Contract Award: The University of South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina) – $10,019,055

The University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, is awarded a $10,019,055 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for science and technology research into digital twin technologies for Navy power and energy systems. This contract provides for commissioning a land-based, ship-like electrical grid testbed to enable experimentation, validation and demonstration of component and system-level digital twins, as well as digital twin-informed tactical energy management on a physical testbed, extendable with real-time simulation and power hardware in-the-loop capacity. The principal objective of the implemented system of digital twins will be on assuring the best delivery of power and energy to mission systems, within existing constraints, to best achieve the impending mission objectives. Work will be performed in Columbia, South Carolina, with an expected completion date of Dec. 20, 2024. The maximum dollar value, including a 36-month base period and no option periods, is $10,019,055. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,999,605 are obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under long range broad agency announcement (BAA) N00014-21-S-B001. Since proposals are received throughout the year under the long range BAA, the number of proposals received in response to the solicitation is unknown. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00014-22-C-1003).