Information and Communications Technology Support Services

The Vendor is required to provide comprehensive information and communications technology (ICT) support to the ministry of energy, business development and consumer affairs (MEBC).
- Requirement:
1. Digital infrastructure audit
• Inventory and document all existing digital platforms, systems, and tools used in the renewable energy licensing portal and other energy related systems.
• Evaluate system architecture, interoperability, scalability, and maintainability.
• Assess hosting environments, data backup, and disaster recovery protocols.
2. Cybersecurity and data privacy review
• Assess digital systems for vulnerabilities and risks, including potential threats to market transactions, data integrity and confidentiality.
• Review data access controls, encryption protocols, and user authentication mechanisms.
• Evaluate compliance with data protection and cybersecurity regulations and international best practice.
3. Functional and user experience evaluation
• Evaluate user interfaces, navigation flow, and responsiveness across devices (e.g., desktop, mobile, tablet).
• Conduct stakeholder and customer user interviews or surveys to gather feedback on usability and accessibility
• Identify areas for enhancing user experience, including accessibility standards.
4. Data integration and interoperability
• Assess current practices for data collection, storage, sharing, and integration across platforms, including energy and financial data from facilities, audits, pilot projects, virtual power plant (VPP) studies, vehicle to grid (v2g) studies, hosting capacity studies, and monitoring and verification of energy efficiency retrofits.
• Identify siloed data and recommend strategies for unified data systems.
• Recommend architecture for integrated dashboards or reporting systems to support data-driven decision-making and information sharing with internal and external stakeholders.
5. Data audit and quality assurance
• Identify and classify all datasets, metadata and data sources used across the licensing lifecycle
• Map how data is created, modified, stored, shared and archived
• Identify points of failure and inefficiency in data processes.
• Evaluate the accuracy, completeness, consistency, and validity of historical and current data within the portal and other linked systems and propose methods for correction.
• Review existing data entry, validation, and correction mechanisms; recommend improvements to ensure quality assurance and version control throughout the system.
• Detect instances of duplicated data entry or redundant recordkeeping across platforms and propose methods for consolidation or automation.
• Detect instances of inaccuracies and inconsistencies and propose methods for correction.
• Assess whether datasets from audits, pilot projects, and monitoring reports are structured and standardized for integration into a unified sustainable energy data system.
• Review how data is stored, shared, and protected across agencies to ensure compliance with relevant data protection laws and standards.
6. System performance and analytics
• Assess the performance of web portals, databases, and applications (e.g., speed, responsiveness, and load times).
• Review the use of analytics, metrics tracking, and reporting capabilities, including but not limited to:
o Number and type of licenses by system size, technology, parish, date of issuance
o Approval and processing times
o Project development and interconnection timelines
o Installed and operational capacity (mw)
o Revenue collected from licensing activity by technology, sizes, categories, sectors
o Renewable energy mix and geographic distribution
o Financial and energy performance data from audits and retrofits
• Recommend improvements to monitoring and performance tracking tools.
• Assess the accuracy, reliability, and timeliness of reporting, both internally and for public and regulatory use.
• Evaluate whether current reporting tools support comprehensive data-driven policy-making, regulatory oversight, and investor confidence.
7. Compliance and standards audit
• Review system compliance with digital standards and national and international regulations
• Identify gaps in digital governance policies and standard operating procedures.
• Ensure alignment with regulatory and procedural requirements across agencies.
8. Artificial intelligence (AI) integration
• Assess opportunities for incorporating AI into the data ecosystem and the licensing portal.
• Identify use cases such as predictive analytics for energy demand, automated document classification and anomaly detection in the data ecosystem.
• Recommend AI-driven dashboards for real-time monitoring of renewable energy generation, grid impacts and financial performance.
• Governance frameworks for ethical and responsible AI use in the data ecosystem.