Page 188 - Sustainable On-Site CHP Systems Design, Construction, and Operations

The Engineering Pr ocess 161

each engineering team the time allotted for their presentation and for questions and
answers may learn little except which firm is most skilled at the interview process
itself.
If the teams are given CHP owner-operator requirements or selection criteria in
advance, the criteria can be used by the engineering team presenters to more effectively
structure their presentation and to prepare to answer the owner-operator’s questions
and/or concerns. This allows a more direct comparison between firms and better
assures the owner-operator’s project concerns are addressed.
Should no specific project guidelines or selection criteria be offered, often a success-
ful strategy is to try to answer the question “why select XYZ engineering to perform
this work” as part of the presentation. One’s presentation should try to answer the bullet
points outlined on previous pages demonstrating why their engineering firm can offer
the greatest value if selected for the work.
During the course of the interview, the engineering firm should look sharp, be well
prepared, show their best presentation skills, and demonstrate that they possess
the necessary knowledge and relevant CHP project design experience. At the end of the
interview, the CHP owner-operators’ selection committee should be left with the
impression that the interviewed firm has sufficient staffing and financial resources to
get the work done in a timely manner on or below budget, will be responsive and easy
to work, and if requested can also provide staff for employee hands-on training.
After all of the interviews are complete, the CHP owner-operator selection panel
should be provided with office or conference space to meet to discuss openly each of the
candidates strengths and weaknesses and be prepared to agree on the engineering firm
they believe should be commissioned for the CHP project. The CHP owner-operator
should be prepared to promptly notify their first choice as well as each of those partici-
pating firms not selected. Once all contract documents and contracts are in place, the
project can be awarded and the CHP engineering design process commences usually
following a “kick-off” meeting where all the individual firms meet and discuss how
they intend to organize their joint efforts and as a basis for information exchange among
the parties.

The Engineering Design Process
The engineering design process usually follows a familiar milestone lined path from
programming to schematic design, to design development, to the development of con-
struction documents, with owner-operator review and/or peer review, and budget cost
estimation occurring prior to signing-off at the completion of each phase of design.
Normally, the owner-operator should have already commissioned a well-thought-out
project study and developed a project schedule that facilitates the process of beginning
design and permitting a CHP system (see Chaps. 12 and 14). It would be foolish to
design a new CHP plant only to find out that the local air quality management district
or other code authority will not issue a permit to construct, or will add so many unfore-
seen requirements and costs that the CHP project’s expected economic attractiveness
are negatively impacted.
The engineering design process involves: developing plant system concepts; selecting
equipment; calculating heat transfer requirements; calculating flows and pressure
drops; preparing project specifications; and developing plans, elevations, sections, and
details so that the CHP plant can be constructed. However, the main CHP concept and