Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-02-18
Buyer: Moyle Interconnector Ltd(MIL)
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 31200000 | 51112200
Estimated value: 23000000 GBP

Technical requirements: MIL owns the Moyle Interconnector (MIC), a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) electricity connection between Northern Ireland (NI) and Scotland. MIL now seeks to appoint Siemens Gas and Power GmbH & Co KG and Siemens Transmission and Distribution Ltd (hereafter ‘Siemens GPTD’) to upgrade various aspects of the control and protection system of MIC.
MIL is publishing this transparency notice to inform economic operators of its intention to enter into a contract with Siemens GPTD pursuant to Regulation 50(1)(e) and/or 50(1)(c) of the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016. The employer's requirements will be delivered over a period of approximately 34 months expected to begin in March 2020. It involves the replacement of the controls and protection at the MIC Converter Stations, which presently use Siemens group technology installed in 2001. The contract covers the detailed design, manufacture, factory testing, installation and commissioning of the upgraded control system and related items.
MIL owns the Moyle Interconnector (MIC), a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) electricity interconnector between Northern Ireland (NI) and Scotland. Siemens plc (a subsidiary of Siemens AG) designed, constructed and commissioned the MIC using Siemens’ group proprietary technology, parts, infrastructure and components. Commissioned in 2001, the link provides 500 MW of interconnection capacity between the NI and GB electricity grids. The MIC is a critical infrastructure asset to wider NI society and also offers support to the GB grid when required. As such, MIL always seeks to maintain class-leading reliability and availability of the asset. MIC, in common with most HVDC links, is a bespoke solution, specific to its operating environment, and the services it is expected to deliver. MIL now seeks to appoint Siemens Gas and Power GmbH & Co KG and Siemens Transmission and Distribution Ltd (hereafter referred to as Siemens GPTD) to upgrade various aspects of the control and protection system of the MIC. This is the first time that the control system has been upgraded since the MIC was commissioned and represents a significant investment for MIL.
Siemens GPTD are subsidiaries of Siemens AG that have responsibility for developing, servicing, upgrading and installing HVDC systems in the United Kingdom, using Siemens’ group proprietary technology.
MIL is publishing this transparency notice to inform economic operators of its intention to enter into a contract with Siemens GPTD pursuant to Regulation 50(1)(e) and/or 50(1)(c) of the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016. The employer’s requirements will be delivered over a period of approximately 34 months and is expected to begin in March 2020. It involves the replacement of the control and protection system at the MIC Converter Stations, which presently use Siemens group technology commissioned in 2001. The contract covers the detailed design, manufacture, factory testing, installation and commissioning of the upgraded control system and related items.
The upgraded control system will deliver a highly robust cyber security design. It will also address the demands of the evolving ac networks in Scotland and Northern Ireland, including provision of reliable ancillary services to both grids.
Some of the related items included in the contract are: the delivery of training, provision of a replica installed at the National HVDC Centre, Cumbernauld, and the provision and delivery of spare parts.
Moyle Interconnector was a beneficiary of money from European Regional Development Programme (ERDP) in c.2001.
The employer's requirements will be delivered over approx. 34 months, according to the current programme. The contract is however for the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of the upgraded control system and the programme may be extended for Siemens GPTD to complete the upgraded control system. It may therefore take longer than 34 months to deliver the employer's requirements.
The replacement of the control and protection systems at the converter stations, linked to the MIC, constitute the partial replacement of the supplies making up the MIC installation. A group company of Siemens AG originally supplied the components for the MIC and designed, constructed and commissioned it. Siemens GPTD are the successor suppliers currently providing HVDC electricity systems using Siemens’ group proprietary technology. This contract constitutes additional deliveries (of the components necessary) for the replacement of the control and protection systems at the Convertor Stations (which constitutes the partial replacement of components that make up the MIC) by the original supplier.
— the thyristors, which carry primary electrical power, and convert it from alternating current to direct current and vice versa,
— the valve base electronics (VBE, part of the control system), which interfaces with the thyristors, sending commands to them, and monitoring their performance,
— the remaining control system elements, which use complex algorithms to determine how to deliver the required power flow, and then signal the VBE. This includes both industrial PLC type computers, and human machine interface computers.
In the case of MIC, a Light Triggered Thyristor (LTT) design is used; this is the Intellectual Property (IP) of Siemens. This differs from other suppliers, who use an electrically triggered thyristor (ETT) design. The VBE used in MIC is also Siemens IP, as it must integrate with its LTT solution; the protocol for signalling between VBE and the thyristors is also unique to Siemens, differing from the protocols that other manufacturers use with their VBE/ETT solutions. Therefore, other manufacturers’ equipment has different technical characteristics, which means it would not be compatible with the existing LTTs (at this stage the LTTs have a substantial remaining useful life and there is no need to replace them).
Any attempt to try to make another manufacturer's control system equipment work with the existing Siemens equipment making up the MIC will be fraught with difficulty and involve novel and complex technical challenges. Any other manufacturer would need to ‘reverse engineer’ the Siemens IP around Siemens’ VBE / LTT combination, before implementing this in their own VBE. It is highly unlikely that this would work; the time and effort involved is likely to be uneconomic and the technical challenge would be very significant.


Winner: Siemens Gas and Power GmbH & Co KG
Award value: 23000000