Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2018-12-14
Buyer: The University of Sheffield
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
CPV classification: 71314000: Energy and related services
Estimated value: 925000 GBP
EU fund: ERDF

Technical requirements: Four items of Equipment for the Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC) at the University of Sheffield
This is not a call for competition: low-carbon, sustainable energy (heat and power) generation is a key priority for the UK and internationally, with significant global opportunities for technology development and commercialisation. With co-funding from the European Regional Development Fund, the University of Sheffield is establishing a flagship national Translation Energy Research Centre. The Centre will provide a multi-technology, integrated RD&D platform which will bring together a range of energy generation facilities. This will promote research and innovation, as well as demonstrate individual and integrated energy systems enabling businesses to evaluate these low carbon/renewable technologies with the purpose of encouraging their uptake.
Equipment Covered Under the PIN: the new centre will have a range of bio-energy and conventional heat and power plants with carbon capture and utilisation facilities. This will significantly expand our current equipment portfolio, and therefore we are looking to procure the following equipment as individual items and/or as integrated packages:
4) Organic Rankine Cycle Generator System, to be integrated with above WtE boiler and/or gasifier and/or an existing 250 kW chip/pellet boiler.
Equipment covered by the PIN: the new centre will have a range of bio-energy and conventional heat and power plants with carbon capture and utilisation facilities. This will significantly expand our current equipment portfolio, and therefore we are looking to procure the following equipment as individual items and/or as integrated packages:
4) Organic Rankine Cycle Generator System, to be integrated with above WtE Combuster and/or Gasifier and/or an existing 250 kW chip/pellet boiler.
Outline attributes: the new facilities are envisaged to be standard/modified/custom-built equipment with ideally some or all of following general attributes:
(i) thermal input: the typical scale of our combustion plants vary between 150-350 kWth input. The key factor governing the scale of the plant is the amount of flue gas generated under standard operating conditions — see Point 2.i. below;
(ii) electrical/thermal output: electrical outputs should be ideally 10+ kWe for the ORC (in the integrated system) and 50+ kWe for other systems. For all systems the overall thermal and electrical efficiencies are important;
(iii) size: due to space limitations the equipment installation should be as small as possible whilst attaining the above and below requirements, to limit both space required for the equipment and fuel storage.
Purpose of PIN: we are issuing a PIN to highlight this opportunity to potential suppliers. We are also launching a market consultation exercise to help inform a realistic technical specification for the forthcoming tender process, and to engage with potential suppliers to better understand the following:
5) Technologies track record The individual tender requirements will follow separately after the market engagement exercise has concluded and will be advertised through OJEU and Contracts Finder, with documents being made available via the University’s In-tend portal https://in-tendhost.co.uk/sheffield/aspx/Home
Market engagement: the market engagement will be held between 14.12.2018 and 26.1.2019. Meetings and site visits must be arranged no later than by 12.1.2019.
Format: individual, non-confidential meetings, either face-to-face or via the telephone or teleconferencing software, or a combination of the above. Site visits are encouraged to enable discussion in the context of the installation space. A questionnaire will be used to guide the discussions and record responses. The questionnaires are available on request when arranging the meeting/site visit. Up to a total of up to 4 hours has been allocated for each party, to be utilised in one block or multiple sessions.
Contact to arrange meetings: suppliers are encouraged to contact Dr Kris Milkowski by e-mail: k.milkowski@sheffield.ac.uk or Telephone +44 (0)7802 720369 to make arrangements for site visits/meetings.


Award value: 925000