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Thurston County moves to contract installers for heat pump program
Summary
County staff presented four installer contracts for the Energize Thurston program, describing a non‑financial contracting approach that uses negotiated discounts to stretch grant funding and offer homeowners at least a 10% group‑purchase discount.
Rebecca Harvey, climate mitigation senior program manager for Thurston County, told the Board of County Commissioners the county is ready to finalize contracts with four installers for the county's Energize Thurston heat pump and heat pump water‑heater program.
The contracts are nonfinancial agreements: the county will not pay installers directly. Instead, each installation contract will be executed between a homeowner (or Habitat for Humanity for subsidized installs) and an approved installer, Harvey said. The county negotiated price schedules and will verify that installers provide the promised discounts when they submit quotes. "It was at least 10% of a discount," Harvey said, adding that the discounts both lower costs for homeowners and stretch grant funding for subsidized installs.
Harvey said the awards followed an RFP approved by the board in December; staff received 10 submissions and selected the four firms based on experience, pricing, site‑assessment methods, equipment selection, and customer‑support approaches. The four named contractors in the packet were Organic, Alpine Douglas, Resicon and Sunset Air. County staff also intend to work with Habitat for Humanity to use the negotiated pricing for low‑ and moderate‑income installations.
The presentation did not include a recorded board vote in the transcript for these contract awards. County staff indicated the contracting approach is designed to allow the program to launch in early March and to verify compliance with the negotiated discount schedule when installers submit quotes.
The county will bring final contract documents and any required signature authorities to a subsequent consent item for formal approval and execution.
