Contracting out the rehabilitation of hydro plants

In the past, public utilities in the developed world typically had large engineering departments which were responsible for the construction, development and maintenance of their various hydro facilities. On-going improvements, eventual rehabilitation and even upgrading of these facilities could be handled in-house by these departments. Many of these engineering departments have been disbanded or privatized. Rehabilitation of existing powerplants is now, of necessity, contracted out. In the developing world, contracting out rehabilitation work is even more common as most utilities have no tradition of large in-house engineering departments. Also, in the emerging world, financing for rehabilitation typically comes from lending agencies that demand competitive bidding and full transparency, which is not offered by an in-house procedure. In this article the author discusses the various steps in the contracting-out process including feasibility studies, specifica-tion, bidding processes, contract administration and quality assurance. Examples of several contracted-out rehabilitation projects are given.