Green Economy Financing Facility Lebanon - Facility Consultant

Location:

Business sector: Sustainable Resources and Climate Change, Power and energy
Project number: 74268
Funding source: EBSF - EBRD Shareholder Special Fund
Contract type: Consultancy Services
Notice type: Invitation for expressions of interest (CSU)
Issue date: 10 Jul 2018
Closing date: 31 Aug 2018 at 23:59 London
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Single Stage Open Competitive Selection – Request for Proposals

Project Description:

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ("EBRD" or the "the Bank") aims to help create a market for climate change adaptation and mitigation technology solutions in line with the Bank's Green Economy Transition ("GET") approach. As such, the Green Economy Financing Facilities (“GEFF”) program transposes this approach by converting green opportunities into sound investments by providing innovating lines of finance to local banks, microfinance institutions and leasing companies and by demonstrating the business case for investing in greener solutions.

The Green Economy Financing Facility Lebanon (“GEFF Lebanon” or “the Facility”) will consist of up to USD 100 million that will be on-lent to the local Participating Financial Institution (“PFI”) in Lebanon in order to finance energy efficiency (“EE”), renewable energy (“RE”), and resource efficiency sub-projects (“RES”) in Lebanon.

This will promote EBRD’s GET approach in a new country of operation with a strong need to diversify its energy supply and tackle the resource efficiency, more specifically in water and waste management as Lebanon’s arid / semi-arid climate makes it poor in water resources availability and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Given the projected decrease in precipitation, there is an immediate need to increase water resources through the designing and commissioning of dams and hill lakes as well as much better use of existing resources. This project will also serve as a pilot project for a potential countrywide GEFF programme in Lebanon.

Assignment Description:

The Bank now intends to engage a Facility Consultant to support the implementation of the GEFF Lebanon. The objective of this Assignment is to become a pilot programme for a potential countrywide GEFF programme in Lebanon in transferring strategic know-how and raising awareness about modern energy performance and environmental standards to

contribute to creation of a demand-driven, self-sustaining market for investments in high performance technologies and services supporting a green economy.

This Technical Cooperation (TC) assignment will support the origination, assessment and implementation of eligible investments in the agri-, industrial-, commercial- and the residential sector as key sectors suffering from lack of energy supply. Specific eligibility criteria for Sub-projects and Sub-borrowers are described in details in the Policy Statement of the Participating Financial Institution (“PFI”), which will be annexed to the Loan Agreement between the EBRD and the PFI. The eligibility criteria as specified in the Policy Statement will be made available to the Consultant by the EBRD.

The specific objectives are to:

• Support the implementation of the Pilot Lebanese Green Economy Financing Facility (the “Facility”), resulting in a portfolio of eligible Sub-projects.
• Prepare lessons learnt for development of a potential countrywide GEFF programme in Lebanon.
• Verify and confirm that Sub-projects financed by each Sub-loan (“Sub-projects”) have been completed substantially in line with eligibility requirements of the Facility.

The selected Consultant is expected to provide the following services:

• Establish and maintain full time fully functional project office in Beirut
• Adopt, maintain and update the facility documents and tools as provided by the EBRD
• Prepare a Quality Assurance Manual for the facility
• Inception Marketing and Awareness Raising Activities
• Ensure that the PFI is on boarded successfully and the Consultant provides relationship manager for the PFI
• Support the PFI in the development of a green financial product that specifically targets the PFI’s client base and at the request of the PFI
• Provide marketing & project origination advice for the PFI
• Develop a country specific Technology Selector for simplified assessment of Sub-projects
• Provide PFI with Sub-project Eligibility Determination and Project Assessment as required
• Verify completed Sub-projects
• Ensure the correct tracking, monitoring and reporting of the Facility data

The full description of scope of tasks and activities is available in the Terms of Reference, available at: http://www.ebrd.com/documents/procurement/tor-74268.docx

Consultant Selection Procedure: Single stage open competitive selection. Interested firms or groups of firms are invited to submit a Technical and Financial Proposal.

Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in October 2018 and has an estimated overall duration of 36 months.

Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 2,767,380.00 (exclusive of VAT).

Funding Source: It is anticipated that the contract will be financed by EBRD Shareholder Special Fund. Selection and contracting are subject to the availability of funding.

Eligibility: There are no eligibility restrictions based on the consultant's country of origin.

Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or a group of firms preferably with previous project experience related to the southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region, in the sectors of energy efficiency, renewable energy and resource efficiency. The Consultant's expert team is expected to include the following key experts (the 'Key Experts'):

Key Expert 1 - Project Manager, with:

• preferably 15 years’ professional experience in project management;
• international technical experience in industrial / agricultural / building / residential / corporate energy efficiency and/or renewable energy including related financing schemes;
• expertise in project implementation planning;
• fluent spoken and written English is essential; and
• knowledge of French/Arabic language would be an advantage.

Key Expert 2 - Financial/Economic Expert(s), with:

• preferably 10 years’ professional experience as corporate finance expert, bank loan officer or economist with specialization in financial analysis (including capital investment appraisal),
• expertise in financial structuring of cash flow-based lending projects;
• fluent spoken and written English and Arabic is essential for the expert(s) serving as PFI relationship managers; and
• knowledge of French language would be an advantage.

Key Expert 3 - Lead Engineer, with:

• preferably 15 years’ international project experience, including overseeing the work of a team of engineers;
• knowledge of regulations applicable to Lebanon as well as best practices in EU and SEMED countries for sustainable energy, water efficiency and resource efficiency in the agricultural-, industrial-, commercial-, and residential sectors; knowledge of regulations and best practices applicable to sustainable land management
• experience of explaining engineering measures in financial terms;
• fluent spoken and written English is essential; and
• knowledge of French/Arabic language would be an advantage.

Key Expert 4 - Pool of Local Engineers, with:

• knowledge of regulations applicable to Lebanon as well as best practices for sustainable energy, water efficiency and resource efficiency in the agricultural-, industrial-, commercial-, and residential sectors.
• knowledge of regulations applicable to Lebanon as well as best practice in sustainable land management in the agricultural sectors
• professional experience in developing sustainable energy and climate adaptation projects, including: (i) conducting energy audits, (ii) assessment of project investment plan including its risks and mitigation strategy, (iii) commercially based sustainable energy projects financing, and (iv) calculation of energy savings and greenhouse gas emission reduction for such projects;
• fluent spoken and written French/Arabic language is essential; and
• knowledge of English would be an advantage.

Key Expert 5 - Environmental Expert: with

• knowledge of environmental and safety regulations applicable to Lebanon as well as best practices for sustainable energy, water efficiency and resource efficiency projects
• minimum 10 years’ professional experience of conducting environmental due diligence and environmental impact assessment for a variety of sustainable energy projects
• fluent spoken and written French/Arabic language are essential; and
• fluent spoken and written English is an advantage.

Key Expert 6 - Communications and Marketing Experts, with:

• preferably 10 years’ professional experience in developing marketing strategy and marketing tools
• preferably 10 years’ professional experience in carrying out successful marketing projects in a business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer marketing context, particularly in the banking sector;
• experience in working with corporate clients and/or banks on marketing their products; experience in organising high-level marketing events with international audience
• good understanding of Arabic and Lebanese culture
• fluent spoken and written French/Arabic language are essential; and
• fluent spoken and written English is an advantage.

Submission Requirements: The consultants are now invited to submit a completed Technical and Financial Proposal as per the standard templates and instructions available at this link Interested Consultants should make themselves familiar with these Standard Templates, Standard Instructions and Conditions of Contract in preparation of their proposals.

