EECBG and SEP grantees across the nation have been issuing RFPs to help them develop energy efficiency strategies, implement financial incentive programs, set-up on-site renewable energy generation projects – and everything in-between.  While RFP samples for all sorts of different projects are now available at the Sub-recipients corner (http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/subrecipients.html), what happens when the bids come in?  Comparing bids from different vendors can at times seem like you’re comparing apples to oranges, making it difficult to decide on the best option. 

So, how do grantees rank bids, and then decide which one to select?
The folks in Warren County, Iowa, have come up with a straightforward approach that can work for pretty much any grantee with any type of bid.  In Warren County, the bids in question had been submitted in response to two separate RFPs they issued for Wind and Geothermal projects.  They developed a list of 19 unique categories they thought important to consider when reviewing each bid, and then had three different reviewers give a score for each category.  A few simple math calculations later, they were able to compare the average total score for each category, and then compile a single average score for each bid, comparing apples to apples, and oranges to oranges. 
Here’s how they did it:

Step 1.  Compile a list of key categories to consider.  Warren County’s 19 categories are below, but you can make as many or as few categories as you need:
 
1. Project description
2. Total cost to County
3. Installation description
4. Engineering certification
5. Past performance
6. Financial stability
7. Industry experience
8. Acceptance of County terms & conditions
9. Staffing
10. Presentations and visits
11. References
12. Transition plan
13. Product quality, product & install warranty
14. Operations manuals and end user training
15. Monitoring and demonstration tools
16. Assurance of service quality
17. Cooperative with [other] vendor
18. Integration with County
19. Compliance with Co. info security policies

Step 2.  Designate a group to review every bid.  In Warren County, The Federal Point of Contact (POC) is not a voting member of the scoring group, but does sit in as an advisor.  The scoring group membership is deliberately chosen, and includes the county engineer (for the purpose of advising on technical and construction engineering points), the chief administrator of the physical facility being affected by the project, and the executive director of the local utilities board (for the purpose of bringing understanding of energy efficiency rebates, utility district policy, etc. to the table during scoring).  This group structure helps ensure that the aggregate scores are more likely to be based on merit rather than favoritism.  While Warren County uses 3 reviewers, this process could be effective with only 2, or with more than 3.  The key is that every reviewer must review every bid in order for the process to work.

Step 3.  Conduct the review, and for each bid, each reviewer will provide a score for every category.  In Warren County, each category was scored on a 1 through 5 scale, with 5 being the highest score possible. 

Step 4.  Create a table to calculate the average for each category, and then create a second table with each category listed vertically, and the average score for each bid listed horizontally.  If there were 2 reviewers, a simple average score table might look like this:

                   Bid 1      Bid 2      Bid 3
Category 1    5           4.5         4.5
Category 2    4           2.5         3
Category 3    4.5        4.5         2.5
 Total           13.5       11          10

Step 5.  Have a wrap-up session where the scores are considered and each reviewer can explain their thought processes and positions (if that’s desired!)  In the example above, Bid 1 came out as the highest ranked option, but there can still be an opportunity for adjustments if one of the reviewers makes a compelling case for changing a particular score.
One thing to keep in mind is that even if reviewers approach the scoring process with different sets of methodologies, the scores will still be reliable to compare against each other as long as each reviewer is consistent with their own scoring.
How do you rank RFP bids in YOUR municipality?

Please share your comments in the section below on the process in Warren County, or your own process for ranking bids.

Content for this blog post courtesy of Zach Abrams, North Central Regional Coordinator, ICF International.