECS data collection instruments to
ensure that questions are worded correctly, skip patterns are
appropriate, and other aspects of the data collection instruments are
consistent with established survey practices. To the extent possible,
the data collection instruments shall be precoded and designed to
facilitate direct transcription to machine-readable form. For a new
survey, or where substantially new types of data are to be collected (or
a different method of data collection is used) in an ongoing survey, the
Contractor may be required to design a new questionnaire.

The Contractor may be required to develop, test, and implement (after
evaluating their impacts on the overall data collection process)
methodological improvements in the data collection instruments.

The Contractor shall conduct pretests of new or significantly modified
data collection instruments and/or survey procedures. These pretests may
include all survey procedures, except imputation and data tape
preparation. The number of units in a pretest shall be specified by EIA
and the Contractor shall implement all fielding procedures.

As part of the pretests, the Contractor may be required to design and
distribute a consultation questionnaire to selected respondents
regarding the survey. This questionnaire shall obtain the respondent's
reactions to instructions, definitions, clarity of format, time required
for completion, and availability of information for completing the form.
Alternatively, the Contractor may collect respondent reactions using
focus group techniques. The Contractor shall submit a report and brief
EIA on the results of this pretest including recommendations to improve
the survey.

**5C-3: Data Collection Materials Printing and Mailing**

Letters introducing the survey are mailed to all respondents prior to
the initial interviewer visit. In addition, there are subsequent mail
outs during the course of the survey to send additional initial letters
or other materials requested by respondents concerning the survey. Upon
EIA approval, the Contractor shall be required to prepare and send all
letters, survey forms, authorization forms, instructions, and other
mailings to survey respondents and others involved in the survey. EIA
will be responsible for the printing of any survey data collection forms
and introductory letters. Materials to be used by the Contractor for
training, instruction, field control and other internal purposes will be
prepared and duplicated by the Contractor, after EIA approval.

Where appropriate, Government bulk mailing and franking privileges will
be used for large mailouts. The Contractor may incur other
survey-associated mailing costs. The Contractor will take advantage of
cost-saving techniques, such as bar coding, to lower postage and other
mailing costs.

**5C-4: Case Management System (CMS)**

The Contractor shall employ an automated system for tracking the status
of households included in the sample, rental agents to be contacted, and
names of energy suppliers. The energy suppliers will be provided to the
survey contractor in Functional area 5D. Because the ability to track
cases will be transferred to a subsequent contractor conducting the
Energy Suppliers Survey, this automated tracking system shall be a
readily transferable commercial system, such as SurveyTrak. The system
should be capable of producing real-time and periodic summary reports of
survey activities and results. Tracking of each interview should
include, but not be limited to, dates and times of attempts to perform
an interview, dates and times of completed interview, interviewer
assignments, interview appointments, and overall survey performance data
including response and completion rates. The Rental Agent Survey and
Mail Survey should also be tracked. The CMS shall be thoroughly tested
with the Blaise questionnaires for compatibility.

##### 

##### 5C-5. Personnel Training and Fieldwork 

The Contractor shall provide a field staff or telephone center staff to
conduct the surveys. The Contractor shall train and evaluate
interviewers, interviewer supervisors, the Contractor's Central Office
personnel, and other survey personnel including telephone data
retrievers and data editors.

For new surveys, the Contractor shall develop and implement training
procedures that are consistent with standard survey practices and
standards as specified by EIA. For continuing surveys, the personnel
training procedures utilized in the most recently completed survey shall
be followed to the maximum extent possible. However, the Contractor
shall extend the training procedures to include advanced techniques such
as videotaped mock interviews with feedback and specially prepared video
presentations of survey techniques. The Contractor shall modify training
materials, subject to EIA approval, to cover changes in the
questionnaires and survey design.

The Contractor shall prepare comprehensive training manuals and other
related materials for training and shall conduct a training program for
all interviewers for each survey. The training shall include not only
interview techniques, but also background related to consumption
surveys, subject matter, and sampling procedures. The Contractor shall
build into the training sessions feedback mechanisms (such as pop
quizzes or study exercises) to evaluate interviewer understanding of key
concepts. The Contractor shall develop performance standards that each
prospective interviewer shall satisfy. These standards shall be approved
by EIA. The Contractor shall certify to the EIA that each interviewer
has had the required training, satisfied the performance standards, and
understands the forms and key survey concepts. Each interviewer shall
satisfactorily complete and be observed in at least one entire simulated
or actual interview before being sent to the field. Representatives from
EIA will participate in the development and review of training materials
and will assist with interviewer training process.

**5C-5.1: Interviewer Recruitment**

The Contractor is responsible for recruiting field staff for listing
addresses in sample locations and conducting the CATI and CAPI
interview. An earnest effort shall be made to recruit experienced
interviewers. For most Primary Sampling Units (PSU's), a minimum of two
interviewers per PSU is required. The second interviewer is needed for
conversion of respondents who refuse during the first wave of
interviewing. In those PSU's where a large portion of the population is
Spanish-speaking, earnest efforts should be made to recruit and assign
bilingual (English and Spanish) interviewers.

The interviewers are representatives of the United States Government and
the Department of Energy. It is the Contractor's responsibility to
ensure that the interviewers conduct themselves in a professional,
business-like manner and remain courteous to respondents at all times.

**5C-5.2: Interviewer Training and Materials**

The Contractor shall prepare training and interviewing materials based
on the Household Questionnaire provided by EIA. The training and
interviewing materials are to be appropriate for the conduct of
interviews in a computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) or
computer-assisted-personal-interviewing (CAPI) environment. The
Contractor will be provided with the Household Questionnaire already
programmed in BLAISE. The training procedures and materials used for the
previous survey cycle should be used as a starting point, as
appropriate. All training materials will be in both hard copy and in MS
Word text files (to the extent feasible).

EIA staff members will attend all training sessions, to the extent
possible. They will participate in the training sessions by providing
the general orientation to the survey, by serving as technical resources
providing clarification on matters regarding the intention or content of
the survey forms, and by providing immediate feedback to the Contractor
on the progress and quality of the training session. The DOE Technical
Monitor will discuss any problems identified with the Project Director
and appropriate steps will be taken through the COR, to implement any
corrective measures required.

Included in the interviewer training will be:

-   An overview of the survey

-   Discussion of the responsibilities of a US Government/DOE
    Representative

-   Responsibilities in helping meet the objectives of the survey

-   Procedures for the selection of households and sampling exercises

-   Procedures for identifying rental agents

-   Techniques for maximizing response rates

-   Guidelines for obtaining signed Authorization forms

-   Practice, including mock interviews using the survey questionnaire

-   Answers to commonly asked respondent questions

-   Procedures for the care and use of a laptop computer including
    practice using BLAISE

-   A Quiz

The interviewer training materials are to include:

-   A curriculum for 5C-4 training days

-   The confidentiality pledge

-   Instructions for Interviewers that cover the questionnaire
    section-by section and question-by-question, as necessary

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-   Exhibit booklet that supplements the questions asked by the
    interviewers in both English and Spanish (translation will be
    provided by EIA)

-   A glossary of energy and survey-specific terms

-   An Interviewer Quiz

-   Training Evaluation Form

-   Helpful Hints from Other Interviewers

-   Data management and transmission procedures

The Contractor shall submit the training materials to the Program Office
for review and propose training times and sites. After Program Office
approval, the Contractor shall conduct interviewer training sessions.
All training will be conducted in person. Practice interviews will be
reviewed by the Contractor and the interviewer will not be provided any
further work until it is certain that the interviewer can operate both
the hardware and software for data collection.

**5C-5.3: Field Interviewer Quality Control**

The Contractor shall ensure the quality of each interviewer's work. The
Contractor shall conduct ongoing evaluations of interviewer performance
and take prompt actions to remedy performance deficiencies. It is the
Contractor's responsibility to insure that the interviewers remain
courteous to respondents and act in a professional manner at all times.
Any complaints from respondents related to the interviewer's behavior
shall be included in the regular progress reports submitted to EIA and
any consistent problems shall be documented in the Final Report.

Field Supervisors or Contractor personnel at the central office will
conduct a complete review of the first two actual survey interviews
completed by each interviewer. The results of these reviews will be
promptly communicated to the supervisor and/or interviewer. The results
of these reviews will also be made available to the EIA. Any series of
gross errors by a particular interviewer will result in prompt action
being taken by the contractor to alleviate the problem prior to further
interviewing.

At least 20 percent of each interviewer's work will be verified. If
there are any questions regarding an interviewer's work, the
verification rate will be raised to 50 percent. In addition, the
Contractor shall track cooperation rates, authorization form cooperation
rates, and edit failure rates for each interviewer. These statistics
will be made available to each interviewer's supervisor.

Interviewers will have at a minimum weekly communication with their
contractor supervisor. During that contact, the supervisor will review
data quality issues and assignment statuses with the interviewer.
Interviewers will have flexibility in setting due dates for assignments.
Interviewers who miss a certain number of assignment deadlines will be
replaced.

**5C-5.4: Interview Validations**

A random sample (at least one) of each interviewer\'s field interviews
shall be validated by means of a recheck with the respondent. If the
recheck raises a significant question about the validity or quality of
the interviewers work, further validation will be conducted. The field
supervisor or Contractor's central office staff will normally conduct
the recheck interview. It will be a standard, but very brief interview,
which will:

-   Confirm that the interview was actually conducted by personal
    interview during the time period reported,

-   Ascertain the approximate time the interview required

-   Repeat 4 or 5 questions from different sections throughout the
    questionnaire, and

-   Inquire whether the interviewer was courteous and whether the
    respondent has any questions.

The validation interview results will be sent to the Contractor\'s
central office for comparison between the initial questionnaire and the
validation questionnaire results. Inconsistencies will be noted and the
interviewer\'s future work will be monitored.

The Contractor shall prepare a brief report of the validation effort and
results. Copies of the validation interviews will be made available to
EIA upon request.

**5C-5.5: Interview Quality Control and Interviewer Feedback**

The Contractor shall ensure that each interviewer that continues to work
on the study produces good work. That means an acceptable response rate
for completed interviews, careful attention to interviewing at the
correct address, careful attention to delivery of questions, and
entering responses through the keyboard, and acceptable transmission of
the data back to the office. The acceptable response rate for this task,
using a formula consistent with the standards promulgated by the EIA's
Statistical Methods Group (SMG) and the Council of American Survey
Research Organization (CASRO), special report "On the Definition of
Response Rates," is 80 percent. It is also important that interviewers
who continue to work on the study maintain an acceptable rate of signed
authorization forms.

The Contractor shall provide prompt feedback during the field period to
the interviewer of interviewer errors that were identified on the 100
percent review of the first two interviews, interviewer observation or
validation efforts. A feedback loop shall be established to ensure the
timely communication of any problems with an individual interviewer or
with some part of the questionnaire that is a problem for many
interviewers. The Contractor shall institute a mechanism to provide
feedback to the interviewers as early in the data collection period as
possible before the interviewer completes his/her assignment and repeats
the problem for subsequent interviews.

Interviewers will be encouraged to call their supervisor at any time
about any problems or questions. Supervisors will be in either personal
or telephone contact with their assigned interviewers at a minimum once
a week to discuss problems, progress, report results of quality control
procedures as well as the status of each assigned interview.

**5C-5.6: Debriefing Interviewers**

The Contractor shall collect information on the interviewer\'s
experience in conducting the interviews that would be helpful in
improving future iterations of the survey. The Program Office will
provide suggested questions for the interviewer debriefing. The
responses from the interviewers shall be evaluated and summarized by the
Contractor into forms that would be easily accessible. The report shall
be organized by survey form question to provide easy reference. Other
matters related to the survey shall be handled under appropriate topics.

The Contractor shall debrief interviewers using a method approved by EIA
(such as telephone interviews, mailed questionnaires, focus groups, or
meetings between the interviewers and EIA) subsequent to the data
collection phase of the RECS. The purpose of these procedures is to
obtain interviewer input on problems and successes that occur during the
fielding of the surveys. The Contractor shall prepare necessary material
as required, shall conduct the debriefing, and shall provide EIA with
summaries of the findings.

##### 

##### 5C-6. Data Collection

The Contractor shall collect data from the householders and rental
agents and apartment building managers. The Contractor shall make every
effort to collect the data from a respondent that is knowledgeable about
how energy is used in the household.

##### 

The Contractor shall manage and process data collected for the 2005 RECS
Household Survey conducted under this functional area and data from
other sources relevant to the objectives of the survey. Data management
shall be undertaken in accordance with standards as specified by EIA.
This work includes data receipt and tracking, coding, data entry (as
necessary), editing, imputation of missing data, calculating data
values, estimation procedures that combine survey responses with outside
data sources, data file preparation, and quality control statistics. The
Contractor shall provide the data to EIA, stripped of items revealing
the respondents' identities and precise geographic locations. Additional
masking of identifiable variables may be requested by EIA.

During the Household Survey, the interviewer shall make a reasonable
attempt to obtain a signed Authorization Form with the respondent
account numbers used by energy suppliers of the individual fuels used in
the household. This form authorizes the energy suppliers to release
billing data (consumption and expenditures) for the household account.
For difficult cases, where the interviewer is unable to obtain the
signed Authorization Form during the interview, the Contractor shall,
upon EIA's approval, attempt to obtain the Authorization Form via mail
or FAX. However, the Contractor shall make every effort to obtain the
signed Authorization Form during the personal interview.

The Contractor shall establish a program of call back, rotation of
difficult cases among interviewers, and nonresponse conversion
procedures. The disposition of every sample unit and the reason for each
non-interview shall be coded, recorded, and reported in the progress
report.

For telephone interviews, the data collected shall be entered directly
into a computer-assisted system. When telephone interview is the vehicle
for collecting data from a primary data source, such the rental agent, a
pre-data collection mailing of materials may be required. Additionally,
a mail follow up may be required to obtain a signed authorization form
from the respondent allowing the Contractor to collect data from its
energy supplier. The Contractor shall supply the equipment used in a
computer-assisted data collection system.

The Contractor shall receive and identify all data collection forms and
accurately link data files. Check digits shall be used in the
identification number or an equally reliable alternative developed for
assuring accurate linkage of data sources.

For computer-assisted surveys (CATI, CAPI, etc.), the Program Office
shall program the case management system for use on the
computer-assisted system. The Contractor shall be required to design and
implement a case management system to track data collection. The
Contractor for this task shall also track information to link the
Household responses for the Energy Suppliers Survey and shall provide
this linkage capability to the Contractor working on the RECS Energy
Suppliers Survey task along with the transfer of the signed
Authorization Forms and energy account numbers.

The Contractor may be required to develop and implement follow up
procedures to collect additional information.

**5C-6.1: Weekly Data Collection Reports**

The Contractor shall submit weekly reports of field data collection
activities to the EIA. These reports shall include information on the
total cumulative and weekly response rate, total and per unit
expenditures, and deviation from projected expenditures. These weekly
reports shall be prepared at the Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) level.

**5C-6.2: Conduct CAPI Interviews**

The Contractor shall maintain a national field staff of experienced
interviewers. The Contractor shall provide interviewers with a laptop
computer that provides a good response time using the
Government-supplied Blaise program for conducting the interview.
Interviewers are expected to make up to 3 call backs following the first
visit to a sample unit. There will be a second wave effort to convert
those who refused or could not be contacted during the first wave. This
work shall be done by interviewers who have proved they have a special
ability for converting refusals.

The Contractor shall use electronic transmission for sending sample
information and programming updates to the interviewers and receiving
status reports and completed interview data from the interviewers.

**5C-6.3: Conduct CATI Interviews**

The Contractor shall conduct any CATI interviews at an established
telephone research center with trained telephone interviewing staff.

