Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2020-01-23
Buyer: Oxford City Council
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
CPV classification: 31158000: Battery chargers | 34144900: Tram cars
Estimated value: 2000000 GBP

Technical requirements: You are invited to attend a workshop to discuss the potential opportunity to become a Chargepoint Operator at what will be the UK’s largest public EV Superhub at Redbridge P&R, Oxford.
This prior information notice serves to alert the marketplace to this potential opportunity and for OCC to engage with the market to gather information to shape the proposed route to market. This early strategic level engagement will help scope the proposed approach.
Electric vehicles (EVs) have a key role in decarbonising the transport sector in Oxford and their uptake needs to be supported through adequate provision of charging infrastructure.
Energy Superhub Oxford (ESO) is a 10 000 000 GBP Innovate R&D Demonstrator grant funded project. The city council is a lead partner alongside 5 other partners, including Pivot Power (PP), Habitat Energy, RedT, Oxford University and Kensa. The funding timeframe is April 2019-March 2022.
The project focus is to provide sufficient electrical capacity to enable adoption of EV’s, providing a major support to the City’s target for improving Air Quality and achieving Zero Carbon emissions by 2030.
The project is currently in the final stages of design with a tight timescale for completion, commissioning and having a target for the cable to go in November 2020.
1) Creation of the largest public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging hub in the UK with an initial 50 charging points to support the increasing uptake of EVs. Successful completion of the Superhub will be a high profile achievement with national publicity.
AC/Fast charging (estimated 30 bays) – for park and ride users who want to plug in and charge their electric vehicle whilst visiting Oxford.
The electrical capacity needed for the charging is being provided through the project, via a private wire from Pivot Power, a partner on the ESO project. The private wire installation is part funded by innovate grant funding, but requires additional investment from connection fees, based on capacity provided.
All suppliers will need to enter into HoT agreements with Pivot power as part of a pre-qualification process to be considered for this opportunity.
OCC and Pivot Power are inviting commercial charge point operators, with an outstanding reputation for providing successful charging point installation and operation to exchange views on how they would deliver the following electric vehicle chargepoints in Oxford.
There is the potential for this procurement to be split into the following lots and 1 supplier could potentially service all lots:
OCC is particularly keen to explore different solutions and ownership models; with a view to understanding the impact that injection of limited capital funding can have on cost of charging to the public, revenue return/shared with OCC and expansion opportunities. The private wire has been designed and is being installed to accommodate expansion in excess of the initial MW connections.
OCC invites you to a market engagement workshop to discuss the plans for EV charging infrastructure, the intended approach, the levels of excellence required (uptime, customer service support, etc.), the locations available within the park and ride, timeframe for delivery, integration with existing car parking systems, enforcement of dwell times, costs of charging to the public, other facilities, opportunities for further expansion at this location and another site at the other eastern side of the cable route.
There will also be an opportunity to meet the City Council’s trading company (Oxford Direct Services) at the end of the session to explore whether any partnership working is possible.


Award value: 2000000