Clarification: The submission deadline has been revised and shall now read:
Closing Date: 05 June 2015 at 23:59 London time.
Background:
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the "EBRD" or the "Bank") is scaling up its operations of Sustainable Energy Financing Facilities in Croatia. In 2013, the EBRD launched a series of assignments under the umbrella of the “Regional Energy Efficiency Programme” ("REEP") for the Western Balkans and for the first time a Sustainable Energy Financing Facility was extended to Croatia. The new credit line facility "WeBSEFF II" was extended to three local participating financial institutions in Croatia under which financing is accessible to both private and public sector clients.
One sector which is still not sufficiently addressed in Croatia and across the Western Balkans countries in general is the residential sector. Croatia has transposed the EU Directive on Energy End-use Efficiency and Energy Services (2006/32/EC) into Croatian law and has adopted a National Energy Efficiency Action Plan that sets a final energy saving target of 19.77 PJ by 2016 and 22.76 PJ by 2020. In Croatia, households are the largest energy user consuming more than 30% of the total final energy consumption. Households are also the largest consumer of electricity. Almost 50% of all occupied residential buildings were built before 1970 before the introduction of the first thermal regulations for new buildings and consume on average 250kWh/m2 for space heating (EU-27 average around 130kWh/m2).
According to estimates, energy saving potential in the residential sectors amount to up to 50% of the current final energy consumption. Despite this large potential, many residential energy efficiency ("EE") projects remain unfinanced and unimplemented as they are hampered by a number of market barriers such as inter-alia:
• inadequate public awareness of the benefits of EE projects;
• perceived technical and/or financial risk; and
• insufficient capacity for evaluating specific EE projects among banks.
In order to strengthen energy efficiency in this market, the EBRD started discussions with Croatian banks to investigate their interest in launching dedicated residential EE credit products for individuals who want to renovate their dwellings. In line with the classic EBRD SEFF model, the EBRD intends to establish a EUR 60 million Croatia Residential Sustainable Energy Financing Facility ("Croatia Residential SEFF" or the "Facility") which will take the form of credit lines extended to Participating Financial Intermediaries ("PFIs") for on-lending to eligible sub-borrowers (individual homeowners and vendors, manufacturers, suppliers and installers of eligible equipment and materials) to finance energy efficiency investments in residential buildings.
The Facility will aim to:
i. address the currently underfinanced residential EE sector and increase public awareness among a wide range of stakeholders, demonstrating the social and economic benefits of EE investments.
ii. demonstrate to Croatian banks the market potential in the sector and this is expected to facilitate further mobilisation of private sector financing for modernisation of the housing stock.
iii. enforce higher energy performance standards and further development of sustainable energy technologies.
Assignment Description:
The Facility will be complemented by a technical cooperation ("TC") package that will facilitate the transfer of skills to banks and sub-borrowers, contribute to raising awareness among wide group of stakeholders and to demonstrate the financial benefits of rational energy utilisation. At PFI level TC will help with product design and establishing necessary procedures and structures to deliver EE finance in support of EE improvements to the residential sector and will ultimately assist PFIs to develop and launch a sustainable energy financing product for the Croatian residential sector.
The following TC consultancy contracts are foreseen to support the Facility:
1) A LEMI/ LESI Project Preparation Consultant, responsible for defining the technical eligibility criteria and energy performance requirements for types of eligible individual measures and packaged solutions (also known as the List of Eligible Materials and Equipment or "LEME"). Furthermore, the Consultant will populate the LEME with at least 1,000 eligible items and design and programme the website that will present the LEME list; both assignments are expected to be finalised in the second half of 2015.
2) A LEMI/ LESI website Consultant, responsible for the development of the LEMI/ LESI website.
Both of these consultants have already been contracted and are not subject to this procurement notice (please see notes section).
3) A Project Consultant ("PC" or the "Consultant") (to which this notice pertains) to support and implement the Facility and provide support to the Facility’s PFIs and their residential clients for the preparation and assessment of eligible projects according to the Facilities procedures.
The EBRD now intends to engage a consulting company or consortium to perform the role of the PC to support the implementation and administration of the Facility and undertake activities such as project coordination, marketing and information campaign and capacity building to the PFIs, support with pipeline development, administration, reporting and monitoring the overall implementation of the Croatia Residential SEFF (the "Assignment").
