MARKET RESEARCH AND FEASIBILITTY STUDY Summary of consultant procurement process and results ADDIS ABABA March, 2016 1 P a g e
TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents... 2 1. INTRODUCTION... 3 2. SCOPE OF SERVICES... 4 3. PROJECT FINANCING... 4 4. INVITATION TO BID... 4 5. BID SUBMISSION EXTENSION... 5 6. BID RECEIVED... 5 7. TENDER OPENING PROCEDURE... 6 8. CLARIFICATION REQUESTED... 6 9. REJECTION OF BID... 6 10. CRITERIA, SUB-CRITERIA AND POINT SYSTEM FOR TECHNICAL EVALUATION... 6 11. EVALUATION OF BDDERS TECHNICAL PROPOSAL... 7 11.1. Briefs about Bidders... 7 a. Summary of Technical Evaluation... 8 12. CONCLUSION OF EVALUATION COMMITTEE... 9 13. RECOMMENDATION OF EVALUATION COMMITTEE... 9 14. FINANCIAL PROPOSALS... 9 15. COMBINED RESULT... 10 16. AWARD OF CONTRACT... 10 17. DEBREIFING... 10 2 P a g e
1. INTRODUCTION The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) approved a grant to dventus Technologies a technology-based and knowledge-driven company focused on the development of innovative and energy efficiency products for the energy sector to support their corporate expansion in the energy efficiency equipment segment. The grant will help establish a local manufacturing facility of smart energy meters, generators and converters in Ethiopia to realize the national and regional market opportunity, while also harnessing the availability of highly skilled and trained young Ethiopian engineers. The project consists of dventus Technologies transition from its current status of outsourcing center for an overseas firm to a fully sustainable business comprising the financial, business development and marketing functions. This transition will involve the scale up of its existing product design and development facility into a local manufacturing facility capable of mass production in order to meet the existing demand with competitive products. The rationale behind this transition plan lies on the increasing demand for dventus Technologies services and products and other affordable, customized and energy efficient solutions in Ethiopia and in East Africa. The transition plan will be implemented over three distinct phases that will start with the finalization of design, validation and certification of three energy efficient products and will culminate with the construction of a manufacturing facility to allow the company to deliver competitively on its clients orders. In more detail, each phase will consist of the following: Phase I Validation & Certification of the Smart Electric Meter Phase II Design, Validation and Certification of the Permanent Magnet Variable- Speed Generator and Smart Power Convertors Phase III Development and Construction of a Manufacturing Facility Specifically, the SEFA grant will finance a Market and Feasibility study as well as product validation and certification with the aim of mitigating part of the technical development risks and catalyzing the financing required for the transition and expansion plan. The grant will also be instrumental in crowding-in investments in an industry of key importance for enabling investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Accordingly, dventus has sought consulting services to undertake a Market Research and Feasibility study. The objective of this activity is to provide a comprehensive business potential of dventus products mainly at the national and regional level. Furthermore, the study should explore 3 P a g e
the viability of different financing structures for the financing of Phase III as well as the Feasibility of the project. The study shall encompass: i. Market potential over a period of 10 years mainly for local and regional markets ii. Pricing, competitive landscape and risks associated iii. Sales and financial forecasts iv. Recommended marketing and sales strategy and bankable business plan The product range (Utility meters) that will be offered to several markets in the world with a particular focus on the African and Middle Eastern regional market includes: 1. Single phase smart electric meters 2. Three phase smart electric meters 3. Water meters 4. Permanent magnet generators and converters for wind turbine generator (of up to 1 MW capacity) market This report is mainly concerned with the Technical Evaluation of consultancy services for the Market Research and Feasibility Study and bid document preparation. 