**5C-6.4: Mail Follow up to Households**

After repeated attempts to contact a household in person to complete an
interview have failed, these households shall receive a mailed
questionnaire (Form EIA-457 B). The mail questionnaires will be sent
monthly for three months in order to maximize the return rate. These
data responses will have to be keyed into a machine-readable format
compatible with the CAPI inputs, prior to editing and further
processing. In addition, the household respondent will be given the
option to file the information using the Internet.

After formatting into the RECS database, information from both the mail
questionnaire and the Internet filings, must be edited and imputations
performed, as necessary.

**5C-7: Editing and Imputing Data**

Editing involves identifying problems, determining whether the problems
can be resolved, and designing the necessary procedures to resolve the
problems. For RECS, many edits are built into the CAPI and CATI
instruments. In addition, the Contractor shall plan and carry out field
and office edits to identify missing data, obvious incorrect data, and
contradictory data.

The Program Office shall provide all editing specifications. Data
editing will make use of information from previous survey cycles and for
the Rental Agent Survey, and the Energy Suppliers Survey, when
available. The Contractor shall use edit routines, approved by EIA, to
investigate and resolve the anomalous data that are identified by the
edit routines. Resolution may require the Contractor to retrieve data or
collect additional data by re-contacting the respondent. Unless
otherwise approved by ECD, SAS shall be used to develop edit routines
for both the Household and Energy Supplier Surveys.

There are six stages in the Household Survey processing: 1) Call-Back
Edits, 2) Coding, 3) Full Edits, 4) Imputations, 5) Final Edits, and 6)
Energy Supplier Checks.

The process of developing the editing and imputation procedures requires
knowledge of the characteristics of housing units, energy-using
equipment, how energy is used, and how the different characteristics
interact.

All data processing will be performed on PC\'s using software that is
available to EIA, preferably PC-SAS.

**5C-7.1: Call-Back Edits**

In this step, the Contractor shall run a series of edits on critical
data items. Any failures on these data items will result in telephone or
mail recontacts with households to try to obtain the needed information.
As part of the call-back edit step, all interviewer notes and the
entered responses to the "Other, Specify" for the fuel and equipment
questions will be reviewed to ensure that there is no special situation
that needs resolution.

Although it is possible that some calls may need to be made to the
household respondents to resolve inconsistencies in the data, in order
to keep costs under control, this effort shall be of a limited nature.

**5C-7.2: Coding**

In this step, all interviewer notes, open-ends, and other/specify
questions will be coded. Coders review electronic data on screen and key
edit records. The edit records are used to update the survey data file.

**5C-7.3: Full Edits**

In this step, the full set of Household Survey edits will be run. Data
reviewers shall examine the full set of edit failures for each housing
unit, review case information, and propose resolutions for each case.

**5C-7.4: Imputations**

The need for item imputations is identified during the editing process.
Therefore, the editing process and the item imputation process are
closely interrelated. About two-thirds of the household data items with
missing or \"Don\'t Know\" responses will be imputed. The imputation
procedures need to be designed so that the variance of the estimates
derived from the survey results are not artificially reduced or
unnecessarily increased. Knowledge of advanced statistical imputation
procedures and how to implement these computer-based procedures is
necessary in the performance of this work.

The most frequently used imputation method will be the hot-deck
procedure. The Program Office shall provide a specific list of variables
to be imputed and the method of imputation. Imputation flags shall be
included on the data file for all variables that are slated for
imputations, even if that particular item did not need to be imputed (we
had all the responses). In consultation with the Program Office, the
Contractor shall develop an imputation plan that specifies the
imputation procedures and if appropriate, control variables for all data
items. Computerized imputation routines will be developed and will be
used to fill in missing data items.

The Contractor may also be required to develop variance estimation
techniques that take into account the amount of imputation for
nonresponse.

**5C-7.5: Final Edits**

In some cases, imputation values can result in edit failures in other
parts of the questionnaire. The full edit set will be rerun and any edit
failures will be reviewed. Revised imputation procedures will be used to
impute legal values for the cases.

**5C-8. Energy Supplier Checks and Updates**

Energy Suppliers Survey data sometimes contradict Household Survey
responses concerning fuels and equipment. When energy supplier data are
used to justify a change in the Household Survey data, that updated data
must be run through the edits a final time to ensure that the changes
did not introduce new consistency problems in the survey.

**5C-9: Household Weights and Variances**

Each completed interview will be weighted to reflect the probability of
its selection. The sampling materials provided at the start of this
functional area will include the probability of selection. Adjustments
shall be made to account for nonresponse. In non-self representing
strata, adjustments shall be made so that the main heating fuels for the
selected PSU\'s are adjusted to reflect the distribution of main heating
fuels in the stratum. For RECS, raking procedures will be used in
several steps to adjust for under representation of one-person
households and to adjust total counts to control totals development from
data obtained from the Bureau of Census.

The Contractor shall prepare the data file for use in estimating the
sampling variance. PSU\'s in non-self representing strata shall be
matched together and PSU\'s in self-representing strata shall be divided
in two to prepare the data file for estimating sampling variances using
a half-sample replication procedure.

The contractor also shall be required to pair the strata for the RECS
for use by EIA in estimating sampling errors using the half-sample
replication process or the jackknife procedure. This shall involve
dividing self-representing PSU's into two groups and pairing the
non-self-representing PSU's. The Contractor also may be required to
implement the jackknife procedure of half-sample replication process and
create a generalized variance equation. The Contractor may be required
to provide tables of sampling errors or formulae for the calculation of
the sampling errors.

The Contractor also may be required to evaluate the jackknife and
half-sample variance estimation procedures, as well as other variance
estimation procedures, and recommend to EIA the most valid approaches
for the RECS.

**5C-10: Household Survey Data Files**

The Contractor shall provide the Program Office with clean, fully
documented survey data files. Data processing is an iterative process in
which the Program Office will have considerable input. The Contractor
shall update all data files as requested by the Program Office.

The files will not contain any data that will allow respondent
identification in accordance with the requirements for maintaining
confidentiality. The contents of the files will be specified in the
detailed Survey Management Plan and be subject to EIA approval. In
general, EIA is to receive copies of all data sets produced, except for
data sets that contain respondent identities. Direct access storage or
CD-ROM\'s may also be used.

The Contractor shall use EIA-approved software for work in this
functional area. The Contractor shall transfer to the EIA any software
that is necessary to perform work in this functional area. All data sets
used for processing will be archived with appropriate identifying
information at the end of the survey.

Data files provided to EIA will include, but not be limited to: coded
Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) identifiers (which cannot be
cross-referenced to actual geographically located PSU\'s); half sample
pair numbers; household survey data; base and adjusted weights; and item
nonresponse imputation flags.

The Contractor shall provide preliminary draft survey data prior to
delivery of the final clean data file. (NOTE: The number of data files
provided by the Contractor is subject to change depending on EIA\'s
review of the data.) The Program Office will thoroughly review the data
on the draft data files and the Contractor may be asked to clarify
either by research or callbacks to respondents, the correct values of
several data items. Once the Program Office is satisfied that their
questions have been resolved, the Contractor shall prepare the final
data file deliverable.

There will be a minimum of three versions of the Household data file
delivered to the Government. The first file, prior to beginning the
additional editing work, shall be delivered for use by the government in
testing programs for producing published tables. The second file shall
be an edited file containing base weights, but no imputed values for
missing data. The third file will contain fully cleaned, weighted and
imputed data.

An additional Household Survey data file may be necessary following the
Post-Survey Efforts, as specified in 5C-16.

**5C-11: Rental Agent Survey**

The Contractor shall conduct interviews with the rental agents (using
Form EIA-457 C) for households that live in apartments and do not pay
fuel suppliers directly. The names and telephone numbers of the rental
agents are collected during the Household Survey. The rental agent
interviews shall be conducted via telephone using Computer-Assisted
Telephone Interviewing (CATI) techniques, using a Government-supplied
questionnaire.

Data from the Rental Agent Survey shall be used to edit the household
records, replacing responses from the householders that are considered
to be less accurate than those of the rental agent. Flags shall be
placed on the data file indicating which household responses have been
replaced with data from the rental agent.

##### 

##### 5C-12: Housing Unit Measurements

The Contractor will collect measurements for each floor of the RECS
housing units as part of the Household Survey and also data on heated
and finished attics, heated basements, and heated garages of the housing
units. Each interviewer will receive a 35-foot or greater retractable
metal tape measure. Interviewer training will include a session on how
to identify basic housing unit shapes and the best way to measure them.
The Household Questionnaire will include special programming to make the
measurement process easier for the interviewer. The CAPI questionnaire
will prompt the interviewer as to which floors and areas they need to
measure. The interviewer will record non-standard housing shapes and
measurements in a special Measurements booklet.

The Contractor will edit and clean the data and use the data to
calculate the total square foot of living space and the total heated
square footage in the housing unit. For each housing unit, the
Contractor will place on the final survey data file, variables that give
the total square feet of living space in the housing unit plus the total
square feet of heating space in the housing unit. In addition, the
Contractor will calculate the heated square footage of the basements and
garages. Variables that give the heated square footage of the garage and
basement will be also placed on the survey data file.

**5C-13: Quality Control and Performance Statistics**

The following performance statistics will be required by the contractor
to monitor surveys and to provide feedback.

**5C-13.1: Weekly Performance Statistics**

Performance statistics will be provided by the Contractor to monitor the
progress of the survey and to provide feedback on ways that survey
processes can be improved for subsequent iterations of the survey. The
important parts of the survey that require weekly performance statistics
include:

-   Sample updating and listings

-   Household interviews

-   Rental Agent and Mail Questionnaire status

-   Editing and cleaning of the data

The status categories for these components should match the categories
used in past cycles, so that comparison statistics are available.

**5C-13.2: Change Process Statistics**

Performance statistics shall also be maintained to indicate the extent
of change throughout the editing and data cleaning process. This means
that differences must be identified between the first available
electronic file and the final data file for each variable. The purpose
of these performance statistics is to allow for continuous improvement
in subsequent iterations of the survey and to assess the effect of CAPI
on the editing phase of the survey process.

**5C-13.3: Interviewer Performance Statistics**

In order to provide statistics on individual interviewer\'s performance,
for each interviewer, the following items should be maintained by the
Contractor:

-   Number of interviews assigned

-   Number of contacts made in order to obtain an interview

-   Number of interviews completed

-   Number of interviews still outstanding

-   Reasons for noninterviews

-   Number of refusals

-   Number (or percent) of authorization forms obtained

-   Number of edit failures on questionnaires administered

**5C-13.4: Household Survey Performance Statistics**

The Contractor shall maintain, at a minimum, the following items
concerning the Household Survey respondents:

-   Number of households in the sample

-   Number of interviews completed

-   Number remaining to be interviewed

-   Number of authorization forms completed

-   Reasons for noninterview

-   Number of refusals (\"hard\" and \"soft\")

-   Number of mailed questionnaires sent

-   Status of mailed questionnaires

**5C-13.5: Costs Statistics**

The Contractor shall also record, or be able to derive, the following:

-   Cost per interview

-   Time expended to obtain an interview (including travel time)

-   Length of the interview

-   Average number of callbacks to respondents

-   Edit cost per Household Questionnaire

Note: Additional cost statistics are required as part of the Monthly
Cost Report.

######### 5C-14: Survey Management Plan, Confidentiality Procedures and Documentation and Final Report

The Contractor shall provide complete documentation for new and existing
surveys, in accordance with standards as specified by EIA, of all work
including sampling procedures; survey design; preparation of
questionnaire; data collection forms, instructions, and letters; data
collection training and supervision; data collection; data processing;
statistical procedures related to estimation, imputation, and data
analyses; report preparation; and public use data file preparation. The
Contractor shall revise and update existing EIA documentation from the
previous RECS, where applicable. For new procedures, the Contractor
shall prepare new documentation.

The Contractor shall use a version of Microsoft Word (compatible with
the same version of Word used by EIA) to prepare all documentation and
shall provide all documentation in hard copy and diskette forms. The
Contractor shall provide draft interim documentation quarterly (within
30 days of the close of the quarter) that documents all procedures
implemented in that quarter. Final documentation shall be due at the end
of each major survey activity.

All documentation must meet or exceed the standards for data systems
documentation as specified in the [Energy Information Administration
Standards Manual, April 1989]{.underline} (or its successor).

Interim documentation is required quarterly throughout the task, in
addition to the final documentation deliverables due after work has been
completed. The interim documentation will be the portions of the
documentation that are completed as work progresses. The documents
prepared for the 2001 RECS will be used as the starting point for the
2005 RECS documentation.

Before preparing interim documentation for a major data processing
activity, the Contractor shall submit an outline to EIA. After written
approval is received the Contractor shall prepare the documentation
including, but not limited to, a full description of data input, output,
decision rules, copies of program listings (including spreadsheets or
other PC programs) or actual runs, Job Control Language (JCL) necessary
to run the programs, and system test procedures and results. The
Contractor shall also document computer programs internally within the
programs.

**5C-14.1: Survey Management Plan**

The Contractor shall prepare a Survey Management Plan (SMP) at the
beginning of the task. The SMP will be a detailed, step-by-step plan to
conduct the survey. The SMP shall identify all the procedures for the
survey (manual and automated), proposed staffing, and time schedule to
meet the deliverable due dates. In particular, the SMP will address all
aspects unique to CAPI procedures (e.g. software and hardware support).

**5C-14.2: Data Confidentiality Procedures**

The Contractor shall design and implement procedures for protecting the
confidentiality of respondent identification as specified in the
contract. These procedures must be compatible with the codes and
standards of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations and
the American Association of Public Opinion Research. The Contractor will
submit a plan to EIA, which describes in detail how the data
confidentiality procedures will be implemented. The Data Confidentiality
Plan may be included as a separate section of the Survey Management
Plan.

The confidentiality procedures will include the need for the Contractor
to:

-   Secure all data that would allow identification of survey
    respondents

-   Protect the electronic transmission to and storage of respondent
    information on laptop computers

-   Train affected personnel in the procedures to be followed in
    maintaining confidentiality

-   Secure the necessary confidentiality pledges, and

-   Provide secure areas for processing the data and locked files for
    storage of returned questionnaires.

The procedures must also be designed to allow EIA personnel access to
the confidential data at the Contractor\'s site for monitoring,
methodological development, and validation purposes, although these
personnel will not take possession of these data.

The names and addresses of household and rental agent respondents are
confidential. The Contractor shall maintain such data separately from
the data files provided to EIA; EIA will not take possession of these
name and address data unless legislation, which provides EIA with the
capability to protect the confidential data, is passed by Congress.

To further protect the privacy of respondents, the Contractor may be
directed by EIA to conduct a series of data adjustment procedures prior
to the release of the data. These adjustments may include error
inoculation, micro aggregation of data, normalization of consumption and
degree-day data to the calendar month, and other procedures specified by
EIA. The Contractor may, with the approval of EIA, redesign and upgrade
these procedures to make them more efficient and/or more effective.

######### 5C-14.3: Documentation for Data Collection Activities

The Contractor shall produce documentation, which complies with
standards as specified by EIA that includes, but is not limited to, the
following:

3.  Copies of all forms used, including those used for field listing of
    segments, creating list frames, making assignments, tracking
    interviewer work, and quality control activities;

4.  Copies of all training materials (including video tapes) and
    instructions regarding training provided to the field staff;

5.  Copies of all other survey instructions and correspondence provided
    to the field staff;

6.  Copies of all respondent form letters, including standard follow up
    letters to respondents designed to increase response rates, and
    letters signed by EIA.

######### 

######### 5C-14.3.1: Documentation for Automated Data Collection Techniques

In the event that the Contractor is authorized to use automated data
collection techniques such as CSAQ or electronic filing via Internet,
the contractor shall produce documentation, which complies with
standards as specified by EIA that include but are not limited to the
following:

-   A description of the procedures for inputting the questionnaire into
    the selected software;

-   A description of the skip patterns and branching procedures
    programmed into the selected software;

-   A description of edit routines and internal consistency checks
    programmed into the selected software;

-   A description of the resulting data file.

