199—40.5 (476) Request for proposals (RFP). The request for proposals shall clearly set forth the eligibility and evaluation criteria and shall specify the weight to be given to any price or nonprice selection criteria.
	 40.5(1) Minimum evaluation criteria. The price and nonprice factors selected for evaluation and the weightings attached to each can reasonably vary from utility to utility and project to project. However, the following factors shall be considered for each supply-side project solicitation:
	  a.   	 Level and schedule of required capacity and energy payments;
	  b.   	 Status of project development;
	  c.   	 System fuel diversity;
	  d.   	 Reliability and performance measures;
	  e.   	 Firm versus variable or indexed pricing;
	  f.   	 Dispatchability;
	  g.   	 Project location and effect on the transmission grid;
	  h.   	 Use of Iowa fuels, manpower, and other state resources;
	  i.   	 Benefits to be derived by the industries and communities associated with a particular project;
	  j.   	 Demonstrated financial viability of the project and the developer;
	  k.   	 Developer’s prior experience in the field.
	 40.5(2) Contents of the request for proposals. The RFP shall contain sufficient information to apprise potential bidders of the utility’s criteria for evaluation of bids received as part of the competitive resource acquisition process specified in 199 IAC 40.2(476). This information shall include the bid evaluation criteria, including the weights to be assigned to each criterion, that the utility plans to use in ranking the bids received. Specific information associated with the bid evaluation criteria provided by the utility shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
	  a.   	 Preferred fuel types;
	  b.   	 The extent to which additional supply-side resources must be located in certain geographic areas due to transmission constraints, local load condition, permitting constraints, or other factors;
	  c.   	 Important transmission constraints on the utility’s system and on adjoining utility systems, and reasonable estimates of transmission costs for supply-side resources located in different areas;
	  d.   	 The extent and degree to which supply-side resources must be dispatchable, including the requirement, if any, that supply-side resources be able to operate under automatic dispatch control;
	  e.   	 Supply-side resource reliability requirements and objectives, and the method(s) that will be used to measure the achievement of those requirements and objectives, including the contribution of individual supply-side resources;
	  f.   	 The desirability of firm pricing and contract terms of various durations;
	  g.   	 The minimum bid evaluation criteria that must be met by a bidder for a bid to be considered responsive to the RFP. The utility shall be reasonable in its specification of minimum bid evaluation criteria and shall not artificially limit the pool of bidders through unreasonable or excessively restrictive minimum criteria;
	  h.   	 The utility’s proposed standard contract for the acquisition of supply-side resources.