Implementation of Western Balkans Green Economy Financing Facility (WB GEFF - Residential) in the Western Balkans, focusing on the residential sector

Country:Regional

Business sector:Sustainable Resources and Climate Change

Project number:67734

Funding source:Not Yet Determined

Contract type:Consultancy Services

Notice type:Invitation for expressions of interest (CSU)

Issue date:05 Jan 2017

Closing date:30 Jan 2017   at  23:59   London

Project Description:

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the EBRD or the Bank) intends to establish the Western Balkans Green Economy Financing Facility ("Facility") which will take the form of credit lines for a total of up to ca. EUR 85 million to Participating Financial Intermediaries (PFIs) in the six countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia), for on-lending to eligible sub-borrowers to finance residential energy efficiency and/or small-scale renewable energy investments. These will include:

• Private individuals in individual apartments or family houses; or measures implemented on a building level by housing collectives - groups of individuals, housing associations, housing management companies;
• Intermediaries such as producers, vendors, and service providers (construction companies, installers, ESCOs) implementing green residential projects on behalf of individuals or housing collectives and/or expanding the availability of green technologies and solutions for the residential sector.

Credit lines will be supported with grant funded Investment Incentives provided to sub-borrowers to incentivise the uptake of energy efficiency and renewable energy investments.

To support the implementation of the Facility, the EBRD intends to engage a dedicated Facility Consultant (FC), the subject of this Procurement Notice.

Assignment Description

The Facility Consultant will support all aspects of the implementation of the Facility. Specifically, the Consultant’s objective is to assist in the Facility preparation and launch, successful implementation and verification, by carrying out the following key tasks:

• Facility set-up and administration: establish Facility infrastructure, including a network of regional offices; operational procedures; Facility website; a Technology Selector (List of Eligible Materials and Equipment) and a List of Eligible Suppliers and Installers (LESI) populated for each of WB countries.
• General market awareness: develop information materials; promote the Facility and the benefits of best practice energy efficiency solutions, technologies and associated investments.
• Capacity building for PFIs: develop operations manual and training materials for PFIs’ personnel (including on-line materials); deliver trainings and "train the trainer" programmes; support PFIs with the development and marketing of green residential lending products and preparation of sub-projects pipeline.
• Capacity building for sub-borrowers: support residents and housing collectives in the identification, development and financing of building-level energy efficiency projects in multi-apartment buildings; support and build capacity of intermediaries in the development of strategies aimed at improving the availability of energy efficiency technologies in the market.
• Verification, monitoring and reporting: undertake verification of sub-projects completion for projects eligible for investment incentives; Facility monitoring and reporting.

Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in the first half of 2017 and will have an estimated duration of 4 years. It is envisaged that the Consultant will be contracted initially for one year, further contract extensions will be subject to the successful uptake of the Facility, satisfactory performance of the Consultant and availability of Donor funding. The Facility may be extended further than the originally envisaged 4 years subject to the successful uptake of the Facility, satisfactory performance of the Consultant and availability of Donor funding.

Cost Estimate for the Assignment: The overall budget for the Assignment (with the envisaged duration of 4 years) is estimated at EUR 5.1 million (exclusive of VAT).

The consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the Bank's special status as an IFI and state this to the Bank in their response to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. To the extent that a consultant incurs input VAT on goods and services purhcased in connection with the provision of services (e.g. VAT on airline ticket) which is not otherwise recoverable by the consultant from the local tax authority, the gross cost to the consultant of such expenses shall be treated as a reimbursable expense.

Funding Source: The assignment is expected to be funded by the European Western Balkans Joint Fund, the Austrian government and the EBRD's donor funded Technical Cooperation Funds Programme. Please note that selection and contracting will be subject to the availability of funding.

Eligibility: there are no eligibility restrictions.

Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a consulting firm or a consortium of firms, whose experts will be required to perform the assignment on a full-time basis. The Consultant shall have relevant experience in all areas needed for the performance of the assignment as described above, including relevant sector and regional experience.

An extensive use of qualified locally based personnel with a command of local languages is envisaged as the bulk of the assignment will be conducted in the field, to which end the Consultant will be required to establish a network of regional offices (to be agreed with the EBRD).

The Consultant’s expert team is expected to include Key Experts as follows:

Key Expert 1: International Project Manager preferably with 5 years of previous professional experience in managing similar projects;

Key Expert 2: Local Project Coordinator preferably with 5 years of previous professional experience in managing similar projects, who is envisaged to be based in one of the Western Balkan countries (to be agreed with the EBRD);

Key Expert 3: International and Local Marketing / Communication Expert preferably with 5 years of previous professional relevant marketing experience;

Key Experts 4: PFI Relationship Managers preferably with 5 years of previous professional experience in financial analysis and capital investment appraisal preferably in the field of energy/energy efficiency; knowledge of commercial banks’ procedures for project assessment and approval; and strong client relationship skills;

Key Experts 5: Technical Experts (qualified civil engineers and HVAC/EE experts) preferably with 5 years of previous professional experience in residential buildings energy management and energy auditing; energy efficiency and renewable energy projects financial, technical and environmental appraisal (including calculation of greenhouse gas emission reduction); residential buildings energy efficiency design and standards; experience of best practice technologies, materials and solutions as well as EU, international and local building regulations and standards in relation to energy consumption and performance;

Key Experts 6: Pool of local experts preferably with 5 years of previous professional experience, including professionals with relevant administrative, IT/web development, technical, marketing, financial, economic and legal backgrounds to support the implementation of the Facility. Strong administrative resources will be required to administer the financing of thousands of small-scale projects distributed across six WB countries.

For the purposes of evaluation of expression of interest only, please submit no more than 4 CVs for each of the following Key Expert categories listed above: Key Experts 4, Key Experts 5 and Key Experts 6.

Submission Requirements: Interested consultants are hereby invited to submit Expressions of Interest. In order to determine the capability and experience of Consultants seeking to be selected for this Assignment, the information submitted should include the following:

- company /group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing;
- details of previous project experience or similar assignments particularly 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 (if different from duration), main activities, objectives;
- 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;
- a summary table printed in landscape listing the proposed experts, indicating the years of relevant professional experience, nationality, level of language skills, a short qualification in relation to the requested knowledge and experiences;

- Completed Consultant Declaration Form and Contact Sheet, the template for which is available from the following web-link:

http://www.ebrd.com/pages/workingwithus/procurement/notices/csu/contact_sheet.doc

The above information should not exceed 15 pages excluding CVs and contact sheet. Expressions of Interest should be submitted, in English, electronically through eSelection. The expression of interest shall be one file (pdf). Only if the permissible file size is exceeded (4MB), the Consultant may split the expression of interest into further files.

Bank Contact Person:

Maria Haugh

Technical Co-operation

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

One Exchange Square

London EC2A 2JN

Tel: + 44 20 7338 7185

e-mail: HaughM@ebrd.com (submissions should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address)

Notes:

Note 1: Following this invitation for Expression of Interest, a shortlist of qualified consultants will be formally invited to submit proposals. Shortlisting and selection will be subject to the availability of funding (from an appropriate donor - dependent on whether or not donor has approved funding).

Note 2: The shortlist criteria are:

• Firm's previous project experience in implementation of similar facilities or assignments related to the origination and financing of energy efficiency improvement programmes in the residential building sector - 50%
• Firm's previous project experience in marketing and capacity building within financial services sector - 20%
• Firm's previous project experience in energy and resource efficiency financing (lending) especially knowledge in the market of energy efficiency technologies for residential buildings, preferably in Western Balkans - 20%
• CVs of Key Experts - 10%