1. The Technical Proposal shall be submitted in English electronically via eSelection not later than the Closing Date, as one single PDF file. The technical proposal should not exceed 30 pages excluding the Declaration Form and CVs (Form 1- TP 1 and Form 1 – TP 6). The technical proposal can be split in two file maximum.
2. The Financial Proposal (Form 2 – FP 1 and FP2) shall be submitted in English separately by email only to the Bank Contact Person. Consultants are reminded of the requirement to ensure the confidentiality of the Financial Proposals. A Technical Proposal that contains elements of a financial proposal shall be declared non-responsive.

Bank Contact Person:

Sanda Jugo
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
e-mail: JugoS@ebrd.com, (submissions should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address)

Deadline to Submit Clarification Questions: Via e-mail to the Bank Contact Person by 30/07/2018

Selection Method and Evaluation Criteria:

1. Technical Proposal Evaluation Criteria

• Firm's previous experience in implementation of assignments related to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and resource efficiency sub-projects, preferably in the southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region (25%)
• Firm’s previous project experience in implementation of similar assignments related to the management of financing facilities (25%)
• CV of Key Expert 1 - Project Manager – (13%)
• CV of Key Expert 2 - Financial/Economic Expert(s) - (10%)
• CV of Key Expert 3 - Lead Engineer – (10%)
• CV of Key Expert 4 - Pool of Local Engineers – (5%)
• CV of Key Expert 5 - Environmental Expert – (7%)
• CV of Key Expert 6 - Communications and Marketing Experts – (5%)

Interviews as part of technical evaluation:

Companies with a technical score of 80 and above based on technical criteria will be invited to the interview of proposed key experts on the following positions: Project Manager, Financial/Economic Expert, Lead Engineer, Environmental Expert, and Marketing/Communication Expert. The Bank will consult with the consultant regarding the format (e.g. skype call, meeting, conference call, etc.) and date of the interview at the time of the invitation. Please note that all and any costs incurred by the Consultant in connection with attendance to interviews will not reimbursed by the Bank.

Combined Technical and Interviews Evaluation and Ranking

The weights given to the Technical (T) and Interview (I) evaluation are:

T = 80, and

I = 20

Submissions will be ranked according to their combined technical (St) and interview (Si) scores using the weights (T=the weight given to the Technical; I = the weight given to the Interview; T+I=1) as following: Sti=St x T% + Si x I%.

The minimum final combined technical and interview score (Sti) required to pass is 80.

2. Opening of Financial Proposals

After the technical evaluation inclusive of the interviews is completed, only those submissions which score 80 or above of the total marks available for the combined technical criteria and interviews will be eligible to have their financial proposals opened.

3. Combined Technical and Financial Evaluation

The lowest evaluated Financial Proposal (Fm) is given the maximum financial score (Sf) of 100. The formula for determining the financial scores (Sf) of all other Proposals is calculated as follows:

Sf = 100 x Fm/ F, in which “Sf” is the financial score, “Fm” is the lowest evaluated Financial Proposal, and “F” the price of the Proposal under consideration.

Proposals are then ranked according to their combined technical (inclusive of interviews) (Sti) and financial (Sf) scores using the weights (T = 80; F = 20) T + F = 100 as follows: S = Sti x T% + Sf x F%.

Important Notes:

1. The proposal validity period is 120 days from the deadline date for the receipt of submissions. During this period, the Consultant shall maintain its original Proposal without any change, including the availability of the Experts, the proposed rates and the total price.
2. The selection will be made from the Proposals received in response to this notification only, on the basis of the submission requirements and selection criteria set out in this Procurement Notice. The highest-ranked Consultant will be selected and invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.
3. Any updates of and clarifications on this procurement notice shall be announced as updates on this notice, without any other notification. In the event of changes consultants will need to download the updated versions. Consultants are required to periodically check the notice for updates. Failure to take the updates into account while preparing the Proposal may result in disqualification or penalties to the scores in the evaluation.