Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2017-04-07
Buyer: Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult
Country: UK
Region: Northumberland
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 09310000 | 31100000 | 31121100 | 31121110 | 31155000
Award criteria: The most economic tender
EU fund: ERDF

Technical requirements: ORE Catapult is seeking a Contractor that can design, supply, deliver, install, test and commission a Grid Emulation System including cabling and containment at its test facility in Blyth, Northumberland, UK.
ORE Catapult is the UK's flagship technology innovation and research centre for offshore wind, wave and tidal energy. Head-quartered in Glasgow, it has world-leading test and demonstration facilities in Blyth, Northumberland and Fife, Scotland. The senior management team is split between Glasgow and Blyth, with extensive technical expertise and knowledge at both locations.
We help to reduce the cost of offshore renewable energy, supporting the growth of the industry and creating UK benefit.
a. Having an experienced engineering and research team with a deep knowledge and understanding of offshore renewables;
c. Working with industry and academia to identify, prove and de-risk promising new technologies and bring them to market.
ORE Catapult is looking to procure a fully containerised Grid Emulation System which will be used in the 15 MW wind turbine nacelle/powertrain test facility (i.e. Fujin) and 3MW marine nacelle/powertrain test facility (i.e. Nautilus). The Grid Emulation System will allow ORE Catapult to conduct electrical power quality test and the possibility of accelerated validation of wind and marine renewable energy devices in a controlled environment reducing time to market, improving reliability and mitigating the risks associated with deployment of these devices.
The main requirement is for the Grid Emulation System to accommodate, as a minimum a 13 MW wind turbine output. The Grid Emulation System will allow the testing of various wind turbine configurations, such as generator with fully rated grid converter, doubly fed induction generator, synchronous generator without fully rated inverter, etc.
ORE Catapult is therefore seeking a Contractor that can design, supply, deliver, install, test and commission a Grid Emulation System including cabling and containment at its test facility in Blyth, Northumberland, UK.
Funding for this project is likely to come from other third party sources, both private and public e.g. ERDF, InnovateUK.
It has been deemed unsuitable for this to be broken down into Lots, as the integrity of the system may be significantly impacted.
Notwithstanding the ITT, ORE Catapult reserves the right to evaluate and accept from the Contractor improvements / upgrades / modifications throughout the life of the Grid Emulation System where such a Variation enhances the life, performance and capability of the Grid Emulation System. Variations can be originated by either Party and shall be carried out utilising the ORE Catapult Contract Change Note process as described in the ITT.
ORE Catapult will invoke the mandatory standstill period prior to awarding the contract. The notification will provide full information on the award decision. The standstill period, which will be for a minimum of 10 calendar days, provides time for unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract is entered into. Any appeals should be promptly brought to the attention of the ORE Catapult Procurement and Commercial Manager at the email address specified in Section I.1) and will be dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Public Contract Regulations 2015.


Winner: GE Energy Power Conversion UK Limited
Number of bids: 3