This documentation shall include narrative descriptions accompanied by
flowcharts and computer program statements as specified by EIA.

######### 

######### 5C-14.4: Documentation for Data Systems

The Contractor shall produce documentation that includes, but is not
limited to, the following:

-   A copy of coding and editing instructions used in the initial
    interview processing;

-   A description of the imputation procedures used with each question
    or variable;

-   A description of the estimation procedures including weighting,
    nonresponse adjustments, post stratification, and other ration
    adjustments;

-   A description of stratification variables required for estimation of
    variances;

-   A copy of all cleaning and editing specifications used in cleaning
    the various data files;

-   Complete documentation for all data files created; and

-   Complete documentation for all software systems created or acquired.

######### 5C-14.5: Final Report

The Contractor shall prepare a final report detailing all work performed
on the completed Household Survey. This report shall include, but is not
limited to, the following:

-   Response rates achieved within EIA-provided classifications, such as
    Census Divisions, household income, housing unit size;

-   Comparisons, where possible, of respondents' characteristics to
    those of the target population in that sector;

-   Copies of all forms and correspondence used, in all phases of the
    survey, including but not limited to those used for survey data
    collection, internal Contractor control, edit/update, collecting
    other information, summaries of interviewer time records. Also
    include suggestions for improvements to any of those forms;

-   An analysis of resources used in terms of cost per completed
    sampling unit, Contractor hours per completed case, number and cost
    of nonrespondent conversion attempts, and other survey performance
    statistics;

-   Contractor recommendations for any improvements to the collection or
    processing procedures to improve response rates or efficiency, lower
    costs, or shorten processing time;

-   A discussion of any known limitations or problems with the data or
    procedures applied to the data.

Final Reports from previous RECS shall be used as a guide when preparing
this Final Report.

##### 

##### 5C-15: Data Disclosure Analysis, Error Inoculation, and Public Use Data

The Contractor shall prepare the data for release including final data
editing, creation of statistical and relative standard error tables, and
disclosure analyses where required. The micro data for RECS have always
been made available to the public after all individually-identifiable
data have been removed. Therefore, prior to releasing the micro data, it
is necessary to mask any data items that could be used to identify the
individual respondents. A disclosure analysis is used to determine which
data items could potentially be used to identify respondents. The
responses for data items that do present a problem are masked or
altered. The Contractor shall be prepared to run these error inoculation
procedures.

# The Contractor shall prepare, if requested by DOE, disks, diskettes, or some other electronic medium, such as an ACCESS data base, as approved by DOE for release to the public. The Contractor shall perform an EIA-approved disclosure analysis procedure. 

Pursuant to EIA guidelines, the Contractor shall mask or alter data
items that could be used to identify individual respondent. EIA, not the
Contractor, will release public use data and diskettes.

If requested by DOE, the Contractor shall provide documentation for
public use data release and diskettes.

##### 

##### 5C-16: Post-Survey Efforts

After the Household Survey is completed, the Contractor shall be
required to perform work necessitated as a result of the Energy
Suppliers Survey. These efforts include identifying the proper
supplier/household combination, rerunning the household survey edits,
and rerunning the disclosure analysis, updating the Case Management
System, and forwarding any updated files to the Energy Supplier
contractor.

**5C-16.1: Household Survey and Energy Suppliers Survey Reconciliation**

The Contractor must be able to assist the energy supplier in identifying
the correct household when the account numbers are missing or the
respondent's name or identification are unclear. This will necessitate
the ability to access the Household Survey data and trying to identify
the correct household for the Energy Supplier. In other instances, the
energy supplier may come back and say that the household is not a
customer. Reconciliation of this situation may require a call back to
the household respondent to ascertain the correct fuel or supplier used
by the household.

All findings from this effort will be documented and updated in the case
management system and forwarded to the Energy Suppliers Survey
contractor.

# 5C-16.2: Re-Editing

If Household Survey data are changed as a result of information gained
from the Energy Suppliers Survey, the Household Survey data edits, as
specified in 5C-8 will be re-run.

##### 

##### 5C-16.3: Transfer of Updated Information

Any changes in the Case Management System and the Household Survey data
file will be forwarded to the Energy Supplier contractor in a timely
manner. In addition, a revised Household Survey data file will be
delivered to the Program Office.

##### 

##### 5C-17: Transfer of Materials

The Contractor shall transmit all survey-related materials,
documentation, computer software and specific programs, completed
questionnaires, sampling materials, interview information, and
confidential elements of computer and paper records for the current and
3 previous survey cycles to another contractor, as requested by the
Program Office. The Contractor shall maintain an inventory of materials
received and generated in the performance of this functional area. The
inventory will be used to transfer materials to another Contractor at
the completion of work in this functional area. This inventory will also
be delivered to EIA at the completion of work in this functional area as
a final deliverable. All materials shall be clearly documented and
identified, and transmitted in a timely manner as specified by EIA.

**5C-18: Transition**

Materials and data generated as a result of work performed in this
functional area will be used in other functional areas associated with
the RECS. The Contractor shall ensure that all necessary materials and
computer programs are provided to the next Contractor and that
transition briefings and crosswalks be provided, as needed. ECD
personnel shall be present at these meetings.

##### 

##### [5-D. 2005 RECS ENERGY SUPPLIERS SURVEY]{.underline}

**Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) Background**

The RECS provides comprehensive, national and regional information on
the consumption of, and expenditures for, energy in the residential
sector of the U.S. economy.

The RECS is the oldest of the consumption surveys, having been conducted
since 1978. The survey was conducted annually through 1982, again in
1984, triennially through 1993, and quadrennially since then. The most
recently completed survey is for data year 1997 and the 2001 RECS is
underway.

The target population for the RECS consists of all housing units
occupied as a primary residence. A housing unit is defined as a
structure or part of a structure where a household lives. Housing units
do not include group quarters or nursing homes where 10 or more
unrelated person live. A primary residence is a housing unit in which a
householder spends the largest part of the year; it is the householder's
usual or permanent residence. This would normally be a year-round
housing unit. It would generally exclude migratory and seasonal units.
However, if a seasonal unit happens to be occupied over half of the year
by the householder, that unit would be considered the primary residence.

The 1997 RECS sample consisted of 8,310 housing units, of which 1,025
were out-of-scope. Of the remaining 7,285 units, responses (either
personal interviews or shortened mail questionnaires) were received from
5,900 for an overall response rate of 81 percent.

The RECS is a two-part survey. In the first part, Household
characteristics data are collected through computer-assisted personal
interviews (CAPI) with householders. This work is being performed in
Functional area 5C. Also included in Functional Area 5C is a telephone
survey of rental agents undertaken to verify information from household
respondents in rental units on fuels and main heating equipment used.

This functional area deals with the second part of RECS, the Energy
Suppliers Survey, wherein energy consumption data are collected from
energy suppliers via a mail survey. Household respondents are asked to
provide the name, address and account numbers for all suppliers of
energy to the household. In addition, the household respondent was asked
to sign an Authorization Form that gave permission to the suppliers to
release the household's monthly billing data to EIA.

For the Energy Suppliers Survey, the Contractor will send copies of the
Authorization Form to the suppliers to secure the release of the
households' billing records. Attempts will be made to contact all
suppliers of electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and bottled gas that
were identified during the Household Survey as types of energy used in
the building.

The RECS sample design is a multistage area probability cluster sample.
The 2005 RECS design will be revised to reflect the 2000 Census of
Population.

Under coverage in the sampling procedures and unit nonresponse bias are
taken into account by adjusting the sampling weights. For each housing
unit selected for RECS, the initial sampling weight equals the inverse
of the probability of selection. The initial sampling weights, for
housing units whose occupants provide responses, are increased to
account for the housing units whose occupants did not respond. The
calculation of the final weights for the RECS observations involves the
use of poststratification adjustments using Currents Population Survey
(CPS) estimates as control totals. This poststratification adjustment
insures that the sum of the final weights for the RECS observations
agree with the CPS estimates of the number of occupied housing units in
the U.S.

Editing procedures are used to identify missing data, obviously
incorrect data, and contradictory data. Disaggregation and aggregation
procedures are used to allocate the correct amount of energy to specific
households when more than one household was on an energy account or one
household had multiple energy accounts. Annualization procedures are
used to aggregate the monthly billing data to account for one year's
worth of energy use.

Item nonresponse was handled by imputation procedures on about
two-thirds of the items for which some nonresponse occurred. No
imputations were done for the remaining items. Hot deck imputation was
the method used most frequently. Regression-based procedures were used
to impute missing data on the square footage of housing units and
missing data on energy consumption and expenditures. Less frequently
used imputation methods included random selection from the known values
of a variable and deductive and allocation procedures.

The imputation procedures need to be designed so that the variance of
the estimates derived from the survey results are not artificially
reduced nor unnecessarily increased. Knowledge of advanced statistical
imputation procedures and how to implement these procedures on computers
is necessary in the design of the imputation procedures.

Sampling errors were estimated using balanced half-sample replication.
The development of the procedure for estimating sampling errors for RECS
required knowledge of complex survey design procedures used to estimate
the sampling errors.

During the development of all the RECS procedures, (data collection,
editing, imputation, and the procedures used to estimate sampling
errors), extensive communications and person-to-person interactions
between the Contractor and EIA's Program Office are necessary.

The Contractor for this functional area must have, at a minimum, the
following requirements:

-   Experience in advanced statistical imputation procedures and
    application of these to a complex survey;

-   Experience in fielding a complex mail survey;

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-   Capability to implement special confidentiality procedures, such as
    error inoculation, to prevent EIA and data users from knowing the
    identities and location of sample units (see Section 5D-12);

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-   Experience in tracking multiple responses per survey case from
    multiple sources; and

-   Experience in managing multi-year tasks.

In addition, the process of developing the imputation procedures
requires some knowledge of:

#### Behavior and demographic characteristics of households;

-   Characteristics of residential housing units;

-   Residential space-heating equipment; water-heating equipment and
    other energy intensive household appliances;

-   How energy is used in housing units; and

-   How these different components interact.

**Special Work Requirements**

Work in this functional area requires that the Contractor address two
important issues explicitly in their proposal. The first is the special
confidentiality procedures that must be taken to protect the energy end
use data. The Contractor must ensure that the identities and location of
the sampled units are kept confidential from both EIA and the data
users. This will involve processing the individually-identifiable survey
data on the Contractor's computers. Any micro data provided to EIA must
have names and addresses removed. In addition, the Contractor may have
to further mask the micro data to prevent EIA or users from identifying
the specific location or sample unit. Section 5D-11.2 provides more
detail concerning these data confidentiality procedures.

The second major issue, data storage, is related to the data
confidentiality requirements of the energy end use data. Because EIA
cannot take possession of the survey data collection documents or
records, the Contractor will have to provide secure storage of these
records either at their site or at another contractor facility. In
addition, the Contractor is required to keep an inventory of these
records and be ready to transfer these records to a subsequent
contractor. These procedures are further defined in 5D-13, Transfer of
Materials.

**RECS Energy Suppliers Survey Work Overview**

The Contractor shall be responsible for keeping track of all the
household Authorization forms and account numbers, energy supplier
forms, identifying suppliers and linking them with the household data,
mailing the forms, follow-up of nonresponders, keying, editing,
verifying that the correct billing data have been received, collecting
additional billing data when there are more than one account for the
unit, identifying billing records that may contain data for other than
the survey unit, processing the data, performing disaggregation
procedures, purchasing and processing the related weather files and
assigning the appropriate weather data to each household, annualizing
the consumption and expenditures (c&e) data; and preparing and
delivering to EIA data files with cleaned, annualized, and imputed data.

The Contractor shall collect annual data, or a minimum of 12 months of
data, on energy consumption and expenditures from each utility or entity
that supplies a fuel or energy source to each respondent unit. For RECS,
the fuels for which data are collected for are: electricity, natural
gas, fuel oil, and bottled gas.

The Contractor shall consider innovative and new ways of collecting
these data that include but are not limited to collecting the data
electronically.

The Contractor may be requested to prepare, with EIA guidance and
approval, the energy supplier data collection materials, including any
letters to energy suppliers. An Authorization Form and account numbers
authorizing access to energy consumption billing records held by the
energy supplier shall be collected as part of the Household
Questionnaire data collection. These Authorization Forms and other
information necessary from the Household Survey will be provided to the
contractor performing the RECS Energy Suppliers Survey.

The Contractor shall send the data collection materials for each energy
source for each household respondent to the appropriate energy
suppliers. For each billing period and annual periods of consumption,
the Contractor shall purchase from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) data on local weather conditions (such as daily
area minimum and maximum temperatures) and shall process these data in
machine-readable forms. The Contractor may be required to process
additional weather data affecting air-conditioning and solar potential.

The Contractor shall provide a data file with billing period data linked
to the weather data for the individual respondents and a data file with
the consumption by fuel type annualized to an agreed-upon period.

**Detailed Work Description**

**5D-1: Provided Household Survey-Related Materials**

The 2005 RECS Household Survey is being conducted under a separate
functional area, 5C. Information from the Household Survey shall be
provided to the 2005 RECS Energy Suppliers Survey contractor. These
materials include:

-   Case Management System which includes all the Household Survey
    respondents and their response status,

-   Authorization Forms, and

-   Lists of energy suppliers by household respondent.

Throughout the Energy Suppliers Survey, there will be considerable
interaction required between the RECS Household Survey contractor and
the RECS Energy Suppliers Survey contractor. For example, the Energy
Suppliers Survey contractor will have to work with the Household Survey
contractor to reconcile differences in the responses of the household
respondent and energy supplier.

Results from the Energy Suppliers Survey will update the Household
Survey data file and these changes will have to be coordinated and data
files exchanged.

**5D-2: Supplier Control File**

A file of energy supplier names, addresses and identifiers will be
prepared and maintained. This file will be used for generating mailing
labels and for survey control purposes to ensure that every household
that uses a fuel is listed under at least one energy supplier and that
the energy suppliers listings contain all households paying for their
energy directly to an energy supplier. The basis for the supplier name
and address file will be the previous survey cycle's supplier list. The
names and addresses of electric and natural gas suppliers shall be
checked and updated using the address listings from the Form EIA-861
(electricity) and Form EIA-176 (natural gas). EIA will provide these
listings to the Contractor.

The effort to collect the billing data from the energy suppliers shall
be expected to achieve similar response rates to those in previous RECS
cycles.

**5D-3: Survey Mail out**

A mail survey shall be conducted of all energy suppliers of electricity,
natural gas, fuel oil, kerosene, and propane servicing the households
that completed the Household Survey. It is anticipated that electricity
billing records will be collected for 95% of the sample, natural gas
records for 50% of the sample, fuel oil/kerosene records for 14% of the
sample, and propane for 9% of the sample. The number of companies can be
estimated from assuming that 1 energy supplier will supply records for
2.7 households using fuel oil/kerosene or propane, 24 households using
natural gas, or 34 households using electricity. The energy supplier
will be asked to provide the billing records for a 13 to 15-month period
of time.

**5D-3.1: Data Collection Forms**

There is a different data collection form for each of the 4 energy
sources (Forms EIA-457 C through F). Because there are minor differences
in data items by energy source, there are corresponding variations in
the reporting forms as well. For example, the electricity forms request
kilowatt (kW) demand; the natural gas forms provide for reporting
variable units of measures (therms, cubic feet or 1,000 cubic feet),
electricity and natural gas forms include separate reporting for both
purchasing and delivery. Despite the differences, the forms are similar
in terms of data requested. In each case, the supplier was asked to
report the: quantity of specific energy source consumed or delivered;
total cost; unit of measure; dates of deliveries or consumption; and the
number of customers included in both the consumption and cost data
reported on the form.

Energy suppliers shall be given an option of returning the information
in a format that is preferred by the energy supplier. The options
include transfer of the monthly consumption and expenditures to the
EIA-457 form provided, printout of the billing records in the
supplier\'s format, electronic filing using a preformatted diskette, or
via the Internet.

