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Title: Bidding for electric resources: An industry review of competitive bid design and evaluation: Final report, May 1989

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6121655

Bidding has become an accepted method of securing both electric supply and demand-side management (DSM) resources in many parts of the country. Given the early stages of development of bidding systems, many critical questions remain regarding methods of designing requests for proposals (RFPs) and evaluation of bid proposals themselves. Through on-site interviews with those utilities currently involved with bidding, EPRI has identified some of the most pressing research issues. These include: reliability of non-utility capacity and DSM, the value of dispatchability, impact on system operating costs impact on power quality, and long-term affect on utility profitability. The report discusses methods that utilities use to develop RFPs, evaluate price and non-price attributes of bids, and negotiate final contracts. It includes a survey which ranks the importance of 30 various evaluation criteria. Results of a workshop held with utility managers experienced in the bidding process are presented. Workshop participants discussed pros and cons of highly specific RFPs, the value of explicit evaluation criteria, the importance of ceiling prices, and the inclusion of DSM with supply side bidding. 8 figs., 5 tabs.

Research Organization:
Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (USA); Strategic Decisions Group, Menlo Park, CA (USA)
OSTI ID:
6121655
Report Number(s):
EPRI-CU-6089
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English