Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2022-09-20
Buyer: Ørsted Wind Power A/S
Country: DK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 73300000
Award criteria: Lowest price

Technical requirements: The objective of this contract is to take a further step in a long-stretched development project. This project aims to make the first offshore tests of three new offshore installation technologies - which are currently under development - on 6 monopiles at offshore wind farm sites. This will be the first ever full-scale test of the technologies. The scope of work comprises of further development and scaling up of the equipment. The developed equipment from former onshore trial tests is scaled and customized to enable the equipment to accommodate the offshore full-scale tests on monopiles. The scope of work does also cover relevant testing of the equipment as well as control and monitoring of the installation.
The contractor is to develop, procure/fabricate and operate the installation equipment used during the offshore installation test. The new installation technologies and equipment are developed as an alternative installation approach to conventional impact hammers with the aim to reduce damages to the pile during installation while in the same time reduce the noise emission. If the tests are successful, the technologies can be used in future full-scale offshore monopile installation projects located in similar ground conditions.
The background for the procurement is that Ørsted is active within development of offshore wind farms. The concept of offshore wind farms is relatively new, and therefore, the requirements to the development of the wind farms are constantly increasing as more experience is gained within the field. Ørsted is constantly taking part in the technology development with the aim to reduce the environmental impact and costs associated with design, procurement, construction and operation of offshore wind farms, including foundation installation technologies.
The development track of the specific alternative installation methods were initiated in 2016 with a small scale desktop assessment and a small scale test to prove the concept. The tests were successful, and following onshore pilot tests at medium scale have been conducted to further assess the potential at a larger scale. A total of three different technologies have been developed.
Following, successful tests and additional development, Ørsted is now ready to test the technologies offshore at full-scale on a limited number of monopiles. After installation of the monopiles, the monopiles will be used to support real wind turbines, and therefore, part of the tests will also be to assess the foundation performance after installation of the monopiles by the alternative installation methods.
Ørsted intends to test one of the three new technologies on one site and the combination of two other technologies on the other site.
On each of the two offshore wind sites a limited number of 3 monopiles will be equipped with newly developed equipment. Procurement of final design including mounting of newly designed equipment to the 6 monopiles is performed onshore. Project management related to the installation methods is also covered in the procured scope.
Ørsted has assessed, that the contract can be awarded in accordance with article 50(b) of Directive 2014/25/ EU as the contract is for the development and testing of the three newly developed technologies for offshore monopile installation.
Article 50(b) of Directive 2014/25/EU opens for the possibility to use a negotiated procedure without prior call for competition if the following criteria are met;
c)	does not prejudice the competitive award of subsequent contracts with the same purposes and scopes.
Ad a) the technologies have never been tested in full scale with the purpose of installing a monopile. Neither have the technologies been tested in an offshore environment. The technologies are to be tested offshore in full scale monopile installation examining if these newly developed technologies can in fact be used as a way of solving issues with noise during the installation of offshore monopiles. The scope of works comprised in the contract is necessary for Ørsted to be able to test the technologies in a full-scale test on offshore wind farms. Thus, the scope of the contract supports Ørsted in developing and executing the full-scale test. The contractor is responsible for the fabrication, installation and function of the equipment used for the full-scale offshore test.
Ad b) The contracts and costs which are required to complete these R&D-projects for the installation with reduced noise emission exceeds the costs which Ørsted would have had if the positions were installed using regular methods and technologies. Also, the technologies are only expected to be used on three positions at each site to test the technology. Hence, the number of positions is only set at the minimum required level to be able to test the technology and does not enable Ørsted to secure a profit or recover the costs from the research and development. The test of the technologies will only be an expense to Ørsted at the current point in time as it is not guaranteed that the technologies will be applicable on actual projects as the technologies has not previously been tested in full scale.
Ad c) The contract in question does not prejudice future contracts from a competitive procedure as Ørsted keeps all right regarding the developed technologies that are necessary in order to have competitive procedures regarding the award of subsequent contracts with the same aim and scope
In accordance with section 7(3) of law no. 593, dated 02/06/2016, complaints about that a contracting entity has awarded a contract in breach of the tender rules without prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the EU the complaint shall be submitted to the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement within 30 calender days calculated from the day after the day where the contracting entity has published a contract award notice in the Official Journal of the EU. This is the case if the contracting entity has followed the procedure in section 4 of law no. 593, dated 02/06/2016 and has provided its reasoning as to why the contract has been awarded without prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the EU. In accordance with section 6(4) of law no. 593, dated 02/06/2016 the complaining party shall give a written notice to the contracting entity no later than at the time of the submission of the complaint to the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement. The written notice shall contain information about that the complaining party will submit a complaint to the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement and whether the complaint has been submitted within the 10 calendar days as determined in section 4(1), no. 2 of law no. 593, dated 02/06/2016.


Winner: Per Aarsleff A/S