The P3 Water Summit offers the opportunity to learn, discuss and share evolving concepts and state-of-the-art techniques in delivering water partnerships.

A comprehensive list of best practices and lessons learned will be presented in the agenda. With an emphasis on what managers should consider when looking at P3 opportunities, including:

Pre-award Discussion Topics:  

• Assessing merits, risks, and the feasibility of a P3 project
• System and facility considerations: identifying what works as P3 and what does not
• Custom structures and options for small communities seeking partnerships
• Special tactics for smaller projects 
• Defining project requirements and identifying appropriate project delivery models
• Evaluating your system, assessing current level of service, and comparing to Industry standards 
• Meeting deferred O&M challenges 
• Best practices in procurement
• Understanding credit impacts P3s can have on an institution’s rating and debt capacity
• Political considerations for developing and implementing P3 projects

Teamwork and Collaboration Topics:  

• How to score, select, and negotiate with prospective partners
• How to set service standards and define performance metrics
• The importance of early engagement with private partners
• Integration tools and techniques to enhance collaboration
• Owner roles and responsibilities in executing a P3
• Risk balance and expectation management
• Contract administration and analysis 
• Streamline documentation 

Advanced Project Delivery Topics:

• Risk identification, mitigation, and tradeoff strategies
• Asset monetization of non-core infrastructure assets using P3s
• Financing solutions and value propositions under the P3 Model
• The influence of design within the P3 process
• Value creation from transferring operations and maintenance
• Latest innovations and life-cycle efficiencies in P3 delivery

Additional topics to be covered through keynotes, panel sessions, and workshops  

• Entry level informational workshop for newcomers to public-private partnerships.
• Sessions meant specifically for smaller water projects in the $5 to $15 million range.
• Consolidation and other options available to smaller communities.
• How to bring community stakeholders together to move P3 projects forward.
• Real project P3 experience from the public sector on what worked and what didn’t.
• In-depth examinations of recent water P3s
• Project Turnover: What happens the end? Reversion to owners and managing the transition into the public domain.

How To Determine the Appropriate Project Delivery Model
How are project owners determining the optimal delivery model for their projects? Before initiating procurement, agencies should undertake a business case analysis to determine whether a traditional or alternative procurement is likely to yield higher benefit through the life of an asset. Presenters representing systems will discuss their pre-procurement methods and explore the applicability of traditional and alternative methods to infrastructure projects currently in the pipeline. 

Innovative Ways to Avoid Construction Disputes – DRBs and Their Application
Disputes and claims have been a part of construction projects for many years and oftentimes drag out well after the completion of the project, tying up valuable resources and adding costs. Actively managing the dispute or claim or, even better yet, helping avoid the claim or dispute entirely, saves time and money for all the parties involved. This workshop discusses how Dispute Review Boards (DRBs) have been used for many years on water related projects. By having a DRB start at the beginning of a project, the DRB can often help involved parties avoid a dispute by being proactive with the parties in getting issues settled and avoiding a dispute altogether. The conversation will provide an overview of the DRB process and how it can help avoid disputes or get them settled in a timely and efficient manner. 

Accelerating Environmental Review and Entitlements
This panel will discuss what environmental and entitlement obstacles systems are facing and how local agencies are approaching entitlement applications, as well as present innovative solutions to these issues and constraints. Case studies from recently completed projects will cover topics including each project’s spillover effects on the community and how impacts on local communities and neighbors are mitigated.

What Does a Successful Project Look Like Today? Understanding Different Project Delivery Approaches  
This panel will explore the ingredients for success based on selected criteria (participants, risk allocation, performance, schedule and funding/financing) of innovative project delivery approaches.  Our panelists will discuss how elements in contracts and planning specifically helped expedite schedules, reduce costs, bridge funding gaps and insure long term asset management. We will look closely at and compare three different successful structures and projects 

Applying Design-Build Best Practices to Water Project Delivery 
The presentation and follow-on discussion, explores the intersection of current design-build practices and how they should be adapted for water, waste-water, and stormwater projects. With a collaborative delivery inherently embedded in almost any alternative delivery approach, mastering the design-build learning curve is fundamental to successfully implementing projects. The presentation focuses on identifying key issues and risk transfer considerations unique to design-build delivery followed by an interactive discussion addressing key implementation issues  For example: what are the preparation steps needed for an to implement a project without prior hands-on design-build experience? How does the fixed price design-build approach translate to a procurement, particularly in relation to prescriptive- versus performance-based requirements? Is there a progressive design-build option within the DB framework? How does the risk transfer and securitization of existing DBO models compare to traditional delivery? How can commissioning approaches and acceptance metrics for design-build and DBO projects be applied in today’s environment? 

A Template for Instilling Confidence in the Procurement Process 
To attract consortium partners (developers, investors, contractors and service professionals), owners must instill confidence in the procurement process. This sessions explores how to develop a dedicated institutional framework designed to manage and guide programs and projects.

