Greater Baton Rouge Business Report
Summary
LSU is expected to issue a request for qualifications next month for a partner to modernize and run the central utilities plant at the main Baton Rouge campus, published reports say.
In a July 24 post, the trade publication Inframation, which operates behind a paywall, reported that the university would launch the first phase of a transparent, competitive procurement process for the campus energy system in August.
LSU officials declined to comment and the August agenda for the Board of Supervisors meeting has not yet been finalized or published.
But the move is not unexpected. More than a year ago, LSU retained KPMG to study the university’s facilities and operations, including its aging heating and cooling system, which is inefficient and is adding to the university’s growing backlog of deferred maintenance.
At the meeting of the LSU Board of Supervisors in early March, KPMG consultant Dan Feitelberg updated the board on the study and suggested then that the board consider such a public procurement
At that meeting, Feitelberg also said his firm had recently conducted a “high-level market-sounding effort” with 11 local and national utility infrastructure participants, all of whom expressed interest in potentially pursuing such a partnership with LSU.
“The district energy services sector has increased significantly in recent years,” he told the board. “This is happening all over the country.”
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