Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2020-07-17
Buyer: Aspirations Academy Trust
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 09300000 | 31527260 | 31682000 | 45200000: Building and civil engineering work | 45251000
Submission deadline: 2020-08-18
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Aspirations Academies Trust seek to establish a framework agreement for Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) with a panel of capable suppliers to provide low energy carbon efficient infrastructure services, improvements and upgrades to existing or new facilities in the UK education and public sector. These upgrades should offer client public sector bodies guaranteed resilience valued through reduced running costs, reduced energy consumption and reduced carbon emissions. Proposals should guarantee minimum levels of savings over the period of each contract let under the framework which may be 15-31 years long. This framework agreement will be available for all UK public sector bodies.
The site(s) of any contracting authorities as defined in Regulation 2 (1) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 including all explanatory notes thereto.
Aspirations Academy Trust and its partner enFrame CIC seek to procure and manage a framework of capable contractors to provide carbon and energy resilience and service improvements to the public sector in the UK. This may involve the installation and management of new or upgraded infrastructure or a guaranteed upgrade in services and resilience provided as the contractor feels appropriate.
Framework bidders will be invited to offer contracting authorities service improvements that include the delivery of guaranteed resilience and efficiency valued in terms of reduced running costs, reduced energy consumption and reduced carbon emissions plus the management of those services. Service contract durations may be 15 to 31 years. The guarantee refers to the bidder taking all the risks and costs relating to the provision of all services including any relevant design, procurement, commissioning, operation, life cycling and continued guaranteed performance of the installation using the bidders staff, contractors, or in some circumstances those of the Contracting Authority as may be agreed in the contract.
Service or infrastructure improvements or upgrades may include but not be limited to combined heat and power, boilers (steam LTHW or MTHW), district heating or cooling, heat recovery, chilling, heat pumps, fuel cells, chillers, air handling, controls, solar PV, battery or energy storage, lighting, insulation (roof, pipes, building, cladding or related), glazing, water savings, water abstraction, effluent treatment, waste to energy, pyrolysis, clinical waste destruction or conversion, processing or removal, biomass, biofuel, biogas, grid reinforcement, capacity market, STOR, electrical (HV, MV and LV) improvements (demand reduction, re-profiling, generation, aggregation, co-generation, tri-generation, wind generation, standby generation), private wire, virtual power station, load or power management, gas supplies (natural, anaerobic digestion or biogas, on or attached to the national grid or not) technology to change or improve maintenance or life cycling arrangements, building management, BMS, maintenance management, preventative maintenance, soft facilities management, electric or hybrid vehicles, vehicle charging, vehicle maintenance, transfer of staff, subcontracts or subcontractors and any related technologies or services that are relevant.
In many cases the selected supplier may be expected to take over existing energy facilities building/boiler house or plant rooms relevant to the project, sometimes under license and sometimes under a simple lease, for the operational period of the contract. In some cases, the contract may include the construction or modification of existing buildings or structures associated with the delivery of services.
Details of the site, service requirements and the existing facilities will be set out in the scope of works for each project and mini competition, and bidders will be encouraged to attend the site to fully investigate the existing plant plus cost and plan their bids. Bids may be supported by variant bids going beyond any core proposal included in the project documentation, to cover additional operation and maintenance of existing plant, facilities management services and equipment as makes sense.
Justification for any framework agreement duration exceeding 4 years: Closing an EPC contract can involve protracted approvals process that can take 2 years. The proposed framework agreement will accept projects for up to four years and then remain open for a further 2 years to give all the projects time to work through final approvals and begin implementation.
EnFrame CIC are the sole appointed agents for this Aspirations Academies Trust framework and will be the exclusive operator for its duration. The framework agreement including all mini competitions and call-off contracts will be managed by enFrame CIC. The framework is available for use by all contracting authorities defined by Regulation 2 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 #102 and as listed within the procurement documents.
Note: to register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the myTenders Web Site at https://www.mytenders.co.uk/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=220032
The buyer has indicated that it will accept electronic responses to this notice via the Postbox facility. A user guide is available at https://www.mytenders.co.uk/sitehelp/help_guides.aspx
Suppliers are advised to allow adequate time for uploading documents and to dispatch the electronic response well in advance of the closing time to avoid any last minute problems.
Aspirations Academies Trust will incorporate a standstill period at the point information on the award of the contract is communicated to tenderers. That notification will provide full information on the award decision. The standstill period, which will be for 10 calendar days, provides time for unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract is entered into the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (S1 2006 No 5) provide for 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).

Eligibility requirements: Selection criteria as stated in the procurement documents.