**5D-3.2: Preparation and Mailing of Materials**

EIA will be responsible for the printing of any survey data collection
forms and EIA introductory letters. Materials to be used by the
Contractor for tracking respondents, data processing and editing
instructions, field control and other internal purposes will be prepared
and duplicated by the Contractor, after EIA approval. In order to
minimize the respondent burden on the energy suppliers, data collection
forms will be grouped by supplier and sent out in 2 or 3 main batches.

Where appropriate, Government bulk mailing and franking privileges will
be used for large mail outs. The Contractor may incur other
survey-associated mailing costs. The Contractor will take advantage of
cost-saving techniques, such as bar coding, to lower postage and other
mailing costs.

**5D-4: Minimizing Nonresponse**

Extensive efforts should be used to obtain usable energy supplier data;
these data are crucial to the success of the study. Letters and
telephone prompts are necessary throughout the data collection period to
remind suppliers to provide the data within the required time period.
The Contractor shall maintain a toll-free "Hot Line" that is answered by
knowledgeable staff that can answer the most frequent technical problems
encountered by suppliers and the instructions to be given to suppliers
calling with these questions. Additionally, the Contractor must be able
to assist the supplier in identifying the household when the account
numbers are missing or the household name or identification is unclear.
This will necessitate the ability to access the Household Survey data.

**5D-5: Data Retrieval**

The Contractor shall perform data retrieval when the respondent returns
survey forms with missing or inconsistent [critical]{.underline}
information. The list of critical data items will be provided to the
Contractor by the Program Office. Either household or energy supplier
respondents may need to be recontacted. Household respondents have to be
recontacted when the supplier indicates that their company never
supplied energy to the household or did so for only a partial year or if
the account number was incorrect. Suppliers have to be recontacted to
check inconsistencies in the data or to obtain missing consumption and
expenditures data.

**5D-6: Data Editing and Processing**

As energy supplier forms are received, a preliminary manual edit scan
will be made to ensure that the household is correctly identified and
that the survey form has been completed. The Contractor shall key (or
other approved data reduction method) the energy supplier data
collection forms (or alternative data filing) into a machine-readable
format using standard, pre-specified data formats approved by the
Program Office. The billing record files shall then be edited to locate
outliers and to ensure that the records are in the same chronological
order. Edit specifications will be provided by the Program Office. It is
anticipated that range checks, consistency checks, technical edits and
comparisons with Household Survey responses will be included in the
edits. The Contractor may have to recontact the energy supplier to
ascertain whether the information supplied was accurate.

**5D-6.1: Data Review and Coding**

Each returned data collection form shall be subjected to a series of
manual review procedures to ensure that the data forms are complete and
to code key pieces of information about the status of the data. In many
cases, the energy supplier returns an "alternate" form that was directly
printed from their computer system. These alternate formats must be
labeled in a way that facilitates keying into the survey data format.
The energy supplier respondent is contracted if any additional
information is needed.

**5D-6.2: Data Keying**

Each data collection form shall be keyed or entered into a standard
machine-readable format using another approved data reduction method.
Each form is entered by two different keying staff. The keyed forms are
compared and any differences are resolved.

**5D-6.3: Data Edits**

The Energy Suppliers Survey uses an extensive program of automated
machine edits including: basic energy range, logic and skip checks that
are specified by EIA; consistency checks among data items; and technical
edits, specified by EIA. A series of consistency and outlier edits shall
be run by the Contractor. The basic consistency checks confirm that the
energy bills are complete and are in order. A series of outlier edits
are run. Bill to bill edits identify any inconsistency between the bills
for an individual unit. Unit-to-unit edits identify any inconsistency
among different households within the same energy supplier. Total file
outlier edits identify inconsistencies with fuel usage data.

The technical edits are a series of sophisticated edit checks to ensure
that, to the extent possible, errors of the following types were
detected and corrected: a too-long or too-short billing period; a
consumption ratio that indicated there was extreme variability across
the periods; a failure to report expenditures despite the presence of
consumption and vice versa; reported expenditures that were out of range
for the consumption amount, for the price per unit of consumption based
on known market prices, or for the metered demand. The Contractor may
have to recontact the energy supplier to ascertain whether the
information supplied was accurate or in some instances, may have to
recontact the household respondent for additional account or supplier
information.

These edit programs shall be programmed in SAS, unless EIA approval is
granted for another software to be used.

**5D-7: Annualization, Modeling, Imputation and Disaggregation
Procedures**

The purpose of these procedures is to transform the monthly billing data
into an annualized amount, to impute data values for units for whom
billing data were not obtained, and to disaggregate the data into
component end uses.

**5D-7.1: Annualization**

The Contractor shall use the monthly billing files to create annual
consumption and expenditure figures. Generally, data are filed for the
15-month period. The Contractor shall annualize the data for the period
January 1 through December 31. Detailed specifications will be provided
by the Program Office on the procedures to be used for records with
incomplete or partial data. Annualization procedures will be different
for different energy sources. In summary, a series of computer programs
shall: 1) select the set of monthly bills that best match the annual
period, 2) cumulate the selected bills, and 3) adjust the total value to
a 365-day period.

**5D-7.2: Aggregation and Disaggregation**

Aggregation occurs when the supplier reported consumption for only a
portion of the household's usage or portion of the calendar year. The
Contractor shall review these types of cases and generate an inflation
factor based on the proportion of the bill for which the consumption
information was obtained. Disaggregation occurs when the supplier
reported consumption covering more than the sampled household, such as a
bill for two apartments in one house. The Contractor shall calculate a
factor that will allow the consumption for the sample household to be
reduced. These factors shall be placed on the data files.

**5D-7.3: Modeling**

In this subtask, a series of computer programs shall be used to estimate
one set of regression models correlating energy consumption with fuel
usage and household variables and a second set of models correlating
energy expenditures with energy consumption. Nonlinear regression
equations shall also be used to estimate the end-use consumption and
expenditures for all households. These end-use estimates shall be put on
the household data file.

**5D-7.4: Imputation**

Imputations for missing consumption and expenditures shall be carried
out using nonlinear regression equations according to detail
specifications provided by the Program Office. The regression models are
used to impute annual consumption and expenditures for households that
do not have annualized estimates from billing data.

The utility data or fuel supplier data can be missing for many reasons.
The respondent may have refused to sign an Authorization Form allowing
the Contractor access to the data. The utility or fuel supplier may not
have been able to locate the data. The utility bill or fuel bill for the
RECS housing unit may be included in the bill for other housing units,
buildings, or facilities.

The need for item imputations is identified during the editing process.
Therefore, the editing process and the item imputation process are
closely interrelated.

The process of developing the editing procedures and the imputation
procedures requires knowledge of the characteristics of residential
housing units, energy-using equipment, how energy is used, and how the
different characteristics interact. The imputation procedures need to be
designed so that the variance of the estimates derived from the survey
results are not artificially reduced or unnecessarily increased.
Knowledge of advanced statistical imputation procedures and how to
implement these computer-based procedures is necessary in the design of
the imputation procedures. The procedures to impute missing energy
consumption data for all surveys and missing square footage data for
RECS are particularly complicated.

The Contractor may be requested by EIA to perform item nonresponse
imputation. The Contractor shall review the patterns of item nonresponse
and recommend the type of imputation procedures to use. These procedures
may include hot decking, random selection from known values of a
variable, deductive and allocation procedures, regression-based
procedures, multi-imputation techniques, and other statistical methods.
The Contractor may be required to develop variance estimation techniques
that take into account the amount of imputation for nonresponse. All
imputation procedures shall be approved by EIA prior to implementation.

**5D-7.5: Estimate End Use by Fuel**

The regression models are used to estimate the share of annual
consumption and expenditures for each fuel that is consumed for a
specific energy end use.

**5D-8: Supplier Survey Data Files**

The Contractor shall provide EIA with clean, edited, and fully
documented data fields that shall not contain any data that would allow
respondent identification. These files must be linked to the Household
Survey data to ensure that the consumption and expenditures data are for
the correct sampled household. Any changes to the data need to be
coordinated with the Household Survey contractor to ensure that the
Household Survey data files are up-to-date.

The Contractor shall maintain respondent identification records for EIA.
The Contractor shall transcribe all data into machine-readable form
using standard specified formats and shall verify 100 percent of all
data entries. Transcription shall be to disk, diskette, or some other
electronic medium as approved by DOE. The Contractor shall provide data
files both prior to and following imputations. The Contractor shall
prepare and deliver a data file with the billing period consumption data
linked to the weather data for each principal interview unit.

The Contractor shall append the annual consumption and expenditures
data, including the end-use estimates and the total regression estimate,
to the Household Survey data file so there is only one survey data file.
Data file processing is an iterative process in which the Program Office
will have considerable input. The Contractor shall update all data files
as requested by the Program Office.

The files will not contain any data that will allow respondent
identification in accordance with the requirements for maintaining
confidentiality. The contents of the files will be specified in the
detailed Survey Management Plan and be subject to EIA approval. In
general, EIA is to receive file copies of all data sets produced, except
for data sets that contain respondent identities. Direct access storage
or CD-ROM\'s may also be used.

The Contractor shall use EIA-approved software for work in this
functional area. The Contractor shall transfer to the EIA any software,
which is necessary to perform work in this functional area. All data
sets used for processing will be archived with appropriate identifying
information at the end of the survey.

Energy Suppliers Survey data files provided to EIA will contain the
Household Survey data linked to the consumption and expenditures
information collected from the Energy Suppliers Survey. In addition to
the unit survey data information specified earlier, the Energy Suppliers
Survey files provided to EIA will additionally include, but not be
limited to: annualized billing data, weather data, price data, imputed
consumption and expenditures data, and aggregation and disaggregation
factors.

The Contractor shall provide preliminary draft data files including both
Household Survey and Energy Suppliers Survey data prior to delivery of
the final clean data file. (NOTE: The number of data files provided by
the Contractor is subject to change depending on EIA\'s review of the
data.) The Program Office will thoroughly review the data on the draft
data files and the Contractor may be asked to clarify either by research
or callbacks to respondents, the correct values of several data items.
Once the Program Office is satisfied that their questions have been
resolved, the Contractor shall prepare the final data file deliverable.

The energy supplier monthly data files shall be delivered to the Program
Office in a minimum of two deliveries. The first delivery shall include
heating and cooling degree-days attached to each billing record
representing the weather for the period of the billing record. The
second delivery shall be an inoculated billing record file in which the
billing periods have been adjusted by moving the dates for the period
forward or backward up to 3 days and the consumption and expenditures
adjusted to the revised billing periods. The inoculated file shall
contain weather data for the adjusted billing periods.

**5D-9: Weather Data and Energy Price Data**

The Contractor may be requested by EIA to calculate data values from
data collected in the survey and from nonsurvey data sources. The
Contractor shall purchase weather and climate data from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to match the consumption time
periods for the data acquired from the energy suppliers. An appropriate
weather station shall be selected for each Secondary Sampling Unit. The
annual weather data shall consist of heating and cooling degree-days to
base 65 degrees Fahrenheit and the average daily temperature for
calendar year 2005 and its standard deviation and shall be attached to
each household record. Heating and cooling degree-days data and matching
the time periods for the billing records shall also be attached to each
billing record.

The Contractor shall be provided data files by the Program Office from
the annual survey of natural gas suppliers (Form EIA-176) and from the
annual survey of electric utilities (Form EIA-861). These files can be
used to extract an average cost (total residential sales in physical
units and total dollar sales) for electricity and natural gas. By
matching the names of the energy suppliers from the RECS to the EIA-861
and EIA-176, the average price shall be attached to each household
record for households that use electricity or natural gas.

**5D-10: Quality Control and Performance Statistics**

**5D-10.1: Weekly Performance Statistics**

Performance statistics will be provided by the Contractor to monitor the
progress of the Energy Suppliers Survey and to provide feedback on ways
that survey processes can be improved for subsequent iterations of the
survey. Energy Suppliers Survey status will be reported weekly. The
status categories for these components should match the categories used
in past cycles, so that comparison statistics are available.

**5D-10.2: Change Process Statistics**

Performance statistics shall also be maintained to indicate the extent
of change throughout the editing and data cleaning process. This means
that differences must be identified between the first available
electronic file and the final data file for each variable. The purpose
of these performance statistics is to allow for continuous improvement
in subsequent iterations of the survey.

**5D-10.3: Energy Suppliers Survey Performance Statistics**

For the Energy Suppliers Survey, the Contractor shall maintain the
following statistics:

-   Number of Energy Suppliers, by Energy Source

-   Response rates by type of survey form, energy supplied, and supplier

-   In-scope and Out-of-scope responses

-   Usable responses

-   Number of callbacks and nonresponse conversion rates

-   Number of edits failed

-   Number of edits resolved and method of resolution

-   Status of reconciliation efforts for suppliers reported differently
    in the Household and Energy Suppliers Surveys

-   Number of complete monthly billing records

-   Number of imputed billing records

-   Number of item nonresponse imputations

**5D-10.4: Costs Statistics**

The Contractor shall also record, or be able to derive, the following:

-   Cost per form received

-   Number of contacts to obtain a completed energy supplier form

-   Average number of callbacks/follow-ups to energy suppliers

-   Edit cost per energy supplier questionnaire

-   Cost per Energy Supplier response, by energy source (e.g.,
    electricity)

Note: Additional cost statistics are required as part of the Monthly
Cost Report.

######### 5D-11. Survey Management Plan, Confidentiality Procedures and Documentation and Final Report

The Contractor shall provide complete documentation for the RECS Energy
Suppliers Survey, in accordance with standards as specified by EIA, of
all work including survey design; data collection forms, instructions,
and letters; data collection; data processing; statistical procedures
related to estimation, imputation, and data analyses; report
preparation; and public use data file preparation. The Contractor shall
revise and update existing EIA documentation from the previous RECS,
where applicable. For new procedures, the Contractor shall prepare new
documentation.

The Contractor shall use a version of Microsoft Word (compatible with
the same version of Word used by EIA) to prepare all documentation and
shall provide all documentation in hard copy and diskette forms. The
Contractor shall provide draft interim documentation quarterly (within
30 days of the close of the quarter) that documents all procedures
implemented in that quarter. Final documentation shall be due at the end
of each major survey activity.

All documentation must meet or exceed the standards for data systems
documentation as specified in the [Energy Information Administration
Standards Manual, April 1989]{.underline} (or its successor).

Interim documentation is required quarterly throughout the task, in
addition to the final documentation deliverables due after work has been
completed. The interim documentation will be the portions of the
documentation that are completed as work progresses. The documents
prepared under pervious contracts will be used as the starting point for
the 2005 RECS documentation. .

Before preparing interim documentation for a major data processing
activity, the Contractor shall submit an outline to EIA. After written
approval is received the Contractor shall prepare the documentation
including, but not limited to, a full description of data input, output,
decision rules, copies of program listings (including spreadsheets or
other PC programs), and system test procedures and results. The
Contractor shall also document computer programs internally within the
programs.

**5D-11.1: Survey Management Plan**

The Contractor shall prepare a Survey Management Plan (SMP) at the
beginning of the task. The SMP will be a detailed, step-by-step plan to
conduct the survey. The SMP shall identify all the procedures for the
survey (manual and automated), proposed staffing, and time schedule to
meet the deliverable due dates. In particular, the SMP will address how
the Contractor will interact with the Household Survey contractor in
order to reconcile differences between the Household Survey responses
and Energy Suppliers Survey responses and to provide updates to the
Household Survey data file.

**5D-11.2: Data Confidentiality Procedures**

The Contractor shall design and implement procedures for protecting the
confidentiality of respondent identification as specified in the
contract. These procedures must be compatible with the codes and
standards of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations and
the American Association of Public Opinion Research. The Contractor will
submit a plan to EIA, which describes in detail how the data
confidentiality procedures will be implemented. The Data Confidentiality
Plan may be included as a separate section of the Survey Management
Plan.

