Energy Performance Contract Tendering Technical Assistance

The University of Sharjah (UoS) is one of the most important higher-education institutions in the United Arab Emirates. Over the years, the UoS benefited from free electricity from the local utility based on its institutional status. In the context of energy sector reform in the Emirate of Sharjah, the utility was authorized to charge the UoS a fair price for electricity consumed. This resulted in a new multi-million-dollar annual charge (over USD 20 million). This new cost prompted the UoS to analyze different energy management options. Based on research, the UoS decided to reduce costs by implementing a large-scale deep retrofit across all its facilities and adopt an approach based on energy performance contracting (EPC). Since this was the first such large-scale project in Sharjah, the UoS was looking for highly skilled professionals to help develop and support project implementation.

Econoler was hired to provide support to the UoS in both designing a request for proposals (RFP) process and negotiating a contract with the selected energy service company (ESCO). More specifically, Econoler performed the following tasks:

• Analyzed the best approach to outsourcing the technical implementation of the initiative as well as structuring the financing required through:
• The use of shared savings vs guaranteed savings approaches;
• International financing vs the use of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) approach;
• Recommendations on the best approach.
• Provide support for the EPC-tendering process by:
• Developing a project roadmap for the EPC process and a risk-mitigation strategy;
• Preparing the RFP and related documents;
• Designing an EPC document;
• Supporting the tendering process Q&A.
• Review the proposals received and help with contract negotiations by:
• Conducting a detailed review of the 2 shortlisted ESCOs’ technical and commercial proposals;
• Providing assistance in negotiating the EPC with the ESCO;
• Reviewing the measurement and verification plans;
• Supporting the process for selecting the winning ESCO by providing technical evaluations and recommendations to the procurement committee.

  The work of Econoler helped the UoS successfully launch and conclude an EPC with a selected ESCO to implement the deep-retrofit initiative across all its facilities.