ENGINEER/CONTRACTOR SELECTION, RFPs vs. RFQs, and TECHNICAL SPECS vs. PERFORMANCE SPECS. WHICH METHODS BEST SERVE THE CLIENT’S NEEDS?

摘要

When a landfill owner decides to install a landfill gas (LFG) management system, it may be for one of several reasons. It may be a simple control system for reducing or eliminating atmospheric emissions in order to comply with environmental regulations. It may be for safety reasons or to stop offsite migration or odors, or as a means to collect gas for energy recovery, or for any combination of any or all of these reasons. Most landfill owners know what they want or need to do with their landfill gas, but many of them, particularly municipalities, may not have the training or experience to know exactly how to go about doing it, or whether they are making the best decisions for their particular project. Their first step is usually to seek the advice and assistance of an engineer. Not all landfill owners are fortunate enough to have the services of an experienced LFG design or construction firm readily available, however, and not all engineering firms, regardless of size, are fully competent to do LFG work. The selected firm could be a local engineer who has helped with the design or permitting of the landfill itself, but who knows little about landfill gas. Selection of the right engineer is crucial to the operational and economic success of the project, and is the first critical choice that the landfill owner must make. The next critical decision is the type of specifications (“specs”) that should be used for the project. They may be “performance” specs, in which the operating requirements, such as regulatory standards, online efficiency or allowable emissions, are spelled out, or they may be “technical” specs, which enumerate the brand, size, color, function, etc. of individual components of each part of the LFG system. Each type of spec has its own pros and cons, depending upon the type, size and purpose of the project. The third critical decision is to determine which type of solicitation is best for selecting and contracting with the firm and/or suppliers to do the actual work. This can be done by means of a Request for Qualifications (“RFQ”), in which the contractor is first selected on the basis of hisqualifications, experience and approximate price, with the details negotiated with the winning firm to get the best result. Or it can be a Request for Proposals (“RFP”), in which bidders compete, mostly on the basis of price, to provide the specific system enumerated in the specs. Again, each of these methods has its own pros and cons. This paper will discuss the pros and cons of each of these contracting steps in terms of which ones might best serve the landfill owner for various types of projects, and provide guidelines for the landfill owner to use as a reference in his own selection and contracting process.