The confidentiality procedures will include the need for the Contractor
to:

-   Secure all data that would allow identification of survey
    respondents

-   Train affected personnel in the procedures to be followed in
    maintaining confidentiality

-   Secure the necessary confidentiality pledges, and

-   Provide secure areas for processing the data and locked files for
    storage of returned questionnaires.

The procedures must also be designed to allow EIA personnel access to
the confidential data at the Contractor\'s site for monitoring,
methodological development, and validation purposes, although these
personnel will not take possession of these data.

The names and addresses of household and rental agent respondents are
confidential. The Contractor shall maintain such data separately from
the data files provided to EIA; EIA will not take possession of these
name and address data unless Congress passes legislation which provides
EIA with the capability to protect the confidential data.

To further protect the privacy of respondents, the Contractor may be
directed by EIA to conduct a series of data adjustment procedures prior
to the release of the data. These adjustments may include error
inoculation, micro aggregation of data, normalization of consumption and
degree-day data to the calendar month, and other procedures specified by
EIA. The Contractor may, with the approval of EIA, redesign and upgrade
these procedures to make them more efficient and/or more effective.

######### 

######### 5D-11.4. Documentation for Data Collection Activities

The Contractor shall produce documentation, which complies with
standards as specified by EIA that includes, but is not limited to, the
following:

7.  Copies of all forms used, including those used for tracking data
    receipt and quality control activities;

8.  Copies of all respondent form letters, including advance letters
    mailed to energy suppliers, standard follow up letters designed to
    increase response rates, and letters signed by EIA.

######### 5D-11.5. Documentation for Automated Data Collection Techniques

In the event that the Contractor is authorized to use automated data
collection techniques such as CSAQ or electronic filing via Internet,
the contractor shall produce documentation, which complies with
standards as specified by EIA that include but are not limited to the
following:

-   A description of the procedures for inputting the questionnaire into
    the selected software;

-   A description of the skip patterns and branching procedures
    programmed into the selected software;

-   A description of edit routines and internal consistency checks
    programmed into the selected software;

-   A description of the resulting data file.

This documentation shall include narrative descriptions accompanied by
flowcharts and computer program statements as specified by EIA.

######### 5D-11.6. Documentation for Data Systems

The Contractor shall produce documentation that includes, but is not
limited to, the following:

-   A copy of coding and editing instructions used in the initial
    interview processing;

-   A description of the imputation procedures used with each question
    or variable;

-   A description of the estimation procedures including weighting,
    nonresponse adjustments, post stratification, and other ratio
    adjustments;

-   A description of stratification variables required for estimation of
    variances;

-   A copy of all cleaning and editing specifications used in cleaning
    the various data files;

-   Complete documentation for all data files created; and

-   Complete documentation for all software systems created or acquired.

######### 5D-11.7. Final Report

The Contractor shall prepare a final report detailing all work performed
on the completed RECS Energy Suppliers Survey. This report shall
include, but is not limited to, the following:

-   Response rates achieved within EIA-provided classifications, such as
    Census Divisions, energy source;

-   Copies of all forms and correspondence used, in the Energy Suppliers
    Survey, including but not limited to those used for survey data
    collection, internal Contractor control, edit/update, and collecting
    other information. Also include suggestions for improvements to any
    of those forms;

-   An analysis of resources used in terms of cost per completed
    sampling unit, Contractor hours per completed case, number and cost
    of nonrespondent conversion attempts, and other survey performance
    statistics;

-   Contractor recommendations for any improvements to the collection or
    processing procedures to improve response rates or efficiency, lower
    costs, or shorten processing time;

-   A discussion of any known limitations or problems with the data or
    procedures applied to the data.

##### 

##### 5D-12. Data Disclosure Analysis, Error Inoculation, and Public Use Data

The Contractor shall prepare the data for release including final data
editing, creation of statistical and relative standard error tables, and
disclosure analyses where required. The micro data for RECS have always
been made available to the public after all individually-identifiable
data have been removed. Therefore, prior to releasing the micro data, it
is necessary to mask any data items that could be used to identify the
individual respondents. A disclosure analysis is used to determine which
data items could potentially be used to identify respondents. The
responses for data items that do present a problem are masked or
altered. The Contractor shall be prepared to run these error inoculation
procedures.

The Contractor shall prepare, if requested by DOE, disks, diskettes, or
some other electronic medium, such as an ACCESS data base, as approved
by DOE for release to the public. The Contractor shall perform an
EIA-approved disclosure analysis procedure. Pursuant to EIA guidelines,
the Contractor shall mask or alter data items that could be used to
identify individual respondent. EIA, not the Contractor, will release
public use data and diskettes.

If requested by DOE, the Contractor shall provide documentation for
public use data release and diskettes.

##### 

##### 5D-13: Transfer of Materials

The Contractor shall transmit all survey-related materials,
documentation, computer software and specific programs, completed
questionnaires, sampling materials, interview information, and
confidential elements of computer and paper records for the current and
3 previous survey cycles to another contractor, as requested by the
Program Office. The Contractor shall maintain an inventory of materials
received and generated in the performance of this functional area. The
inventory will be used to transfer materials to another Contractor at
the completion of work in this functional area. This inventory will also
be delivered to EIA at the completion of work in this functional area as
a final deliverable. All materials shall be clearly documented and
identified, and transmitted in a timely manner as specified by EIA.

##### 

##### 5D-14: Transition

Materials and data generated as a result of work performed in this
functional area will be used in other functional areas associated with
the RECS. The Contractor shall ensure that all necessary materials and
computer programs are provided to the next Contractor and that
transition briefings and crosswalks be provided, as needed. ECD
personnel shall be present at these meetings.

##### 

##### [5-E. 2007 CBECS BUILDING SURVEY]{.underline}

####### Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) Background

The CBECS provides comprehensive, national and regional information on
the consumption of, and expenditures for, energy in the commercial
building sector of the U.S. economy. The CBECS also provides information
on the characteristics of buildings.

The CBECS is a national multistage area sample survey, supplemented by
lists of special buildings. The survey was first conducted in 1979 and
then triennially between 1983 and 1995. Beginning in 1995 it is
conducted quadrennially with the most recently completed survey covering
data year 1999. Prior to 1989, the CBECS was known as the Nonresidential
Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (NBECS).

The target population for the CBECS consists of all commercial buildings
in the United States larger than 1,000 square feet. A commercial
building is defined as a building with more than 50 percent of its floor
space devoted to commercial activities.

In the 1999 CBECS, of the 6,313 commercial buildings that were eligible
for interview, 5,430 or 86 percent were successfully interviewed. Thus,
unit nonresponse was 14 percent for the building interview.

The CBECS is a two-part survey. Physical characteristics data and other
information such as use patterns, ownership, etc. of the buildings are
collected from building owners and managers by either Computer-Assisted
Personal Interviewing (CAPI) or by Computer-Assisted Telephone
Interviewing (CATI). In addition, building respondents are asked for
energy expenditures and consumption data. However, if building
respondents cannot provide these data, a mail survey of individual
energy suppliers to the buildings is initiated. The respondents to the
building characteristics survey identify these suppliers. In 1999, prior
to the CATI interview, building respondents received a packet of
information and worksheets containing some of the more difficult
questions they would be asked during the interview.

The 1989 to 1999 CBECS sample design was based on multistage, area
probability sampling techniques supplemented by list sampling for large
and specialized buildings. The 2007 CBECS will be redesigned and the
sample will be provided to the Buildings Survey Contractor.

Under coverage in the sampling procedures and unit nonresponse bias were
taken into account by adjusting the sampling weights. For each
commercial building selected for CBECS, the initial sampling weight
equaled the inverse of the probability of selection. The initial
sampling weights, for buildings where interviews were obtained, were
increased to account for the buildings whose owners, managers, or
occupants did not respond. Poststratification procedures were not used
because of the absence of independent data that give accurate estimates
of the total number of commercial buildings in the country.

Editing procedures were used to identify missing data, obviously
incorrect data, and contradictory data.

Item nonresponse was handled by imputation procedures. Hot-deck
imputation was the method used to impute the characteristics of the
building. These imputations are conducted using a series of SAS MACRO
programs. Regression-based procedures were used to impute missing data
on energy consumption and expenditures.

The imputation procedures need to be designed so that the variance of
the estimates derived from the survey results are not artificially
reduced nor unnecessarily increased. Knowledge of advanced statistical
imputation procedures and how to implement these procedures on computers
is necessary in the design of the imputation procedures.

Sampling errors were estimated using jackknife procedures. The
development of the procedure for estimating sampling errors for CBECS
requires knowledge of complex survey design procedures and what
requirements these procedures place on the procedures used to estimate
the sampling errors.

During the development of all the CBECS procedures (interviewer
training, data collection, editing, imputation, and the procedures used
to estimate sampling errors), extensive communications and
person-to-person interactions between the Contractor and EIA's Program
Office are necessary.

##### 

The Contractor for this functional area must have, at a minimum, the
following requirements:

-   Personnel qualified in complex multistage sample survey
    implementation techniques, such as ascertaining that the interviewer
    is interviewing the sampled unit;

-   A well-established telephone survey center and/or the capability and
    experience in employing interviewers in the field throughout the
    United States,

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-   Capability to implement special confidentiality procedures to
    prevent EIA and data users from knowing the identities and location
    of sample units;

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-   Experience in using Blaise software for data collection,

-   Experience in case management systems, and

-   Experience in managing multi-year tasks.

The process of developing the imputation procedures requires some
knowledge of:

-   Characteristics of commercial buildings

-   Commercial Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems

-   Other energy-intensive equipment common in commercial buildings

-   Characteristics of energy use patterns in commercial buildings, and

-   Interaction between the different components listed above.

**Special Work Requirements**

Work in this functional area requires that the Contractor address two
important issues explicitly in their proposal. The first is the special
confidentiality procedures that must be taken to protect the energy end
use data. The Contractor must ensure that the identities and location of
the sampled units are kept confidential from both EIA and the data
users. This will involve processing the individually-identifiable survey
data on the Contractor's computers. Any micro data provided to EIA must
have names and addresses removed. In addition, the Contractor may have
to further mask the micro data to prevent EIA or users from identifying
the specific location or sample unit. Section 5E-11.2 provides more
detail concerning these data confidentiality procedures.

##### The second major issue, data storage, is related to the data confidentiality requirements of the energy end use data. Because EIA cannot take possession of the survey data collection documents or records, the Contractor will have to provide secure storage of these records either at their site or at another contractor facility. In addition, the Contractor is required to keep an inventory of these records and be ready to transfer these records to a subsequent contractor. These procedures are further defined in 5E-14, Transfer of Materials.

##### 

##### Buildings Characteristics Survey Work Overview

In this functional area, the Contractor shall perform all work
associated with the collection of building characteristics information
for the 2007 CBECS. This will be referred to throughout this functional
area as the "Buildings Characteristics Survey" or often shortened to the
"Buildings Survey". Both terms refer to the same survey and are
considered to be interchangeable. The Contractor may be asked to prepare
some or all of the following: survey questionnaires and other materials
related to conducting the survey; procedures to be followed to collect
the data; specification of a detailed time table for fielding the
survey; pilot studies where necessary; pretesting of the questionnaire
and data collection procedures; training personnel; collecting survey
data; debriefing the interviewers; editing and processing the data;
preparing a clean data file for the Program Office; and preparing a
report on all activities performed.

Data collection for this survey will be multi-mode; the Contractor shall
use a variety of methods for data collection, such as computer-assisted
personal and telephone interviewing (CAPI and CATI, respectively), FAX
and mail. Subject to EIA's approval, the Contractor shall implement
other methods such as CSAQ, FAX, Web-based data collection, or other
alternative data collection methods.

All Contractor-proposed modifications to existing fielding procedures
must be approved in advance by EIA.

### Detailed Work Description

##### 

##### 5E-1: Sample Materials

The Contractor will be provided with a listing of the names and
addresses of the buildings to be contacted and related sampling
materials, such as maps, listing sheets, and other pertinent sampling
information. Included as part of these materials will be the probability
of each building's selection, which will be used to calculate the
weights, as specified in 5E-8.

##### 

##### 5E-2: Questionnaire Procedures and Materials

The Contractor shall review existing data collection instruments to
ensure that questions are worded correctly, skip patterns are
appropriate, and other aspects of the data collection instruments are
consistent with established survey practices. To the extent possible,
any paper data collection instruments shall be precoded and designed to
facilitate direct transcription to machine-readable form.

The Contractor may be required to develop, test, and implement (after
evaluating their impacts on the overall data collection process)
methodological improvements in the data collection instruments.

The Contractor shall conduct pretests of new or significantly modified
data collection instruments and/or survey procedures. These pretests may
include all survey procedures, except imputation and data tape
preparation. The number of units in a pretest shall be specified by EIA
and the Contractor shall implement all fielding procedures.

As part of the pretests, the Contractor may be required to design and
distribute a consultation questionnaire to selected respondents
regarding the survey. This questionnaire shall obtain the respondent's
reactions to instructions, definitions, clarity of format, time required
for completion, and availability of information for completing the form.
Alternatively, the Contractor may collect respondent reactions using
focus group techniques. The Contractor shall submit a report and brief
EIA on the results of this pretest including recommendations to improve
the survey.

**5E-3: Preparation and Mailing of Materials**

Letters introducing the survey and providing worksheets to aid in
completing the survey are mailed to all respondents prior to the initial
survey telephone call. In addition, there are subsequent mail outs
during the course of the survey to send additional initial packets or
other materials requested by respondents concerning the survey. Upon EIA
approval, the Contractor shall be required to prepare and send all
letters, survey forms, authorization forms, instructions, and other
mailings to survey respondents and others involved in the survey. EIA
will be responsible for the printing of any survey data collection
forms, worksheets, and introductory letters. Materials to be used by the
Contractor for training, instruction, field control and other internal
purposes will be prepared and duplicated by the Contractor, after EIA
approval.

Where appropriate, Government bulk mailing and franking privileges will
be used for large mail outs. The Contractor may incur other
survey-associated mailing costs. The Contractor will take advantage of
cost-saving techniques, such as bar coding, to lower postage and other
mailing costs.

**5E-4: Case Management System (CMS)**

The Contractor shall employ an automated system for tracking the status
of all commercial buildings respondents included in the sample. Because
the ability to track cases will be transferred to a subsequent
contractor conducting the Energy Suppliers Survey, this automated
tracking system shall be a readily transferable commercial system, such
as SurveyTrak. The system should be capable of producing real-time and
periodic summary reports of survey activities and results. Tracking of
each interview should include, but not be limited to, dates and times of
attempts to perform an interview, dates and times of completed
interview, interviewer assignments, interview appointments, and overall
survey performance data including response and completion rates. The CMS
shall be thoroughly tested with the Blaise questionnaires for
compatibility.

##### 

##### 5E-5: Personnel Training and Fieldwork 

The Contractor shall provide a field staff or telephone center staff to
conduct the surveys. The Contractor shall train and evaluate
interviewers, interviewer supervisors, the Contractor's Central Office
personnel, and other survey personnel including telephone data
retrievers and data editors.

For new surveys, the Contractor shall develop and implement training
procedures that are consistent with standard survey practices and
standards as specified by EIA. For continuing surveys, the personnel
training procedures utilized in the most recently completed survey shall
be followed to the maximum extent possible. However, the Contractor
shall extend the training procedures to include advanced techniques such
as videotaped mock interviews with feedback and specially prepared video
presentations of survey techniques. The Contractor shall modify training
materials, subject to EIA approval, to cover changes in the
questionnaires and survey design.