2. SCOPE OF SERVICES i. Assess the market potential of the products under development for their deployment in the local and regional markets ii. Recommend strategy for marketing and sales of the products listed above iii. Develop a marketing and sustainable business strategy and tools, assess its feasibility and formulate a complete business plan iv. Indicate any other potential marketable destinations 3. PROJECT FINANCING The feasibility study for the Project is fully financed by Sustainable Energy for Africa (SEFA) administrated by AfDB. 4. INVITATION TO BID dventus Technologies invited eligible consulting firms to bid posted on AfDB (www.afdb.org) website. Up on the receipt of 10 Expressions of Interests five companies were short listed and approved by dventus as well as AfDB and were invited to prepare Proposal documents for the above mentioned services. Following this, the electronics version (soft copy) of the RFP, bid 4 P a g e
documents, has been sent to all of them via email on date 21 September 2015. Table 1: The approved five (5) bidders whom have been addressed the RFP No Company Address Engineered for Excellence 1 RICARDO-AEA ARTELLIA 1 Frederick Sanger Road, Surrey Research Park, Guildford GU2 7YD 2 GAIA-Swan Management PLC Bulevardi 6 A, FI-00120 HELSINKI, Finland 3 Berenschot-WAAS Europalaan 40, 3526 KS Utrecht, Netherlands 4 Ernst & Young Africa Avenue (Bole Road), Mega Bldg 11 th Floor, P.O.Boc 24875 Ababa, Ethiopia 5 Performance Management Consulting 15, Boulevard Djily Mbaye B.P 22 352 Dakar-Ponty Senegal 5.BID SUBMISSION EXTENSION None of these shortlisted companies has requested for bid extension. ` 6.BID RECEIVED From the above 5/Five/ companies who had got the bidding document the following 3/three/ bidders responded by submitting their offer (both technical and financial) up to 16 October, 2015, 14:00 Local time. Ernst and Young and Performance Management Consulting had failed to submit the proposal due to late appearance. Table 2:- Name of bidding companies that submitted their offer No Name of Company Country 1 RICARDO-AEA ARTELLIA 1 Frederick Sanger Road, Surrey Research Park, Guildford GU2 7YD 2 GAIA-Swan Management PLC Bulevardi 6 A, FI-00120 HELSINKI, Finland 3 Berenschot-WAAS Europalaan 40, 3526 KS Utrecht, Netherlands 5 P a g e
7.TENDER OPENING PROCEDURE The bid preparation and delivery procedure consists of submitting two envelopes comprising of technical and financial proposals. The Technical proposal of the submitted offer was opened on 16 October, 2015 at 14:00 local time in the presence of dventus staffs and bidder s representative at Africa Avenue, Snap Plaza 11 th floor, dventus Head Quarters, Addis Ababa. 8.CLARIFICATION REQUESTED While reviewing the technical proposal, the appointed evaluation team for this bid tender has found no inconsistencies. Therefore, there was no clarification requested or sent to the bidders. 9.REJECTION OF BID Two proposals were rejected due to late hour submission after the bid opening has been conducted for the timely delivered proposals of three bidders at the presence of the representatives of the bidders and the evaluation committee. 10. CRITERIA, SUB-CRITERIA AND POINT SYSTEM FOR TECHNICAL EVALUATION Criteria, sub-criteria, and point system for the evaluation of full and detailed Technical Proposals as indicated in the data sheet of the RFP and pre-bid meeting amendment are included: Table 3: Evaluation criteria breakdown 6 P a g e
Evaluation Criteria Break down Points 1. Adequacy and quality of the proposed methodology, and work plan in responding to the Terms of Reference 2. Key Experts qualifications and competence for the assignment 60 (i) General qualifications (general education, training, and experience) 40 20 (ii) Adequacy for the assignment (relevant education, training, experience in the sector/similar assignments) 70 (iii) Relevant experience in the region (knowledge of local culture or administrative system, government organization, etc) 10 Total 100 The minimum technical score required to pass 70 The score for each proposed staff computed as above will be summed up for a firm, and the resulting score will be averaged to arrive at the corresponding firm s score 11. EVALUATION OF BDDERS TECHNICAL PROPOSAL Before starting the evaluation of technical proposals, the evaluation committee discussed and agreed on detailed evaluation criteria and points allocated to each evaluation criteria. Each member of the committee independently evaluated every proposal and finally the average of the scores given by the member of each evaluation committee has been taken. 11.1. Briefs about Bidders 1. RICARDO-AEA-ARTELIA Ricardo Energy and Environment has submitted its offer in association with ARTELIA. 7 P a g e
