Sabac District Heating Upgrade - Feasibility Study

Sabac District Heating Upgrade - Feasibility Study

THIS INVITATION TO EXPRESSION OF INTEREST CANCELS AND SUPERSEDES THE INVITATION TO EXPRESSION OF INTEREST PUBLISHED ON THE BANK'S WEBSITE ON 25 NOVEMBER 2013.

 THE EXECUTING AGENCY FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT WILL BE THE EBRD.

PLEASE NOTE RE REVISED REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMISSION OF EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST. THERE ARE NO OTHER CHANGES TO THE ORIGINAL PROCUREMENT NOTICE.

 CONSULTANTS WHO HAVE ALREADY SUBMITTED THEIR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT ARE NOT REQUIRED TO RESUBMIT BUT MAY UPLOAD THEIR SUBMISSIONS INTO ESELECTION SHOULD THEY WISH TO DO SO.

 Assignment Description:

Sabac is the administrative centre of the Macva District. Following a few years of general economic slowdown in the Macva District, Sabac has recovered to be one of the leading entrepreneurial municipalities in the country. The Sabac Municipality has an estimated population of 115,000 out of which 53,000 inhabitants live in the City of Sabac. The City is located in western Serbia, along the Sava River.

The City has approached the EBRD with a request to consider providing a loan and an investment grant contribution for upgrade of its district heating (�DH�) system. The system consists of two hydraulically independent network loops with a total installed capacity of close to 70 MW, whereof about 67 MW is installed in one large boiler house while the other network loop is supplied by two small capacity boilers of 2.2 MW and 600 KW. The equipment is in good overall condition, upgraded by previous financing through KfW�s Programme for Rehabilitation of the DH Systems in Serbia. In 2012, the DH Company joined the fourth phase of KfW�s Programme by signing a loan agreement in the amount of EUR 1.7 million for partial replacement of the aged DH network and modernisation of individual substations at the buildings level. In 2012, the Company produced and sold 70,175 MWh of heating energy covering 370,580 m� of residential and 100,395 m� of commercial area. The domestic hot water is not supplied by the DH services but is generated by individual gas or electric heaters installed in the apartments.
It is envisaged that the following components may be financed from the loan and grant, to be confirmed by the feasibility study:

- Upgrade of Sabac DH system, including replacement of the existing gas fired boilers with new boiler(s) fired with locally supplied biomass (forest and agriculture waist).
- An investment in a small-scale pilot CHP of up to 1 MW to supply electricity to the national grid based on feed-in tariffs, guaranteed by the Government of Serbia for electricity generation from a renewable source (actual 2013 price of 0.1326 EUR/kWh) and heat to the City�s DH network. Given the surroundings of Sabac with abundant locally available biomass, the investments will result in significant cost savings.
A loan of up to EUR 7 million to the City of Sabac will be used to finance the upgrade of the City district heating system. The loan will be on-lent to the DH Company (the �Company�) entirely owned by the City.
The EBRD wishes to engage an independent consultant (the �Consultant�) to carry out a detailed and comprehensive feasibility study (the �Study�) to be used by the Bank to enable it to appraise the bankability of the project for a prospective loan. The Study will build on the existing Pre-Feasibility Study and examine the technical, economic and financial options for the upgrade of the Sabac DH system using biomass, including construction of a small CHP and/or instalment of new boilers. The Study will propose the combination of the least-cost and most energy-saving technical solution. Environmental and social due diligence will be an integral part of the Study, as well as the affordability analysis and development of the local biomass market.
To that effect the Consultant is expected to:
(i) define the long term strategy for the district heating sector in the City and develop a long-term strategic investment programme based on least cost analysis and ranking methodology according to best applicable technology, availability of other heating sources, other fuels and with strong environmental and social benefits.
(ii) identify and assess a detailed priority investment programme (PIP), suitable for implementation over the next 3 years to be partially financed by the Bank loan, including its technical feasibility and justification of its high priority in terms of internal rate of return;
(iii) identify and assess PIP project components which fulfils the criteria to be financed by the Green Energy Special Fund (GESF);
(iv) clarify whether the biomass based district heating system is the least cost option for heating provision in the City;
(v) confirm availability of biomass in a sustainable way;
(vi) advise whether the tariffs required to sustain the investment would be affordable to various categories of the population;
(vii) prepare and analyse the current financial and operational performance of the Company and prepare financial projections for the project;
(viii) undertake an Environmental and Social Due Diligence (ESDD) of the Project according to the EBRD Environmental and Social Policy (2008) and Performance Requirements and an Environmental, Health and Safety Audit of existing district heating facilities and installations and environmental and social management systems.
(ix) prepare a Procurement and Implementation Strategy including detailed plans for the contracting, financing and implementation of the investments;
(x) provide a contract template for delivery of biomass between the Company and biomass supplier.

Status of Selection Process: Interested firms or group of firms are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest.

Assignment Start Date and Duration: The assignment is expected to start in January 2014 and has an estimated overall duration of 12 weeks.

Maximum Budget available for the Assignment: EUR 200,000 (exclusive of VAT).
The Consultant must determine whether any indirect taxes/VAT are chargeable on the proposed services and state the basis for such. If any indirect taxes/VAT are payable, the Client will have to pay indirect taxes/VAT element to the services directly to the Consultant unless otherwise agreed.

 Funding Source: SIDA - EBRD Municipal Environment and Climate Programme Fund.

 Eligibility: There are no eligibility restrictions.

 Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or consortium of firms with extensive experience in the district heating sector in the region and working with IFIs. Experience in assessing projects for compliance with EBRD�s PRs is required.

The team should cover all areas of expertise required in the Terms of Reference, and it is envisaged that the following expertise will be needed for the purposes of this Feasibility Study:

Team Leader with comprehensive experience in similar assignments in Eastern Europe with similar climate conditions and in working with IFIs;

Technical specialists and engineers in district heating, demand side management and mechanical and energy engineering;

Economist with experience in energy sector;

Financial analysts with experience of due diligence of Western Balkans companies and municipalities and extensive experience in financial modelling;

Institutional and regulatory issues specialist;

Environmental and social specialists with experience of district heating projects.

It is recommended that a part of the consultancy input is carried out by local experts.

Submission Requirements: In order to determine the capability and experience of Consultants seeking to be selected, the information submitted should include the following:

(a) brief overview of the firm/group of firms including company profile, organisation and staffing;

(b) details of similar experience of firm or group of firms and related assignments undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contract value, contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided, assignment budget, percentage carried out by consultant in case of association of firms or subcontracting, main activities, objectives;

(c) CVs of key experts who could carry out the Assignment detailing qualifications, experience in similar assignments, particularly assignments undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided, assignment budget, main activities, objectives.

(d) Completed Consultant Declaration and Contact Sheet, the templates for which is available from the following web-link:
http://www.ebrd.com/pages/workingwithus/procurement/notices/csu/contact_sheet.doc

The expression of interest shall not exceed 25 pages (excluding CVs and contact sheet).

Failure to submit the Consultant Declaration or the Contact Sheet may be grounds for rejection of the expression of interest.

 The expressions of interest should be submitted in English to the EBRD electronically via eSelection (NOT to the EBRD contact person below) not later than 18 December 2013, 23:59 London time.

Note: The selection will normally be made from responses to this notification only. Consultants will not be asked to submit a proposal. The highest-ranked consultant will be selected from a shortlist and be invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.

 The EBRD Contact Person:

Marina Matushina
Advisor
Technical Cooperation
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
Tel: + 44 20 7338 6577, Fax: +44 20 7338 7451
E-mail: matushim@ebrd.com