The Contractor shall prepare comprehensive training manuals and other
related materials for training and shall conduct a training program for
all interviewers for each survey. The training shall include not only
interview techniques, but also background related to consumption
surveys, subject matter, and sampling procedures. The Contractor shall
build into the training sessions feedback mechanisms (such as pop
quizzes or study exercises) to evaluate interviewer understanding of key
concepts. The Contractor shall develop performance standards that each
prospective interviewer shall satisfy. These standards shall be approved
by EIA. The Contractor shall certify to the EIA that each interviewer
has had the required training, satisfied the performance standards, and
understands the forms and key survey concepts. Each interviewer shall
satisfactorily complete and be observed in at least one entire simulated
or actual interview before being sent to the field. Representatives from
EIA will participate in the development and review of training materials
and will assist with interviewer training process.

**5E-5.1: Interviewer Recruitment**

The Contractor is responsible for recruiting field staff for listing
addresses in sample locations and conducting the CATI and/or CAPI
interview. An earnest effort shall be made to recruit experienced field
or telephone interviewers. For field interviewing, for most Primary
Sampling Units (PSU's), a minimum of two interviewers per PSU is
required. The second interviewer is needed for conversion of respondents
who refuse during the first wave of interviewing. In those PSU's where a
large portion of the population is Spanish-speaking, earnest efforts
should be made to recruit and assign bilingual (English and Spanish)
interviewers.

The interviewers are representatives of the United States Government and
the Department of Energy. It is the Contractor's responsibility to
ensure that the interviewers conduct themselves in a professional,
business-like manner and remain courteous to respondents at all times.

**5E-5.2: Interviewer Training and Materials**

The Contractor shall prepare training and interviewing materials based
on the Buildings Questionnaire provided by EIA. The training and
interviewing materials are to be appropriate for the conduct of
interviews in a computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) or
computer-assisted-personal-interviewing (CAPI) environment. The
Contractor will be provided with the Buildings Questionnaire already
programmed in BLAISE. The training procedures and materials used for the
previous survey cycle should be used as a starting point, as
appropriate. All training materials will be in both hard copy and in MS
Word text files (to the extent feasible).

EIA staff members will attend all training sessions, to the extent
possible. They will participate in the training sessions by providing
the general orientation to the survey, by serving as technical resources
providing clarification on matters regarding the intention or content of
the survey forms, and by providing immediate feedback to the Contractor
on the progress and quality of the training session. The DOE Technical
Monitor will discuss any problems identified with the Project Director
and appropriate steps will be taken through the COR, to implement any
corrective measures required.

Included in the interviewer training will be:

-   An overview of the survey

-   Discussion of the responsibilities of a US Government/DOE
    Representative

-   Responsibilities in helping meet the objectives of the survey

-   Procedures for subsampling buildings of facilities, if applicable.

-   Procedures for identifying and interviewing commercial buildings

-   Techniques for maximizing response rates

-   Guidelines for obtaining signed Authorization forms

-   Practice, including mock interviews using the survey questionnaire

-   Answers to commonly asked respondent questions

-   Procedures for the care and use of a laptop computer including
    practice using BLAISE

-   A Quiz

The interviewer training materials are to include:

-   A curriculum for a minimum of 3-4 training days

-   The confidentiality pledge

-   Instructions for Interviewers that cover the questionnaire
    section-by section and question-by-question, as necessary

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-   Exhibit booklet that supplements the questions asked by the
    interviewers in both English and Spanish (translation will be
    provided by EIA)

-   A glossary of energy and survey-specific terms

-   An Interviewer Quiz

-   Training Evaluation Form

-   Helpful Hints from Other Interviewers

-   Data management and transmission procedures

The Contractor shall submit the training materials to the Program Office
for review and propose training times and sites. After Program Office
approval, the Contractor shall conduct interviewer training sessions.
All training will be conducted in person. Practice interviews will be
reviewed by the Contractor and the interviewer will not be provided any
further work until it is certain that the interviewer can operate both
the hardware and software for data collection.

**5E-5.3: Field Interviewer Quality Control**

The Contractor shall ensure the quality of each interviewer's work. The
Contractor shall conduct ongoing evaluations of interviewer performance
and take prompt actions to remedy performance deficiencies. It is the
Contractor's responsibility to insure that the interviewers remain
courteous to respondents and act in a professional manner at all times.
Any complaints from respondents related to the interviewer's behavior
shall be included in the regular progress reports submitted to EIA and
any consistent problems shall be documented in the Final Report.

Field Supervisors or Contractor personnel at the central office will
conduct a complete review of the first two actual survey interviews
completed by each interviewer. The results of these reviews will be
promptly communicated to the supervisor and/or interviewer. The results
of these reviews will also be made available to the EIA. Any series of
gross errors by a particular interviewer will result in prompt action
being taken by the contractor to alleviate the problem prior to further
interviewing.

At a minimum, 20 percent of each interviewer's work will be verified. If
there are any questions regarding an interviewer's work, the
verification rate will be raised to 50 percent. In addition, the
Contractor shall track cooperation rates, authorization form cooperation
rates, and edit failure rates for each interviewer. These statistics
will be made available to each interviewer's supervisor.

Interviewers will have at a minimum weekly communication with their
contractor supervisor. During that contact, the supervisor will review
data quality issues and assignment statuses with the interviewer.
Interviewers will have flexibility in setting due dates for assignments.
Interviewers who miss a certain number of assignment deadlines will be
replaced.

**5E-5.4: Interview Validations**

For field interviews, a random sample (at least one) of each
interviewer\'s field interviews shall be validated by means of a recheck
with the respondent. If the recheck raises a significant question about
the validity or quality of the interviewers work, further validation
will be conducted. The field supervisor or Contractor's central office
staff will normally conduct the recheck interview. It will be a
standard, but very brief interview, which will:

-   Confirm that the interview was actually conducted by personal
    interview during the time period reported,

-   Ascertain the approximate time the interview required

-   Repeat 4 or 5 questions from different sections throughout the
    questionnaire, and

-   Inquire whether the interviewer was courteous and whether the
    respondent has any questions.

The validation interview results will be sent to the Contractor\'s
central office for comparison between the initial questionnaire and the
validation questionnaire results. Inconsistencies will be noted and the
interviewer\'s future work will be monitored.

For telephone interviewing, silent monitoring shall be the primary
method of monitoring and validating the interviewers. Silent monitoring
will occur on a random basis and without the interviewers knowledge of
when it will occur. EIA staff shall participate in the silent
monitoring.

The Contractor shall prepare a brief report of the validation effort and
results. Copies of the validation interviews will be made available to
EIA upon request.

**5E-5.5: Interview Quality Control and Interviewer Feedback**

The Contractor shall ensure that each interviewer that continues to work
on the study produces good work. That means an acceptable response rate
for completed interviews, careful attention to interviewing at the
correct address, careful attention to delivery of questions, and
entering responses through the keyboard, and for field studies,
acceptable transmission of the data back to the office. The acceptable
response rate for this task, using a formula consistent with the
standards promulgated by the EIA's Statistical Methods Group (SMG) and
the Council of American Survey Research Organization (CASRO), special
report "On the Definition of Response Rates," is 80 percent. It is also
important that interviewers who continue to work on the study maintain
an acceptable rate of signed authorization forms, when applicable.

The Contractor shall provide prompt feedback during the field period to
the interviewer of interviewer errors that were identified on the 100
percent review of the first two interviews, interviewer observation or
validation efforts. A feedback loop shall be established to ensure the
timely communication of any problems with an individual interviewer or
with some part of the questionnaire that is a problem for many
interviewers. The Contractor shall institute a mechanism to provide
feedback to the interviewers as early in the data collection period as
possible before the interviewer completes his/her assignment and repeats
the problem for subsequent interviews.

Interviewers will be encouraged to call their supervisor at any time
about any problems or questions. Supervisors will be in either personal
or telephone contact with their assigned interviewers at a minimum once
a week to discuss problems, progress, report results of quality control
procedures as well as the status of each assigned interview.

**5E-5.6: Debriefing Interviewers**

The Contractor shall collect information on the interviewer\'s
experience in conducting the interviews that would be helpful in
improving future iterations of the survey. The Program Office will
provide suggested questions for the interviewer debriefing. The
responses from the interviewers shall be evaluated and summarized by the
Contractor into forms that would be easily accessible. The report shall
be organized by survey form question to provide easy reference. Other
matters related to the survey shall be handled under appropriate topics.

The Contractor shall debrief interviewers using a method approved by EIA
(such as telephone interviews, mailed questionnaires, focus groups, or
meetings between the interviewers and EIA) subsequent to the data
collection phase of the CBECS. The purpose of these procedures is to
obtain interviewer input on problems and successes that occur during the
fielding of the surveys. The Contractor shall prepare necessary material
as required, shall conduct the debriefing, and shall provide EIA with
summaries of the findings.

##### 

##### 5E-6: Data Collection

The Contractor shall collect data from the representatives of the
commercial buildings. The Contractor shall make every effort to collect
the data from a respondent that is knowledgeable about how energy is
used in the building.

##### 

The Contractor shall manage and process data collected for the 2007
CBECS Buildings Survey and data from other sources relevant to the
objectives of the survey. Data management shall be undertaken in
accordance with standards as specified by EIA. This work includes data
receipt and tracking, coding, data entry (as necessary), editing,
imputation of missing data, calculating data values, estimation
procedures that combine survey responses with outside data sources, data
file preparation, and quality control statistics. The Contractor shall
provide the data to EIA, stripped of items revealing the respondents'
identities and precise geographic locations. Additional masking of
identifiable variables may be requested by EIA.

Components in the data collection are the Blaise CATI or CAPI
questionnaire, energy account numbers and signed Authorization Form(s)
from the respondent that enable the collection of the consumption and
expenditure data from the respondent's energy supplier(s).

When applicable, the interviewer shall make a reasonable attempt to
obtain: (1) energy account numbers used by energy suppliers for the
individual fuels used in the building, and (2) a signed Authorization
Form from the respondent. These account numbers and Authorization Forms
will be used by the Energy Supplier Survey when collecting the
consumption and expenditure information. For telephone interviews, the
Authorization Form shall be obtained via mail or FAX. For personal
interviews, where the interviewer is unable to obtain the signed
Authorization Form during the interview, the Contractor shall, upon
EIA's approval, attempt to obtain the Authorization Form via mail or
FAX. However, the Contractor shall make every effort to obtain the
signed Authorization Form during the personal interview.

The Contractor shall establish a program of call back, rotation of
difficult cases among interviewers, and nonresponse conversion
procedures. The disposition of every sample unit and the reason for each
non-interview shall be coded, recorded, and reported in the progress
report.

For telephone interviews, the data collected shall be entered directly
into a computer-assisted system. When telephone interview is the vehicle
for collecting data from a commercial building, a pre-data collection
mailing of worksheets and other materials may be required. Additionally,
a mail follow up may be required to obtain a signed authorization form
from the respondent allowing the Contractor to collect data from its
energy supplier. The Contractor shall supply the equipment used in a
computer-assisted data collection system.

The Contractor shall receive and identify all data collection forms and
accurately link data files. Check digits shall be used in the
identification number or an equally reliable alternative developed for
assuring accurate linkage of data sources.

For computer-assisted surveys (CATI, CAPI, etc.), the Program Office
shall program the case management system for use on the
computer-assisted system. The Contractor shall be required to design and
implement a case management system to track data collection. The
Buildings Survey Contractor shall also track information to link the
building responses for the Energy Supplier Survey and shall provide this
linkage capability to the Energy Supplier Survey Contractor along with
the transfer of the signed Authorization Forms and energy account
numbers.

The Contractor may be required to develop and implement follow up
procedures to collect additional information.

**5E-6.1: Weekly Data Collection Reports**

The Contractor shall submit weekly reports of field data collection
activities to the EIA. These reports shall include information on the
total cumulative and weekly response rate, total and per unit
expenditures, and deviation from projected expenditures. These weekly
reports shall be prepared at the Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) level.

**5E-6.2: Conduct CAPI Interviews**

The Contractor shall maintain a national field staff of interviewers
experienced in CAPI. The Contractor shall provide interviewers with a
laptop computer that provides a good response time using the
Government-supplied Blaise program for conducting the interview.
Interviewers are expected to make up to 3 call backs following the first
visit to a sample unit. There will be a second wave effort to convert
those who refused or could not be contacted during the first wave.
Interviewers who have proved they have a special ability for converting
refusals shall do this work.

The Contractor shall use electronic transmission for sending sample
information and programming updates to the interviewers and receiving
status reports and completed interview data from the interviewers.

**5E-6.3: Conduct CATI Interviews**

The Contractor shall conduct the CATI interviews at an established
telephone research center with trained telephone interviewing staff.

**5E-7: Editing and Imputing Data**

Editing involves identifying problems, determining whether the problems
can be resolved, and designing the necessary procedures to resolve the
problems. For CBECS, many edits are built into the CATI instrument. In
addition, the Contractor shall plan and carry out field and office edits
to identify missing data, obvious incorrect data, and contradictory
data.

The Program Office shall provide all editing specifications. Data
editing will make use of information from previous survey cycles and the
Energy Supplier Survey*,* when available. The Contractor shall use edit
routines, approved by EIA, to investigate and resolve the anomalous data
that are identified by the edit routines. Resolution may require the
Contractor to retrieve data or collect additional data by re-contacting
the respondent. Unless otherwise approved by ECD, SAS shall be used to
develop edit routines for both the Buildings Characteristics and Energy
Supplier Surveys.

CBECS data processing includes the following six stages: 1) Call-Back
Edits, 2) Coding, 3) Full Edits, 4) Imputations, 5) Final Edits, and 6)
Energy Supplier Checks.

The process of developing the editing and imputation procedures requires
knowledge of the characteristics of commercial buildings, energy-using
equipment, how energy is used, and how the different characteristics
interact.

All data processing will be performed on PC\'s using software that is
available to EIA, preferably PC-SAS.

# 5E-7.1: Call-Back Edits

In this step, the Contractor shall run a series of edits on critical
data items. Any failures on these data items shall result in telephone
or mail recontacts with building respondents to try to obtain the needed
information. As part of the call-back edit step, all interviewer notes
and the entered responses to the "Other, Specify" for the fuel and
equipment questions will be reviewed to ensure that there is no special
situation that needs resolution.

Although it is possible that some data retrieval may need to be made to
the building respondents to resolve inconsistencies in the data, in
order to keep costs under control, this effort shall be of a limited
nature.

**5E-7.2: Coding**

In this step, all interviewer notes, open-ends, and other/specify
questions will be coded. Coders review electronic data on screen and key
edit records. The edit records are used to update the survey data file.

**5E-7.3: Full Edits**

In this step, the full set of Buildings Survey edits will be run. Data
reviewers shall examine the full set of edit failures for each building,
review case information, and propose resolutions for each case.

**5E-7.4: Imputations**

The need for item imputations is identified during the editing process.
Therefore, the editing process and the item imputation process are
closely interrelated. Data items on CBECS questionnaires that have
missing or \"Don\'t Know\" responses will be imputed. The imputation
procedures need to be designed so that the variance of the estimates
derived from the survey results are not artificially reduced or
unnecessarily increased. Knowledge of advanced statistical imputation
procedures and how to implement these computer-based procedures is
necessary in the performance of these procedures.

The most frequently used imputation method for the Buildings
Characteristics Survey will be the hot-deck procedure. For the 1999
CBECS, the building characteristics were imputed using simultaneous
(also know as mass or vector) imputation procedures. The development,
testing, and implementation of these procedures required considerable
time and effort.

The Program Office shall provide a specific list of variables to be
imputed and the method of imputation. Imputation flags shall be included
on the data file for all variables that are slated for imputations, even
if that particular item did not need to be imputed (we had all the
responses). In consultation with the Program Office, the Contractor may
develop an imputation plan that specifies the imputation procedures and
if appropriate, control variables for all data items. Computerized
imputation routines will be developed and will be used to fill in
missing data items.

The Contractor may also be required to develop variance estimation
techniques that take into account the amount of imputation for
nonresponse.

