Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2018-04-28
Buyer: Newcastle City Council
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 09300000 | 09323000 | 09330000: Solar energy | 38551000 | 42515000
Estimated value:  GBP
Award criteria: Quality, Price
EU fund: ERDF

Technical requirements: Quality
Price
Newcastle City Council is seeking to procure an energy partner for the City. The council wishes to identify a partner with the most economically advantageous tender, to work with the council on the scoping, design, procurement, financing, implementation, delivery and operation of energy infrastructure and schemes in the city, primarily (but not limited to) district energy scheme(s), together with associated works, services and supplies. It is anticipated that the project will involve development of a partnership with the council. The nature of the partnership and potential funding and financing solutions will be explored during dialogue. The first scheme likely to be progressed through the project is the development, delivery and operation of an energy centre and associated district heating network on the Newcastle Science Central site in the City. It is anticipated that other projects (potentially including existing district energy systems within the City) will subsequently be identified and awarded to the successful partner, but this will be subject to all necessary permissions, partner performance and the availability of funding or financing.
Although the “Award of a contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (in the cases listed in Section 2 of Annex D1)” box has been ticked, there was an OJEU notice published, reference 2015/S 042-072307 dated 28/02/2015, the type of procedure undertaken was competitive dialogue, however the original notice omitted the required indication as to the use of EU funding and therefore this VEAT notice is published to rectify the omission. I can confirm thereafter a fully compliant competitive dialogue procedure was undertaken to appoint the preferred bidder.
This contract may include European Union Funds including European Regional Development Funds from the England 2014 to 2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Programme.
The duration of any contract between the successful bidder and the council is expected to be in the region of 40 years but will be dependent on proposals put forward by the bidders. The Council has estimated the contract duration, however this is subject to change. Due to the nature of the project, the contract value is deliberately wide and is based upon estimates of project NPV that cannot be guaranteed at this stage. The values are based upon the ultimate deliverability of schemes over the contract length and indicate our best estimates and ambition to complete 2 projects up to 20 projects with an estimated NPV of 25 000 000 GBP each over the anticipated contract length.
Section I.4 — The contracting authority is acting as a central purchasing body on behalf of itself and 3 bodies listed in Annex A of this notice as well as the following:
2) All educational establishments in the administrative boundary of Newcastle upon Tyne, for further information on potential users please see http://www.education.gov.uk/edubase/home.xhtml
3) All registered housing providers in the administrative boundary of Newcastle upon Tyne, for further information on potential users please see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/current-registered-providers-of-social-housing
4) All NHS bodies in the administrative boundary of Newcastle upon Tyne, for further information on potential users please see http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/about/Pages/authoritiesandtrusts.aspx
5) The fire and rescue authority in the administrative boundary of Newcastle upon Tyne, for further information on potential users please see http://www.cfoa.org.uk/12072
6) The police authority in the administrative boundary of Newcastle upon Tyne, for further information on potential users please see http://www.police.uk/forces/
For the avoidance of doubt this list of potential users includes any statutory successors and organisations created as a result of reorganisation or organisational change. Such bodies should be able to rely on this procurement without the need for any further procurement where this is within the scope of this notice.
The council reserves the right to cancel or suspend this procurement procedure at any time without any liability for tenderer's costs.
Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals: The public contracts Regulations 2006 (as amended) provide aggrieved parties who have been harmed or are at risk of harm by a breach of the rules to take action in the High Court (England, Wales and Northern Ireland).