§ 970.4100 - General.

(a) Utility services defined at FAR 41.101 for the furnishing of electricity, gas (natural or manufactured), steam, water, and/or sewerage to facilities owned or leased by DOE shall be acquired directly by DOE and not by a contractor using a subcontractor arrangement, except as provided in (b) below.

(b) Where it is determined to be in the best interest of the Government, a Contracting Activity may authorize a management and operating contractor for a facility to acquire such utility service for the facility, after requesting and receiving concurrence to make such an authorization from the Director, Public Utilities Branch, Headquarters. Any request for such concurrence should be included in the Utility Service Requirements and Options Studies required by DOE directives in subseries 4540 (Public Services). Alternatively, it may be made in a separate document submitted to the Director of that office early in the acquisition cycle. Any request shall set forth why it is in the best interst of the DOE to acquire utilitiy service(s) by subcontract, i.e., what the benefits are, such as economic advantage.

(c) The requirements of FAR part 41, this section, and DOE directives in subseries 4540 shall be applied to a subcontract level acquisition for furnishing utility services to a facility owned or leased by DOE.