**5E-7.5: Final Edits**

In some cases, imputation values can result in edit failures in other
parts of the questionnaire. The full edit set will be rerun and any edit
failures will be reviewed. Revised imputation procedures will be used to
impute legal values for the cases.

**5E-7.6: Energy Supplier Checks and Updates**

Energy Supplier Survey data sometimes contradict Buildings Survey
responses concerning fuels and equipment. When energy supplier data are
used to justify a change in the Buildings Survey data, that updated data
must be run through the edits a final time to ensure that the changes
did not introduce new consistency problems in the survey.

# 5E-8: Buildings Weights and Variances

Each completed interview will be weighted to reflect the probability of
its selection. The sampling materials provided at the start of this
functional area will include the probability of selection. Adjustments
shall be made to account for nonresponse. In non-self representing
strata, adjustments shall be made so that the main heating fuels for the
selected PSU\'s are adjusted to reflect the distribution of main heating
fuels in the stratum. For CBECS, because there are no control totals
that the number of buildings can be adjusted to, the development of the
weights is particularly crucial.

The Contractor shall prepare the data file for use in estimating the
sampling variance. PSU\'s in non-self representing strata shall be
matched together and PSU\'s in self-representing strata shall be divided
in two to prepare the data file for estimating sampling variances using
a half-sample replication procedure.

The Contractor also shall be required to pair the strata for the CBECS
for use by EIA in estimating sampling errors using the half-sample
replication process or the jackknife procedure. This shall involve
dividing self-representing PSU's into two groups and pairing the
non-self-representing PSU's. The Contractor also may be required to
implement the jackknife procedure of half-sample replication process and
create a generalized variance equation. The Contractor may be required
to provide tables of sampling errors or formulae for the calculation of
the sampling errors.

The Contractor also may be required to evaluate the jackknife and
half-sample variance estimation procedures, as well as other variance
estimation procedures, and recommend to EIA the most valid approaches
for CBECS.

**5E-9: Buildings Survey Data Files**

The Contractor shall provide the Program Office with clean, fully
documented survey data files. Data processing is an iterative process in
which the Program Office will have considerable input. The Contractor
shall update all data files as requested by the Program Office.

The files will not contain any data that will allow respondent
identification in accordance with the requirements for maintaining
confidentiality. The contents of the files will be specified in the
detailed Survey Management Plan and be subject to EIA approval. In
general, EIA is to receive copies of all data sets produced, except for
data sets that contain respondent identities. Direct access storage or
CD-ROM\'s may also be used.

The Contractor shall use EIA-approved software for work in this
functional area. The Contractor shall transfer to the EIA any software
that is necessary to perform work in this functional area. All data sets
used for processing will be archived with appropriate identifying
information at the end of the survey.

Data files provided to EIA will include, but not be limited to: coded
Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) identifiers (which cannot be
cross-referenced to actual geographically located PSU\'s); half sample
pair numbers; buildings survey data; base and adjusted weights; and item
nonresponse imputation flags.

The Contractor shall provide preliminary draft survey data prior to
delivery of the final clean data file. (NOTE: The number of data files
provided by the Contractor is subject to change depending on EIA\'s
review of the data.) The Program Office will thoroughly review the data
on the draft data files and the Contractor may be asked to clarify
either by research or callbacks to respondents, the correct values of
several data items. Once the Program Office is satisfied that their
questions have been resolved, the Contractor shall prepare the final
data file deliverable.

There will be a minimum of three versions of the Buildings Survey data
file delivered to the Government. The first file, prior to beginning the
additional editing work, shall be delivered for use by the government in
testing programs for producing published tables. The second file shall
be an edited file containing base weights, but no imputed values for
missing data. The third file will contain fully cleaned, weighted and
imputed data.

An additional Buildings Survey data file may be necessary following the
Post-Survey Efforts, as specified in 5E-13.

**5E-10: Quality Control and Performance Statistics**

**5E-10.1: Weekly Performance Statistics**

Performance statistics will be provided by the Contractor to monitor the
progress of the survey and to provide feedback on ways that survey
processes can be improved for subsequent iterations of the survey. The
important parts of the survey that require weekly performance statistics
include:

-   Sample updating and listings, if applicable

-   Buildings interviews

-   Editing and cleaning of the data

The status categories for these components should match the categories
used in past cycles, so that comparison statistics are available.

**5E-10.2: Change Process Statistics**

Performance statistics shall also be maintained to indicate the extent
of change throughout the editing and data cleaning process. This means
that differences must be identified between the first available
electronic file and the final data file for each variable. The purpose
of these performance statistics is to allow for continuous improvement
in subsequent iterations of the survey and to assess the effect of
CATI/CAPI on the editing phase of the survey process.

**5E-10.3: Interviewer Performance Statistics**

In order to provide statistics on individual interviewer\'s performance,
for each interviewer, the following items should be maintained by the
Contractor:

-   Number of interviews assigned

-   Number of contacts made in order to obtain an interview

-   Number of interviews completed

-   Number of interviews still outstanding

-   Reasons for noninterviews

-   Number of refusals

-   Number (or percent) of authorization forms obtained

-   Number of edit failures on questionnaires administered

**5E-10.4: Buildings Survey Performance Statistics**

The Contractor shall maintain, at a minimum, the following items
concerning the

Buildings Survey respondents:

-   Number of buildings in the sample

-   Number of interviews completed

-   Number remaining to be interviewed

-   Number of authorization forms completed

-   Reasons for noninterview

-   Number of refusals (\"hard\" and \"soft\")

-   Number of mailed/faxed worksheets sent

-   Status of mailed/faxed worksheets

**5E-10.5: Costs Statistics**

The Contractor shall also record, or be able to derive, the following:

-   Cost per interview

-   Time expended to obtain an interview

-   Length of the interview

-   Average number of callbacks to respondents

-   Edit cost per Buildings Questionnaire

Note: Additional cost statistics are required as part of the Monthly
Cost Report.

######### 5E-11: Survey Management Plan, Confidentiality Procedures and Documentation and Final Report

The Contractor shall provide complete documentation for new and existing
surveys, in accordance with standards as specified by EIA, of all work
including survey design; preparation of questionnaire; data collection
forms, instructions, and letters; data collection training and
supervision; data collection; data processing; statistical procedures
related to estimation, imputation, and data analyses; report
preparation; and public use data file preparation. The Contractor shall
revise and update existing EIA documentation from the previous CBECS,
where applicable. For new procedures, the Contractor shall prepare new
documentation.

The Contractor shall use a version of Microsoft Word (compatible with
the same version of Word used by EIA) to prepare all documentation and
shall provide all documentation in hard copy and diskette forms. The
Contractor shall provide draft interim documentation quarterly (within
30 days of the close of the quarter) that documents all procedures
implemented in that quarter. Final documentation shall be due at the end
of each major survey activity.

All documentation must meet or exceed the standards for data systems
documentation as specified in the [Energy Information Administration
Standards Manual, April 1989]{.underline} (or its successor).

Interim documentation is required quarterly throughout the task, in
addition to the final documentation deliverables due after work has been
completed. The interim documentation will be the portions of the
documentation that are completed as work progresses. The documents
prepared for the 2003 CBECS will be used as the starting point for the
2007 CBECS documentation, where applicable.

Before preparing interim documentation for a major data processing
activity, the Contractor shall submit an outline to EIA. After written
approval is received the Contractor shall prepare the documentation
including, but not limited to, a full description of data input, output,
decision rules, copies of program listings (including spreadsheets or
other PC programs) or actual runs, Job Control Language (JCL) necessary
to run the programs, and system test procedures and results. The
Contractor shall also document computer programs internally within the
programs.

**5E-11.1: Survey Management Plan**

The Contractor shall prepare a Survey Management Plan (SMP) at the
beginning of the task. The SMP will be a detailed, step-by-step plan to
conduct the Buildings Survey. The SMP shall identify all the procedures
for the survey (manual and automated), proposed staffing, and time
schedule to meet the deliverable due dates. In particular, the SMP will
address all aspects unique to CATI/CAPI procedures (e.g. software and
hardware support).

**5E-11.2: Data Confidentiality Procedures**

The Contractor shall design and implement procedures for protecting the
confidentiality of respondent identification as specified in the
contract. These procedures must be compatible with the codes and
standards of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations and
the American Association of Public Opinion Research. The Contractor will
submit a plan to EIA, which describes in detail how the data
confidentiality procedures will be implemented. The Data Confidentiality
Plan may be included as a separate section of the Survey Management
Plan.

The confidentiality procedures will include the need for the Contractor
to:

-   Secure all data that would allow identification of survey
    respondents

-   Protect the electronic transmission to and storage of respondent
    information on laptop computers

-   Train affected personnel in the procedures to be followed in
    maintaining confidentiality

-   Secure the necessary confidentiality pledges, and

-   Provide secure areas for processing the data and locked files for
    storage of returned questionnaires.

The procedures must also be designed to allow EIA personnel access to
the confidential data at the Contractor\'s site for monitoring,
methodological development, and validation purposes, although these
personnel will not take possession of these data.

The names and addresses of building respondents are confidential. The
Contractor shall maintain such data separately from the data files
provided to EIA; EIA will not take possession of these name and address
data unless legislation, which provides EIA with the capability to
protect the confidential data, is passed by Congress.

To further protect the privacy of respondents, the Contractor may be
directed by EIA to conduct a series of data adjustment procedures prior
to the release of the data. These adjustments may include error
inoculation, micro aggregation of data, normalization of consumption and
degree-day data to the calendar month, and other procedures specified by
EIA. The Contractor may, with the approval of EIA, redesign and upgrade
these procedures to make them more efficient and/or more effective.

######### 5E-11.3: Documentation for Data Collection Activities

The Contractor shall produce documentation, which complies with
standards as specified by EIA that includes, but is not limited to, the
following:

9.  Copies of all forms used, including those used for field listing of
    segments, creating list frames (if applicable), making assignments,
    tracking interviewer work, and quality control activities;

10. Copies of all training materials (including video tapes) and
    instructions regarding training provided to the field staff;

11. Copies of all other survey instructions and correspondence provided
    to the field staff;

12. Copies of all respondent form letters, including standard follow up
    letters to respondents designed to increase response rates, and
    letters signed by EIA.

######### 5E-11.3.1: Documentation for Automated Data Collection Techniques

In the event that the Contractor is authorized to use automated data
collection techniques such as CSAQ or electronic filing via Internet,
the contractor shall produce documentation, which complies with
standards as specified by EIA that include but are not limited to the
following:

-   A description of the procedures for inputting the questionnaire into
    the selected software;

-   A description of the skip patterns and branching procedures
    programmed into the selected software;

-   A description of edit routines and internal consistency checks
    programmed into the selected software;

-   A description of the resulting data file.

This documentation shall include narrative descriptions accompanied by
flowcharts and computer program statements as specified by EIA.

######### 5E-11.4: Documentation for Data Systems

The Contractor shall produce documentation that includes, but is not
limited to, the following:

-   A copy of coding and editing instructions used in the initial
    interview processing;

-   A description of the imputation procedures used with each question
    or variable;

-   A description of the estimation procedures including weighting,
    nonresponse adjustments, post stratification, and other ration
    adjustments;

-   A description of stratification variables required for estimation of
    variances;

-   A copy of all cleaning and editing specifications used in cleaning
    the various data files;

-   Complete documentation for all data files created; and

-   Complete documentation for all software systems created or acquired.

######### 5E-11.5: Final Report

The Contractor shall prepare a final report detailing all work performed
on the completed Buildings Characteristics Survey. This report shall
include, but is not limited to, the following:

-   Response rates achieved within EIA-provided classifications, such as
    Census Division, Principal Building Activity, size;

-   Comparisons, where possible, of respondents' characteristics to
    those of the target population in that sector;

-   Copies of all forms and correspondence used, in all phases of the
    survey, including but not limited to those used for survey data
    collection, internal Contractor control, edit/update, collecting
    other information, summaries of interviewer time records. Also
    include suggestions for improvements to any of those forms;

-   An analysis of resources used in terms of cost per completed
    sampling unit, Contractor hours per completed case, number and cost
    of nonrespondent conversion attempts, and other survey performance
    statistics;

-   Contractor recommendations for any improvements to the collection or
    processing procedures to improve response rates or efficiency, lower
    costs, or shorten processing time;

-   A discussion of any known limitations or problems with the data or
    procedures applied to the data.

Final Reports from previous CBECS shall be used as a guide when
preparing this Final Report.

##### 

##### 5E-12: Data Disclosure Analysis, Error Inoculation, and Public Use Data

The Contractor shall prepare the data for release including final data
editing, creation of statistical and relative standard error tables, and
disclosure analyses where required. The micro data for CBECS have always
been made available to the public after all individually-identifiable
data have been removed. Therefore, prior to releasing the micro data, it
is necessary to mask any data items that could be used to identify the
individual respondents. A disclosure analysis is used to determine which
data items could potentially be used to identify respondents. The
responses for data items that do present a problem are masked or
altered. The Contractor shall be prepared to run these error inoculation
procedures.

The Contractor shall prepare, if requested by DOE, disks, diskettes, or
some other electronic medium, such as an ACCESS data base, as approved
by DOE for release to the public. The Contractor shall perform an
EIA-approved disclosure analysis procedure. Pursuant to EIA guidelines,
the Contractor shall mask or alter data items that could be used to
identify individual respondent. EIA, not the Contractor, will release
public use data and diskettes.

If requested by DOE, the Contractor shall provide documentation for
public use data release and diskettes.

##### 

##### 5E-13: Post-Survey Efforts

After the Buildings Survey is completed, the Contractor may be required
to perform work necessitated as a result of the Energy Supplier Survey.
These efforts include identifying the proper supplier/building
combination, rerunning the building edits, and rerunning the disclosure
analysis, updating the Case Management System, and forwarding any
updated files to the Energy Supplier contractor.

**5E-13.1: Buildings Survey and Energy Supplier Survey Reconciliation**

The Contractor must be able to assist the energy supplier in identifying
the correct building when the account numbers are missing or the
building name or identification are unclear. This will necessitate the
ability to access the Buildings Survey data and trying to identify the
correct building for the energy supplier. In other instances, the energy
supplier may come back and say that the building is not a customer.
Reconciliation of this situation may require a call back to the building
respondent to ascertain the correct fuel or supplier used by the
building.

All findings from this effort will be documented and updated in the
survey control file and forwarded to the Energy Suppliers Survey
contractor.

# 5E-13.2: Re-Editing

If Buildings Survey data are changed as a result of information gained
from the Energy Suppliers Survey, the Buildings Survey data edits, as
specified in 5E-7.6 will be re-run. A revised Buildings Survey data file
will be delivered to the Program Office.

##### 

##### 5E-13.3: Transfer of Updated Information

Any changes in the Case Management System and the Buildings Survey data
file will be forwarded to the Energy Suppliers Survey contractor in a
timely manner.

##### 

##### 5E-14: Transfer of Materials

The Contractor shall transmit all survey-related materials,
documentation, computer software and specific programs, completed
questionnaires, sampling materials, interview information, and
confidential elements of computer and paper records for the current and
3 previous survey cycles to another contractor, as requested by the
Program Office. The Contractor shall maintain an inventory of materials
received and generated in the performance of this functional area. The
inventory will be used to transfer materials to another Contractor at
the completion of work in this functional area. This inventory will also
be delivered to EIA at the completion of work in this functional area as
a final deliverable. All materials shall be clearly documented and
identified, and transmitted in a timely manner as specified by EIA.

**5E-15: Transition**

Materials and data generated as a result of work performed in this
functional area will be used in other functional areas associated with
the CBECS. The Contractor shall ensure that all necessary materials and
computer programs are provided to the next Contractor and that
transition briefings and crosswalks be provided, as needed. ECD
personnel shall be present at these meetings.