The scope of services of the Consultant will be divided into three categories: Generic Tasks, PFI Specific Tasks and Project Assessment Tasks. The selected Consultant is expected to provide the following services:
1. Establish a full-time Croatia Residential SEFF office in Zagreb and set-up operational tools;
2. Provide marketing, awareness raising and capacity building support to the PFIs;
3. Ensure that the technical criteria of the Croatia Residential SEFF are clearly defined, consistently applied and continuously updated - including the LEME/LESI lists and the website, both of which are currently under preparation under a separate TC assignment;
4. Provide for the transfer of skills, knowledge and tools to PFIs to allow for the further implementation of residential lending after the Croatia Residential SEFF without the need for technical assistance;
5. Ensure that the Croatia Residential SEFF funds are on-lent for projects which meet the technical eligibility criteria and for this purpose establish an efficient tracking, monitoring and reporting system to ensure accurate data and standard forms are utilised to include monitoring and reporting in SEFF MIS;
6. Prepare 2 market surveys to reflect market conditions for high-performing building energy efficiency technologies before and after implementation of the Croatia Residential SEFF.
The LEME list and the website prepared by the Project Preparation Consultants will be handed over to the PC who will be required to continue to update them with new entries (the exact procedure to be agreed with the EBRD Operation Leader).
Status of Selection Process: Interested firms or groups of firms are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest.
Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in September 2015 and has an initial estimated duration of 12 months with the possibility of an extension (both in time and in budgetary terms as explained below).
Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 450,000 (for the first 12 months of implementation) with the possibility of an extension up to a maximum of EUR 1,657,420 (exclusive of VAT). Subject to availability of funding, the performance of the selected Consultant and the specific needs of the Bank, the Assignment may be extended beyond the current scope.
The Consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the special status of the Bank 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 purchased 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: It is expected that the Assignment will be funded through EBRD Shareholder Special Fund ("SSF"). Please note selection and contracting will be subject to the availability of funding and the assignment will be contracted in stages.
Eligibility: There are no eligibility restrictions.
Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or a group of firms whose experts will be required to perform the assignment in Croatia on a full-time basis. They will possess previous project experience related to:
1. previous implementation of similar facilities or assignments related to residential buildings sector;
2. strong marketing and capacity building experience ideally with a financial services and financial products focus;
3. design and implementation of residential EE measures, knowledge of international and local building regulations and relevant EU standards, in relation to energy consumption and performance of residential buildings.
Throughout the above mentioned requirements, good knowledge of the local market and the ability to cover wider geographical reach is considered an advantage.
The Consultant’s expert team is expected to include key experts as follows:
• An International Project Manager with proven experience and strong management capacity in managing similar projects;
• International and local Marketing and Communication Experts with the skills to promote the Facility;
• At least two experts who will be qualified civil engineers with particular experience in residential building energy management, residential building energy efficiency design and standards, knowledge of EU, international and local (Croatian) building regulations and relevant standards in relation to energy consumption and performance;
• local experts, with relevant technical, marketing, financial and economic background. Strong administration, IT and database experience is essential to make the tracking/reporting and control of the monitoring process as efficient as possible.
It is envisaged that at least 50% of expert input (in terms of budget) shall be provided by local experts who are professionally based and operating in Croatia. Long-term experts shall spend minimum 75% of their time in Croatia. Any home-based activities shall require justification.
Submission Requirements: In order to determine the capability and experience of Consultants seeking to be selected for this Assignment, the information submitted should include the following:
1. Company/group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing (max. 4 pages).
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 30 pages excluding CVs and contact sheet.
The complete expression of interest (including CVs, Consultant Declaration and Contact Sheet) should be submitted, in English, electronically through e-Selection, to reach the Bank not later than the closing date. The expression of interest shall be one file (pdf). The EBRD reserves the right to reject applications of firms submitting more than one file. Only if the permissible file size is exceeded (4MB), the Consultant may split the expression of interest into further files.
Bank Contact Person:
Sophie Medert
Technical Co-operation
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
Tel: + 44 20 7338 7371
e-mail: MedertS@ebrd.com (submissions should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address)
Notes:
1. Following this invitation for expressions of interest, a shortlist of qualified firms will be formally invited to submit proposals. Consultant selection and contracting will be subject to availability of funding from an appropriate donor.
2. The evaluation criteria are as follows:
• Experience in implementation of similar facilities (Croatia or similar locations) or assignments related to residential buildings energy management/ energy efficiency standards (25%)
• Experience in financial sector/ product marketing and capacity building (25%)
• Expertise in design and implementation of residential EE measures, knowledge of international and local building regulations and relevant EU standards, in relation to energy consumption and performance of residential buildings (25%)
• CVs of key experts (25%)
3. Both consultants currently implementing the LEMI/ LESI Project Preparation and the LEMI Website are not eligible to apply for this current selection.