Solutions for Rural Areas
What project delivery model work for your next project ? A panel of practitioners and industry experts will explore how different methods can create opportunities in rural areas and small cities. This discussion will emphasize best practices and lessons learned from alternative project delivery for rural areas, and participants will learn how to develop a strategy for their communities: including specific steps to take advantage of best practices in procurement.

Financing and Funding Approaches Available in Today’s Market
This session brings together the perspectives of infrastructure banks, state funds, capital market experts, and agencies to discuss a range of familiar and lesser known programs available to communities evaluating project investment. Panelists will share insight on the risks and advantages of different options, while considering key issues related to the application process; project selection; leveraging resources; credit analysis; determining leverage; aggregating smaller projects; the role of public private partnerships; hybrid funding; implementation; and proper stakeholder coordination. A key objective in this session is to explore ways that these programs can help accelerate and foster increased investment in critical water infrastructure in the U.S.

New Strategies for Deferred O&M 
How can your development plan can include long-term operations and maintenance obligations. O&M is mounting challenge faced by agencies across the country, and many project owners have stated that these operations and maintenance services are one of the biggest reasons for considering alternative delivery models. This session will discuss how the inclusion of these key deliverables to maintain infrastructure and improve service.

Using Project Delivery to Transform Energy Management 
In the context of an increasing focus on energy cost, volatility, carbon impact and security of supply, water managers are transforming their energy systems by deploying innovative technical solutions and contracting approaches. These approaches are modernizing aging systems to meet resilience and sustainability objectives, while reducing costs and releasing value. This session discusses examples of good practice and discuss the actions and approaches cities and agencies can take to improve their energy outcomes through different delivery type models, drawing upon experts from both the construction and contract management realms.

Contract Management and Making the Partnership Work 
When a contract is signed with a private party, the work of the partnership begins, and both parties have to live up to their responsibilities. Contracts attempt to identify and plan for the potential events that could occur during the life of the project, but can rarely imagine all events into the future.  This module will present the fundamentals and challenges of contract management, methods to streamline documentation. examine contract requirements, discuss enforcement policies, as well as techniques for amending, renegotiating or terminating contracts. 

Winning Formulas for Water Infrastructure Projects 
Alternative project delivery is moving up the agenda in the market but definitions is can be mixed and confusing. This session navigates through the confusion by outlining the different delivery models and discussing the key components of successful facility projects underway in the U.S. 

Understanding Public Private Partnerships – Risk Balance and Expectation Management
One of the hallmarks of a successful P3 project is the sharing of risk between the owner and private sectors. Where can the balance be stricken and how can you be sure you have identified all the project risk categories for which transfer is an appropriate deal point? This session will discuss how stakeholders can work together to establish expectations and strike a fair balance for risk transfer between them on P3 jobs. The panel will address how to manage risk transfer in design and construction costs, operational and maintenance risk, and political risk can impact the value for money analysis. We will discuss risk allocation, as well as among the various members of private concessionaire teams. Finally, once the appropriate risk categories have been identified, we will discuss the different vehicles available to implementing risk transfer. 

When Nature Attacks: How Should We React? Building Resiliency and Disaster Preparedness 
Water facilities have a central role in a community’s resilience and ability to respond and resume services after major natural disasters. However climate change today is introducing complex hazards that challenge traditional assumptions for building capabilities, needs, redundancies, and ability to respond in times of disaster.  Should recent high-profile fire and flooding events in California, Texas, and along the East Coast usher in a new age of new design and construction thresholds for climate-resilient projects? In this session we will hear about the experiences of three agencies as they discuss how their organizations had been recently impacted by extreme weather events.  How can we design and plan projects to be flexible in the face of environmental uncertainty. Panelists will share their how their organizations are revaluating risks and planning in the face of extreme weather possibilities. And we review recent and upcoming projects that integrate sustainable communications, energy, water and waste infrastructure to a standard of climate resilience to withstand events over the anticipated life of the structure.

Integrated Approaches to Building A Public Facility Microgrid
The facility microgrid market sector is quickly developing, as stakeholders have verifiable examples of successful installations in the utility and municipal spaces. Microgrids offer facility owners and managers an innovative and reliable solution to fit their unique needs. Smart design of microgrids can contribute significantly to achieving key microgrid goals such as energy supply reliability and resiliency, source flexibility, cost-effective demand response and carbon reduction.  This presentation describes strategies for microgrids, including renewable sources, power generation, and energy storage systems. The talk will also focus on contract structures and how owners can install microgrids quickly without impacting facility budgets and everyday operations. A discussion on lessons learned from the feasibility and design process through construction, startup and testing will be included in addition to the regulatory aspects to consider in a tactical implementation. 

Your Next Procurement: Top 10 Issues
What are the top 10 issues you should make sure you address when procuring your next project? Hear from this panel of project delivery advisors with hands-on experience about procurement Best Practices and Lesson Learned. This panel will provide guidance on how to navigate the procurement process and identify actions you can take to anticipate issues and achieve resolution so that your next procurement will be successful.