Reference

Maximizing ESCO or EPC performance

If getting the maximum from an Energy Services Company during the bidding stage is an art form.  It is an art form that is as easy as "Paint by Numbers" !

The bottom line (or as they say now TL;DR version) is that the more you help the process of pricing the bid, the more you benefit. This is best done by easy work, that is well-organised and thought through clearly.


Firstly to the cynics - who ask : "How can helping bidders price their bid lead to benefits - surely I want to drive their price down ?"

This is simply wrong - though the selection process is a competition that you run, the result must be a collaboration. 

So, if you accept that anyone pricing a performance contract has to price something they do not completely understand (because they will not win all tenders they bid for - and the costs of preparing bids is not zero), it is a small step to the reasonable assumption, that they will include a risk premium in their pricing. You want to minimize any pricing premium.
English: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dum...
English: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (illustration of the Appleton edition). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"All for one - and one for all"
is a summary of a good bidding process

One of their biggest cost variables is risk premium - therefore if you can reduce risk not for one, but for all (if it sounds like The Three Musketeers my apologies I have been a fan since I read Dumas under the bed-covers as a kid), all can offer their services at lower prices. In effect by informing them you assist competitiveness (amongst themselves to collaborate with you).

The same applies to any known problems - anything that is (or may be) an investment opportunity constitutes potentially reduced risk - The enhanced potential up-side makes the bidder more attracted to winning the bid - so they price more keenly.

Can FM nail the market with Virtual Energy Surveys?

If you run a building (or many buildings), you intuitively know that "eyeball" plant inspection and the study of data as symptoms from a process both have an important role in maintaining services.

It is no different to the idea that a doctor needs to see his patient, but may find looking at a chart of food-intake or white-blood-cell counts or whatever informative.