The Washington state Department of COMMERCE, hereafter “COMMERCE,” is issuing this Request for Proposals (RFP) to solicit proposals for those qualified and interested in human-centered design to assist COMMERCE in understanding the importance of energy access and home energy costs to the lives of multicultural, rural, and indigenous households across Washington, and how low-income energy bill assistance programs can be designed better for households. 

PROJECT SCOPE

• Use human-centered design methods such as deep listening, storytelling prompts, and hands-on activities to better understand the importance of energy access and home energy costs to the lives of multicultural, rural, or indigenous households across Washington
• Use human-centered design methods to better understand barriers and opportunities of rural, multicultural, or indigenous households to accessing social service programs, including utility bill assistance, across Washington
• Analyze, summarize, and incorporate findings from Commerce’s prior reports on energy assistance need with the findings of the workshops into a comprehensive report

The RFP Coordinator is the sole point of contact in COMMERCE for this RFP. All communication between the Proposer and COMMERCE upon release of this RFP shall be with the RFP Coordinator, as follows:

A pre-proposal conference will be held on July 18, 2024 at 10:00 a.m, Pacific time. The pre-proposal conference will be virtual only, on a platform such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Email the RFP Coordinator Natasha Langer, Natasha.Langer@commerce.wa.gov to receive the meeting link. All prospective Proposers are encouraged attend; however, attendance is not mandatory.

COMMERCE will be bound only to COMMERCE written answers to questions. Questions arising at the pre-proposal conference will be documented and answered in written form. A copy of the questions and answers will be sent to each prospective Proposer that has requested the RFP Coordinator to send them RFP addenda.

The proposal must be received by the RFP Coordinator no later than 4:00 p.m., Pacific Time, in Olympia, Washington, on August 15, 2024.    

For more information, visit: RFP - Low-Income Energy Bill Assistance Program Design - Washington State Department of Commerce