Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2017-01-20
Buyer: University of Keele
Country: UK
Region: Staffordshire CC
Contract type: Works
Procedure: Competitive procedure with negotiation
CPV classification: 32421000 | 38551000 | 38554000 | 42961200 | 44161100
Estimated value: 7000000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2017-02-20
Award criteria: The most economic tender
EU fund: ERDF

Technical requirements: Tenders are invited from interested parties for the delivery of the Smart Energy Network Demonstrator (SEND). This will cover both the design and construction of the SEND under a single-stage design and build contract.
Conceptually the SEND project will transform the University's current utilities infrastructure into a dual use system that operates to both supply energy and acts as a laboratory for research, development and innovation (RD&I) to support both business and academic driven research programmes and support new product, processes and services developments.
The SEND is part funded from the England European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
The Keele University SEND will provide a real community based at-scale demonstrator, across multiple energy vectors, to support RD&I into smart, flexible energy supply, storage and monitoring to deliver improved energy security, reduce energy costs and reduce carbon emissions within a mixed environment and community. The purpose of this procurement is to appoint a Contractor to complete the final design, deliver the new and upgraded/refurbished utility infrastructure to enable demonstration, introduce and upgrade (to enable demonstration) the control system for the SEND, and oversee the introduction of procedural changes.
The Prior Information Notice was published in OJEU in October 2016 and anticipated that the award criteria would be 60 % in respect of quality and 40 % in respect of cost. Following further consideration, the University has adjusted the weightings to 70 % for quality and 30 % for cost, given the critical importance of quality to the success of the SEND project.
The form of contract to be utilised will be the FIDIC Silver Book First Edition 1999 as will be amended by the University as specified in the procurement documents.
Completed Selection Questionnaire responses will be assessed against the selection criteria (detailed in the Selection Questionnaire) to arrive at a short-list of Tenderers who will be invited to submit initial tenders. It is estimated that five Tenderers will be invited to submit initial tenders, which shall be further shortlisted to three Tenderers following evaluation of initial tenders, although Keele University reserves the right to change this number.
In accordance with regulation 65(7) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Keele University also reserves the right to only invite those candidates meeting the selection criteria even if this falls below the statutory minimum number of three.
The selected supplier may be required to actively participate in the achievement of social and/or environmental objectives. Accordingly contract performance conditions may relate in particular to social, environmental or other corporate social responsibility considerations. Further details will be set out in the procurement documents.
Information for the electronic procedures relating to ordering, invoicing and payment can be found at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/universityofkeele/aspx/Home and http://www.keele.ac.uk
Tenderers will remain responsible for all costs and expenses incurred by them or by any third party acting under instructions from the Tenderers in connection with taking part in this procurement, regardless of whether such costs arise as a consequence direct or indirect of any amendments made to the procurement documents by the University at any time.
iii) change the basis, the procedures and the timescales set out or referred to within the procurement documents;
iv) require a bidder to clarify any submissions in writing and/or provide additional information (failure to respond adequately may result in disqualification);
Tenderers will be subject to a financial assessment to evidence that they have an acceptable level of financial standing to deliver a contract of the SEND's size and complexity. As part of this assessment, Tenderers will be required to evidence that their average annual turnover over the previous three financial years was at least  14 000 000 GBP (noting that, where a Tenderer is bidding as a consortium, this threshold shall apply in the aggregate to the consortium members as a whole, provided that the lead consortium member's average annual turnover over the last three years meets or exceeds 70 % of the requirement). In conjunction with the above, the University will undertake an N2 Check credit report in respect of the Tenderer. Tenderers may be excluded from the process where their credit score is 40 or below out of 100.
The SEND is part funded from the England European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).


Award value: 7000000