2. GAIA-Swan Management PLC GAIA-Swan Management PLC, based in Helsinki, Finland has submitted its offer. 3. Berenschot-WAAS Berenschot Groep B.V, based in Netherlands, along with its local partner WAAS international PLC, based in Addis Ababa has submitted its offer to dventus Technologies. a. Summary of Technical Evaluation The above technical proposals evaluation is presented in summarized manner as below. Table 4: Summary of Technical Evaluation score Bidders Total (100 Points) A Gaia-Swan Management PLC 96 Berenschot Groep B.V. in association with B WAAS International PLC 86 Ricardo Energy & Environment in association C with ARTELIA 80 The minimum technical score stated on RFP St required to pass is: 70% Thus based on the requirement of minimum technical score these listed company can qualify from this evaluation. Table 5: Ranking in the order of merits Company Total points earned Rank Out of 100 Gaia-Swan Management PLC 96 1 Berenschot Groep B.V. in association with WAAS International PLC Ricardo Energy & Environment in association with ARTELIA 86 2 80 3 8 P a g e
12. CONCLUSION OF EVALUATION COMMITTEE After carefully reviewing and examining the proposal of these three companies documents by all the evaluating committee members and giving point in accordance with RFP criteria the average result has shown the proposal given by all three of the companies have been able to meet the requirements of the RFP. Moreover all the three companies have presented their work methodology in a very precise, clear and accurate way. 13. RECOMMENDATION OF EVALUATION COMMITTEE The evaluation committee recommends the financial offer of these three companies (RICARDO-AEA-ARTELIA, Bereschot-WAAS and GAIA-Swan Management PLC) shall be opened for further analysis. Therefore, the evaluation committee kindly requests the Executive Management of dventus technologies to review and approve the technical evaluation report. 14. FINANCIAL PROPOSALS Following the approval of dventus management team and AfDB of the technical evaluation result, the evaluation team has gone ahead to issue an invitation letter to all qualified bidder for the opening of the financial proposals in their presence on December 22, 2015 at 14:00 local time. Accordingly, the read out prices is as follows. Table 6: Summary of financial proposal evaluation score Bidders Financial Offer (USD) Total Points (100 Points) Financial Evaluation (20 Points) A B Ricardo Energy & Environment in association with ARTELIA 74,956 100 20 Berenschot Groep B.V. in association with WAAS International PLC 76,215 97 19 C Gaia-Swan Management PLC 118,300 64 13 9 P a g e
15. COMBINED RESULT As per the evaluation scores two of the firms, Gaia-Swan Management PLC and Berenschot Groep B.V. in association with WAAS International PLC have scored the same points. However, since there is a large gap in their technical scores the evaluation team has recommended going with the firm that has the higher technical score, i.e. GAIA-SWAN MANAGEMENT PLC. Table 7: Summary of combined evaluation score Bidders Technical Evaluation (80 Points) Financial Evaluation (20 Points) Total (100 Points) A Gaia-Swan Management PLC 76 13 89 B Berenschot Groep B.V. in association with WAAS International PLC 70 19 89 C Ricardo Energy & Environment in association with ARTELIA 64 20 84 16. AWARD OF CONTRACT Upon the receipt of no objection on the combined results from dventus management team as well as AfDB, dventus has gone ahead with the contractual negotiations with GAIA-SWAN MANAGEMENT PLC and has awarded the firm the contract. The terms of the contract are summarized as follows - Contract value: 118,300 USD - Contract period: 74 days - Scope of services: assess the market potential of dventus products (Smart electric and water meters) for deployment in the local and regional markets; recommend strategy for marketing and sales of dventus products, develop a marketing and sustainable business strategy and tools, assess its feasibility and formulate a complete business plan, and indicate any other potential marketable destinations 17. DEBREIFING Any consultant who wishes to ascertain the grounds on which its proposal was not selected, should request an explanation from dventus. dventus shall promptly provide the explanation as to why such proposal was not selected, either in writing and/or in a debriefing meeting, at the option of the consultant. The requesting consultant shall bear all the costs of attending such a debriefing. 10 P a g e