Government has informed the five pre-qualified companies in the running to build the 300MW natural gas-fired power plant at Wales that it has the right to accept or reject any proposal or terminate the selection process without incurring any liability.
“Acting in its sole discretion, the Employer reserves the right to accept or reject any Proposal or to reject all Proposals, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected Applicants. The Employer reserves the right not to recommend any Applicant and may terminate the selection process at any time without thereby incurring any liability to any Applicant,” states the Request for Proposals (RFP document which each firm signed.
Evaluation of bids is currently underway. Five companies have bid for the project. They are Guycan Consortium ($549,088,000 US), China Energy Int’l Gr. Co Ltd. ($466,649,772 US), China Machinery Engineering Inc., ($696,001,776 US), Power China Int’l Group Ltd. ($703,652,256 US) and Lindsayca Inc. & CH4 Guyana Inc. ($898,764,244 US).
The selection process to be used will be done in two stages where the first will be the technical Evaluation of Proposal and the second would be the Technical Score Adjustment of Price and Ranking.
Stage one carries a maximum of 40 points and the bidders must achieve no less than 30 points in order to be considered responsive.
A maximum of 18 points will be given after consideration of a bidder’s understanding of the project needs and constraints, management plan for the design, procurement and construction of the project and show of evidence of compliance with the RFP’s functional and performance requirements. Innovation and reliability of proposed technologies to be used will also awarded along with local content, evidence of commitment from major equipment vendors and the provision of a schedule with clear sequence and milestone to completion. Compliance with government regulations will also be used for point grading.
Of note is that even as environmental approval is yet to be granted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the project, each bidder has to separately meet environmental statutory requirements.
“Applicants are required to submit an environmental compliance plan indicating potential impacts and mitigation/remediation on the physical, ecological, and socioeconomic environments. The Contractor shall ensure that the Project satisfies all applicable environmental and statutory requirements and will be required to provide a full Environmental Impact Assessment Report in conformance with the requirements of the relevant government agencies prior to commencement of construction,” the document states.
It says that the companies have to also show how they will dispose of waste and that process must be in compliance with environmental laws.
Technical evaluation for the power plant aspect carries a maximum of 10 points and the documents says that it considers scope of work detail provided, process flow diagrams, heat and energy balance water balance and net output rate and emissions guarantee among a number of other considerations.
The NGL Plant project has a separate evaluation section and that is for a maximum of seven points. It is assessed based on a proposal that shows a full technical description and specification; preliminary process flow diagrams showing complete intent of the system design and scope of supply; preliminary layout of facility showing plot area required; plant modular design features complete with estimated module size and weight; targeted heat and material balance, utility consumption (electricity/fuel gas/water) and emissions/effluent summary forming basis of offer.
Also to be considered are propane recovery efficiency from gas-liquids separation process; confirmation of ability to meet all duty specifications for export product quality; plant availability – on stream factor; a written process performance guarantee and a proposed long term maintenance programs.
Only applicants that have obtained thirty points or more in the Technical Evaluation will be considered for Price Evaluation.
The applicant with the lowest price will receive sixty points. Points for the other applicants will be allocated proportionally to the lowest price.
The document says that the total score will be calculated by adding the Technical Score with the Price Score and applicants will be thus ranked. The applicant whose proposal has been determined to be substantially responsive to the RFP and who has scored the highest evaluation points as described will be identified as the Highest Ranked Applicant.
If after a selected bidder accepts the award and issues with the Letter of Acceptance arise prior to signing of the Contract, the company must furnish a Performance Security in the amount of fifteen percent of the contract price.
“The Performance Security shall be from a reputable financial institution acceptable to the Employer and be in the form of either a) unconditional letter of credit, b) certified cheque, or c) a surety bond. Model Performance Security forms are contained in the “Contract Forms” section issued with this RFP. All costs of obtaining and maintaining the Performance Security shall be borne by the Contractor,” the document says.
If it is later determined that the successful Applicant has made any false representation, has failed to comply with the requirements of Instructions to Applicants, or has breached the provisions of any Contract Agreement, then government will be entitled to draw upon the Performance Security.
Some 150 acres of land at Wales have been allocated for the project, which is expected to cut power costs by 50 per cent. The government’s power plant is expected to utilise “dry gas” for electricity generation.
Currently, and according to a study by the Guyana Power and Light Company, installed generation capacity in the Demerara Berbice Interconnectivy System (DBIS) region is less than 200MW and consists of generators running on light and heavy fuel oils.
However, by the target year 2025, in addition to the 300MW power plant, it is expected to have 35.2MW of renewables in the existing generation portfolio.
The RFP has also stated that it is anticipated that work by others, under separate contracts, will influence the work under the contract for the construction of the plant. These include an access road being constructed and bridges and lay down area. The deadline for that project was Friday.
There will also be a 100-acre site preparation for the integrated facility and this will be completed by June 1, 2023.
Other projects are engineering and installation of approximately 190 kilometres of pipeline, with an associated shallow water portion and onshore approach making landfall to the west of the Demerara River; a heavy haul road – completion estimated by March 1, 2023; a marine Offloading Facility – completion estimated by July 1, 2023; a transmission line to evacuate power sufficient for plant testing and initial operation– completion estimated by August 1, 2024 and rich gas for testing project to start-up and commissioning – available on October 31, 2024.
