Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2024-04-18
Buyer: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland
Country: IE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 71314300: Energy-efficiency consultancy services | 71315300 | 71356000 | 71631000 | 71631300
EU fund: eu-funds

Technical requirements: This modification notice concerns a contract for the provision of a range of evaluation, survey, inspection, BER Assessment, audit and related quality assurance and technical services to deliver SEAI Schemes (the “Contract”). The Contract was awarded by SEAI in June 2019. 

SEAI began working on the replacement tender for above mentioned Contract some time ago. Due to the replacement contract’s complexity, scale and value, SEAI carried out pre market engagement with the market and ultimately a competitive dialogue tender process commenced following the publication of the contract notice on 28 July 2023. The tender process remains ongoing and therefore it has not been possible to conclude the replacement contract prior to the expiry of the current Contract.

As a result, a 6-month extension to the term of the current contract was necessary along with an inflation adjustment to the current rates for the duration of the extension period.

Separately, due to a number of factors, including, amongst other factors, increased packages of supports available for home energy upgrades, increased Government investment in the area and a backlog of services required due to the Schemes being paused as a result of Covid-19, Scheme activity increased over 2023 resulting in the need for additional resources to be deployed to the Contract by the provider which necessitated an uplift in fees.

As of 31 December 2023, the tendering process had not been concluded. An additional 5-month extension to the term of the contract is necessary 

1) Additional services by the original contractor/concessionaire (Art. 43(1)(b) of Directive 2014/23/EU, Art. 72(1)(b) of Directive 2014/24/EU, Art. 89(1)(b) of Directive 2014/25/EU). 
Description of the economic or technical reasons and the inconvenience or duplication of cost preventing a change of contractor: As noted above, to facilitate the conclusion of the replacement tender process a 5-month extension to the term of the current Contract (as amended to include a 6-month extension) was necessary. Having carried out the services since their appointment in 2019, the existing provider has acquired knowledge of the SEAI Schemes. The time required to acquire knowledge of the SEAI Schemes coupled with the minimum three-month period it would take (at a minimum) to appoint any new contractor pursuant to a new tender process would cause significant delay and duplication of costs. In addition, such an approach would take a longer period than it would to conclude the replacement tender process which has commenced and remains ongoing and would therefore not be feasible given the advanced stage of the replacement tender. 

2) Circumstances which a  diligent contracting authority/entity could not foresee (Art. 43(1)(c) of Directive 2014/23/EU, Art. 72(1)(c) of Directive 2014/24/EU, Art. 89(1)(c) of Directive 2014/25/EU)  Description of the circumstances which rendered the modification necessary and explanation of the unforeseen nature of these circumstances:
As noted above, the Contract was awarded by SEAI in June 2019. Since the commencement of the Contract there has been an unforeseeable level of inflation which a diligent contracting authority could have not foreseen. Accordingly, SEAI has adjusted the rates payable to the provider to take account of inflation for the duration of the extension period.

With regard to the uplift in fees due to increased Scheme activity over 2023 resulting in the need for additional resources to be deployed to the Contract by the provider, the factors noted above (the increased packages of supports available for home energy upgrades, the increased Government investment in the area and the backlog of services required due to the Schemes being paused as a result of Covid-19) increased demand for the Schemes and this was not something that a diligent contracting authority could have foreseen.

The value of the modifications addressed by this notice is less than 50% of the value of the original Contract. There will be no increase in the total value (€38,881,020) as the contract value was not reached prior to the modifications due to, amongst other things, Covid-19 (which resulted in a pause in services required under the Contract.)
The objective of the Request for Tender was to appoint an organisation to provide SEAI with a range of evaluation, survey, inspection, BER Assessment, audit and related quality assurance and technical services to deliver SEAI Schemes in accordance with the objectives cited in Appendix 2 of the RFT.