######### 

######### 

######### 

######### 

######### 

######### [5-F. END USE SURVEYS SPECIAL STUDIES, STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT]{.underline} 

####### Background

Special end use surveys work for the Residential Energy Consumption
Survey (RECS) and the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey
(CBECS) are covered in Functional Area 5F. See Functional Areas 5C and
5D for information on the RECS, and Functional Areas 5B and 5E for
background on the CBECS. Work for the Manufacturing Energy Consumption
Survey (MECS) and other surveys are also included in 5F. Descriptions of
the MECS and other surveys follow.

Tasks may be varied within this functional area. They could deal with
special analyses of MECS data, cognitive studies of end use survey
questionnaires, end use estimation for the CBECS, methodological studies
of new data collection techniques, entirely new surveys within different
sectors of the economy, or preparing special Web-based tables for
release of data from the end use surveys.

### **Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS) Overview**

The MECS provides information about energy consumption and related
issues for the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy. The
manufacturing sector includes North American Industry Classification
System (NAICS) codes 311 through 339. Since 1991, the MECS has collected
information on the end uses of energy, participation in energy
management activities, penetration of energy conservation technologies,
and physical characteristics of the establishment.

The survey was first conducted for 1985 and subsequently for 1988, 1991,
1994, and 1998. The target population for the MECS consists of all
manufacturing establishments in the United States. A manufacturing
establishment is generally at a single physical location and is often
called a plant, factory, or mill. Electric utilities, mining operation,
agriculture, forestry and fishery operations, and construction are not
included in the manufacturing sector.

The Industry Division of the U.S. Bureau of the Census serves as data
collection and compiling agent for the MECS. This arrangement provides
three benefits to EIA. First, the confidentiality of the MECS responses
is protected by Section 9 of Title 13 of the U.S. Code. Second, the mail
file of the Census of Manufactures (CM), conducted by the Industry
Division, serves as the sampling frame for the MECS. Third, because the
MECS sample and the Annual Survey of Manufactures are both sampled from
the CM, economic data for the ASM can be appended directly to the MECS
responses.

In 1998, Manufacturing establishments were stratified into 57 industry
categories to select the MECS sample. These categories are the 21
manufacturing subsectors (3-digit NAICS), 6 industry groups (4-digit
NAICS), and 30 industries (6-digit NAICS). The industry groups and
industries are large energy consumers, fast-growing industries, or
industries that have a special programmatic interest. For 1998,
additional sample cases were used to select establishments that were no
longer considered manufacturing under the NAICS basis but were under the
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. That additional
sampling allowed for a compilation of the twenty 2-digit SIC major
groups and the 10 4-digit SIC most energy-consumptive industries.
Establishments were selected according to probability proportional to
size (PPS) sampling. The resulting total sample size for the 1998 MECS
was approximately 18,000 establishments. This represented a decrease in
sample size from the 1994 MECS design sample of approximately 23,000
establishments.

Weight adjustment is the method used to reduce unit nonresponse bias.
Item nonresponse is minimal and is handled on a case-by-case basis,
usually by telephoning the respondent. Sampling errors are algebraically
estimated. The MECS data are contained in a special Census Bureau file
that may only be used for analytical purposes by sworn Census agents.

####### 

####### Other Surveys and Data Collections Overview

The U.S. Congress, DOE, EIA, and other Federal agencies continuously
assess needs for energy end-use and related data in the various sectors
of the U.S. economy and how these needs may be met. In response to these
data needs, the EIA may be called upon to develop new surveys or modify
existing surveys.

EIA also performs a special data collection for the Administration for
Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services for
use in program administration of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program (LIHEAP). Questions were added to the RECS Household
Questionnaire to collect this information. Depending on needs and
funding, low-income households in the RECS sample have been over sampled
for this supplementary data collection. In addition, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency has funded questions and household
measurements added to the RECS to support their needs.

The CBECS has collected supplemental information for other Federal
agencies in previous survey cycles.

Work in Functional Area 5F requires some specialized qualifications,
which, depending on the study, these may include:

-   Personnel qualified in complex multistage survey sampling and
    implementation techniques;

-   Personnel qualified in complex survey design;

-   Personnel to conduct a national survey via telephone;

-   Personnel familiar with energy demand data;

-   Personnel familiar with state-of-the art data collection techniques;

-   Personnel experienced in energy analysis and presentation; and

-   Personnel experienced in data confidentiality techniques.

**Special Work Requirements**

Work in this functional area requires that the Contractor address two
important issues explicitly in their proposal. The first is the special
confidentiality procedures that must be taken to protect the energy end
use data. The Contractor must ensure that the identities and location of
the sampled units are kept confidential from both EIA and the data
users. This will involve processing the individually-identifiable survey
data on the Contractor's computers. Any micro data provided to EIA must
have names and addresses removed. In addition, the Contractor may have
to further mask the micro data to prevent EIA or users from identifying
the specific location or sample unit. Section 5F-4 provides more detail
concerning these data confidentiality procedures.

The second major issue, data storage, is related to the data
confidentiality requirements of the energy end use data. Because EIA
cannot take possession of the survey data collection documents or
records, the Contractor will have to provide secure storage of these
records either at their site or at another contractor facility. In
addition, the Contractor is required to keep an inventory of these
records and be ready to transfer these records to a subsequent
contractor. These procedures are further defined in 5F-7, Transfer of
Materials.

### **Work Description**

######### 5F-1: Special Situation Surveys/Efforts

The Contractor may be required to conduct special situation surveys or
data compilation efforts to meet specific data needs that may arise in
any of the end-use sectors other than manufacturing. Examples of these
are initiatives to develop information about the effects of the digital
economy on U.S. energy use and the development of transportation sector
energy data. More information on each of these follows.

####### 5F-1.1: Digital Economy Initiatives

Beginning in FY 2003, there are plans to fund and undertake the
following initiatives to develop information about the effects of the
digital economy on U.S. energy use:

> \(1\) Add questions to the 2002 Manufacturing Energy Consumption
> Survey dealing with the presence and use of digital equipment at
> manufacturing establishments (the 2002 MECS is scheduled to be fielded
> in the Spring of CY 2003);
>
> \(2\) Add questions to the 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy
> Consumption Survey dealing with the presence and use of digital
> equipment in commercial buildings and facilities in general (i.e.,
> virtually all cases would be buildings whose primary activity is
> something other than support for the digital economy);
>
> \(3\) Develop, test, and implement a supplemental survey to the 2003
> CBECS that would collect information on characteristics and use of
> buildings whose main activity is support for the digital economy
> (e.g., dedicated server buildings). Such a survey could provide
> publishable data specifically for these dedicated digital economy
> buildings; and
>
> \(4\) Develop and implement a supplement to an existing economic
> survey of agriculture to collect information on characteristics and
> use of digital equipment for business use on farms.

Some work for all these initiatives may be done under tasks in this
functional area, especially in questionnaire design. However, subject to
future funding, the majority of the work is anticipated to be for the
supplemental survey, initiative #3 above.

The Digital Economy supplemental survey is envisioned as a mixed mode
survey of mail and telephone data collection to approximately 500
dedicated server buildings. Work will include survey frame
identification and investigation (updating), questionnaire design,
survey design, data collection, data processing, including editing and
nonresponse imputations, and preliminary analysis.

# 5F-1.2: Potential Approaches to Develop Transportation Energy Data 

# Approach 1: Develop and implement national surveys of the stock of residential vehicles, their characteristics, and their energy use and fuel costs. Such surveys will require vehicle data to be collected by either stand-alone data collection and/or as an adjunct collection accompanying a household survey such as the Residential Energy Consumption Survey. Energy data for such a survey may be provided by logs of fuel purchases for individual vehicles, so that fuel consumption, expenditures, prices, and fuel economy can be computed directly from reported data. Alternatively, energy-related reported data may be limited to data on vehicle miles traveled, while energy consumption and expenditures are derived from outside data sources on vehicle fuel economy and fuel prices. The Contractor will be responsible for any or all of the following:

#  

-   Develop a statistically representative frame of residential
    vehicles;

-   Develop and implement sampling methodology as needed;

-   Make initial household contacts to notify households of the survey
    and provide survey materials as required;

-   Implement data collection and data receipt;

-   Conduct data retrieval, nonresponse conversion, and initial data
    processing as required.

**Approach 2:** Derive databases of transportation fuel use and
expenditures for residential and/or nonresidential vehicles using
information systems both inside and outside of EIA. Such systems may
include national surveys of vehicles and measures of their energy use;
or alternatively, measures of their miles traveled, along with fuel
economy either measured or estimated by the survey, or derived separate
from the survey using outside databases of fuel economy for classes and
models of vehicles. The surveys may also measure fuel expenditures
directly; or expenditures will need to be derived from fuel consumption
and outside data on fuel prices. The contractor will be responsible for
any or all of the following:

-   Investigate alternative sources of fuel economy or price data;

-   Evaluate the quality of directly-measured fuel consumption and
    expenditures data versus data derived using information from outside
    technical data sources;

-   Implement data base development incorporating survey data and
    technical data sources as appropriate, based on development
    specifications provided by EIA;

-   Validate data base records using edit procedures specified by EIA.

##### 

##### 5F-2: Statistical Analysis

The Contractor may be required to provide support for analytical
studies. Examples of the types of studies that may be conducted are:

-   Analysis of energy efficiency potentials in each end use sector. The
    Contractor may study the development of new technologies that affect
    energy usage and forecast the effects of such technologies on energy
    consumption.

-   Analysis of energy use in large apartment buildings and how best to
    collect this information.

-   Analysis of energy use and energy expenditures using energy
    consumption surveys and other information for special populations,
    such as Native Americans or other Ethnic groups, low-income
    households, single-member households, or households headed by an
    elderly householder.

-   Regional analyses and presentation, including maps created in
    MapInfo software.

In addition, the Contractor may be required to perform specialized
analyses specifically related to the RECS, CBECS, and MECS. One such
analysis is the CBECS energy-end use intensities, which is described
below.

####### 5F-2.1: CBECS Energy-End Use Intensities

The energy consumption data provided by the CBECS cover all end uses
performed within commercial buildings. Total energy consumption can be
disaggregated into end-use consumption by several approaches:
engineering simulations, statistical modeling or a hybrid approach known
as a statistically adjusted engineering (SAE) approach. Beginning in
1989, the CBECS energy end use estimates were developed by using the SAE
approach, with the Facility Energy Decision Screening (FEDS) system
providing the initial engineering estimates. These estimates use
extensive use of the NOAA weather files. The Contractor may be required
review these procedures and recommend other methods that can be used to
produce the energy end use estimates. The Contractor may also be
required to produce the energy end use intensities.

##### 

##### 5F-3: Methodological Development

The contractor shall develop and/or incorporate methodological
improvements as instructed by DOE to the various end-use surveys. These
improvements may include, but are not limited to:

-   Evaluation and potential implementation of state-of-the art data
    submission procedures, such as Computerized Self-Administered
    Questionnaires (CSAQ), Fax, Touchtone Data Entry (TDE), and
    electronic filing via the Internet;

-   Implementation of new technologies such as digitized mapping to
    update the sampling frames for new construction;

-   Development of energy audit procedure surveys;

-   Design and implementation of Web-based Home Pages and products;

-   Usability studies of ECD Web-based products;

-   Development of methods for more rapid collection, processing, and
    dissemination of consumption survey data;

-   Development of methods to collect technology-specific end-use data
    for manufacturing processes;

-   Development and implementation of cognitive techniques, such as
    focus groups or cognitive interviews with respondents, to redesign
    the questionnaires and improve data collection methods;

-   Evaluation of alternative methods for sample frame design;

-   Evaluation of alternative, innovative methods for collecting energy
    consumption data; and

-   Development of more effective methods of measuring or modeling
    on-road vehicle fuel efficiencies.

The Contractor may be required to evaluate changes in survey procedures
resulting from EIA quality assurance activities. Any research or
development project will be documented to EIA standards.

##### 

####### 5F-4: Data Confidentiality Procedures

The Contractor shall design and implement procedures for protecting the
confidentiality of respondent identification as specified in the
contract. These procedures must be compatible with the codes and
standards of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations and
the American Association of Public Opinion Research. The Contractor will
submit a plan to EIA, which describes in detail how the data
confidentiality procedures will be implemented. The Data Confidentiality
Plan may be included as a separate section of the Survey Management
Plan.

The confidentiality procedures will include the need for the Contractor
to:

-   Secure all data that would allow identification of survey
    respondents

-   Protect the electronic transmission to and storage of respondent
    information on laptop computers

-   Train affected personnel in the procedures to be followed in
    maintaining confidentiality

-   Secure the necessary confidentiality pledges, and

-   Provide secure areas for processing the data and locked files for
    storage of returned questionnaires.

The procedures must also be designed to allow EIA personnel access to
the confidential data at the Contractor\'s site for monitoring,
methodological development, and validation purposes, although these
personnel will not take possession of these data.

The names and addresses of building respondents are confidential. The
Contractor shall maintain such data separately from the data files
provided to EIA; EIA will not take possession of these name and address
data unless legislation, which provides EIA with the capability to
protect the confidential data, is passed by Congress.

To further protect the privacy of respondents, the Contractor may be
directed by EIA to conduct a series of data adjustment procedures prior
to the release of the data. These adjustments may include error
inoculation, micro aggregation of data, normalization of consumption and
degree-day data to the calendar month, and other procedures specified by
EIA. The Contractor may, with the approval of EIA, redesign and upgrade
these procedures to make them more efficient and/or more effective.

##### 

##### 5F-5: Preparing the End-Use Data for Release

EIA is interested in making its products and services more visible and
more available to a wider audience - the interested, but not technically
sophisticated reader. In short, EIA is committed to expanding its
accessibility to its customer base. In addition, ECD wishes to decrease
the amount of time between data collection and the release of data to
the public. ECD is no longer releasing hardcopy publications, but rather
making information available to users via its web site on the Internet.

The Contractor may be asked to provide energy industry specialists to
support technical analysis of the end-use data and technical writer(s)
and editor(s) to provide writing and editing services. Additionally, the
Contractor may provide support for the preparation of appropriate tables
and graphics. These support services shall cover EIA's data release and
articles on the end-use surveys and more general reports, articles, and
press releases designed for the mass media.

##### 

##### 5F-6: Additional Work

The Contractor may be required to perform additional work caused by
changing programmatic requirements for energy consumption surveys. An
example of work that may be performed by the Contractor is a new survey
or data system. The Contractor may be required to design, develop, and
implement new surveys or construct databases to cover energy consumption
not included in CBECS, RECS and MECS. These efforts may include, but are
not limited to, a Nonresidential Transportation Energy Consumption
Survey, a Farm Energy Consumption Survey, and Buildings and Equipment
Data Set consisting of manufacturer's performance specifications, energy
efficiency parameters, life-cycle costs, and other relevant
characteristics of building structures and/or their energy-consuming
equipment.

##### 

##### 5F-7: Transfer of Materials 

The Contractor shall transmit all survey-related materials,
documentation, computer software and specific programs, completed
questionnaires, sampling materials, interview information, and
confidential elements of computer and paper records to another
contractor, as requested by the Program Office. The Contractor shall
maintain an inventory of materials received and generated in the
performance of functional area task. The inventory will be used to
transfer materials to another contractor after work has been completed.
This inventory will also be delivered to EIA as a final deliverable, at
the end of work in this functional area. All materials shall be clearly
documented and identified, and transmitted in a timely manner as
specified by EIA.

**5F-8: Transition**

Materials and data generated as a result of work performed in this
functional area may be used in other functional areas associated with
the end use surveys. The Contractor shall ensure that all necessary
materials and computer programs are provided to the next Contractor and
that transition briefings and crosswalks be provided, as needed. ECD
personnel shall be present at these meetings.

[^1]: Throughout the description of Functional Area 5, the surveys
    conducted by the Energy Consumption Division are variously referred
    to as "end use surveys", "energy end use surveys", "consumption
    surveys" or "end use consumption surveys". These are considered to
    be interchangeable within this description.