Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2020-05-20
Buyer: Southern Electric Power Distribution plc
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated procedure
CPV classification: 09310000 | 31682000 | 65310000: Electricity distribution | 65320000: Operation of electrical installations
Submission deadline: 2020-06-17
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The authority will be seeking tenders to provide flexibility to our networks separately for four areas through the establishment of a Constraint Managed Zone (CMZ). A CMZ is a geographic region served by an existing network where requirements related to security of supply are met through the use of flexible services, such as demand side response, energy storage, energy efficiency and stand-by generation.
Flexibility on our networks is achieved through initiatives such as Constrained Managed Zones (CMZ), the use of Active Network Management (ANM) systems and an ability to apply innovation within ‘Business as Usual’ scenarios, such as our market leading flexible connections suite. A Constraint Managed Zone is an area of our existing electrical network that is or could potentially experience one of the following scenarios:
• forecast to exceed its firm capacity, where network requirements related to peak electrical demand are met using demand reducing or demand shifting techniques, CMZ techniques do not seek to increase capacity on the network, but will reduce or time-shift demand to avoid capacity constraints;
• will experience planned maintenance works, where DER flexibility services could be employed to maintain network operation or reduce the risk of outage;
• could experience outages due to a combination of maintenance works and/or circuit faults, where DER flexibility services could be employed to avoid or minimise outages;
• in the event of outages, DER flexibility services could be employed to aid in the restoration of normal supply by reducing loading or providing additional power injection; or
• in the event of prolonged outage, DER flexibility services could be employed to restore and maintain supply as significant or long duration repairs are undertaken to the distribution network.
Social Constrained Managed Zone (SCMZ) is a project engaging with members of the community who may not previously have been able to engage with the CMZ areas and the procurement activities associated with them. The SCMZ contracts will procure services in the same manner as the CMZ and will therefore be interchangeable in the rest of the document. The only difference is the method of engagement and level of support available for smaller enterprises pursuing the SCMZ route, as a means of levelling the playing field for all participants. Additional support may be in the form of time or funding to support the procurement activities.
SSEN do not dictate how CMZ services should be provided and anticipate solutions ranging from embedded generation, energy storage, energy efficiency and demand-side management/response. It is for this reason that the exact service that a provider is contracted to provide will be detailed in individual contracts. For illustration purposes, it is expected that the contracts will define an agreed method and lead times for the following aspects of the service:
It is expected that the minimum service provision for a contract will be 50 kW, but SSEN welcome applications from aggregated projects and loads, either through aggregators or other partnerships.
Flexibility on our networks is achieved through initiatives such as Constrained Managed Zones (CMZ), the use of Active Network Management (ANM) systems and an ability to apply innovation within ‘Business as Usual’ scenarios, such as our market leading flexible connections suite. A Constraint Managed Zone is an area of our existing electrical network that is or could potentially experience one of the following scenarios:
• forecast to exceed its firm capacity, where network requirements related to peak electrical demand are met using demand reducing or demand shifting techniques, CMZ techniques do not seek to increase capacity on the network, but will reduce or time-shift demand to avoid capacity constraints;
• will experience planned maintenance works, where DER flexibility services could be employed to maintain network operation or reduce the risk of outage;
• could experience outages due to a combination of maintenance works and/or circuit faults, where DER flexibility services could be employed to avoid or minimise outages;
• in the event of outages, DER flexibility services could be employed to aid in the restoration of normal supply by reducing loading or providing additional power injection; or