Original Tender Description
THIS IS A UK3 PLANNED PROCUREMENT NOTICE. THE COUNCIL IS NOT INVITING RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE WHICH IS ISSUED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY, AND WHICH IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A 'QUALIFYING' NOTICE FOR THE PURPOSE OF REDUCING FUTURE PROCUREMENT TIMESCALES.
Oldham Council ("the Council") has recently conducted preliminary market engagement in respect of the Oldham Green New Deal Partnership ("the Project"). (The Council's market engagement stage has ended. For full background details and context please refer to the Council's UK2 Preliminary Market Engagement Notice published 25.04.2025 (see linked notices)). The Council is seeking to develop a long-term energy / decarbonisation partnership for the local authority area with a Strategic Energy Partner (SEP). The SEP will work in collaboration with the Council, key stakeholders and organisations across the borough to bring about the transformation and decarbonisation of Oldham's energy infrastructure. The Strategic Partnership will facilitate Oldham's transformation to net zero whilst improving the wellbeing of Oldham's local communities.
The Council and SEP shall work together to originate, define, develop, finance, deliver and operate a broad range of decarbonisation projects and initiatives across Oldham. The SEP is expected to leverage its expertise, experience, capacity and capabilities to innovate and generate holistic and deliverable energy solutions.
The Strategic Partnership's key anchor project will be the Town Centre Heat Network including the existing St Mary's scheme, which will serve as the foundation for a regional Heat Network. The Project is supported by, and is a key element of, the DESNZ / GMCA Local Net Zero Accelerator programme, and the Council has additionally secured an £8.87 million grant from the Green Heat Network Fund to support the Oldham Town Centre heat network project, with plans for future expansion under the Advanced Zoning Programme (AZP).
This is an exciting opportunity to develop a long-term partnership to take forward a range of schemes over the years to come, joining a unique eco-system of public, private and community organisations for positive environmental, social and economic change and to make a significant impact on a key borough in Greater Manchester.
The Partnership is expected to be for an initial term of 15 years with options to extend in 5 year increments up to 25 years.
The value of the contract has been estimated according to the potential total future revenues from opportunities arising from the contract. Although the contract has a maximum term of 25 years, it is expected that projects arising from the contract may have lifetimes of up to 40 years (for example in the case of heat networks) and so the contract value has been calculated on this basis. Factors considered include the ratio of required capital investment to revenue for different energy technology types, proportion of domestic v commercial customers, and deliverability factors in terms of the expected proportion of projects currently identified at a high level which are deliverable in reality.
Taking into account all of the above factors, the estimated contract value is estimated at between £2.2bn (excl VAT) / £2.62bn (incl VAT) and £3.2bn (excl VAT) / £3.8bn (incl VAT). As set out above, this is over a period of up to 40 years which is the expected maximum lifetime of projects arising from the contract. The estimated value cannot be guaranteed, and so should not be relied upon by interested parties which might subsequently choose to pursue this procurement opportunity in making their bid/no-bid decision. Any interested party should make their own independent commercial enquires, estimates, judgements and decisions associated with this Project.
The planned procurement will be a 'mixed procurement', and the Council envisaged the lead CPV code being 71314000 Energy and Related Services. The set-up options for this UK3 Planned Procurement Notice do not enable the distinct selection of a 'lead' CPV code, and therefore the Energy and Related Services code is captured under the hierarchy of the higher level Engineering Services code.
The Council intends for the forthcoming UK4 Tender Notice to fully replace and override all content contained within this UK3 Planned Procurement Notice. Further, the Council reserves the right not to commence any formal procurement process, discontinue any procurement it commences and not to award any contract(s). It also reserves the right at its absolute discretion to amend the information stated in this notice at any time.
Conflicts of interest: The Council will take all reasonable steps to identify and mitigate any conflicts of interest or potential conflicts of interest. A conflicts assessment in relation to the procurement is underway.
INFORMATION SHARING PURPOSE
The purpose of this UK3 Notice is to (1) notify/update the market on the planned procurement timeline (see main date fields within this notice), (2) continue to share information with the market to support timely and efficient market capacity building, and (3) to highlight to the market that there will be exclusivity rules for bidding models as part of the planned procurement process:
MARKET CAPACITY BUILDING
Regarding the Council's market capacity building objectives; to support potential suppliers to network with other organisations who may be interested in collaboration opportunities, forming sub-contract relationships, partnerships, consortium arrangements or otherwise; interested parties are encouraged to email/contact info@greeneconomy.co.uk to register interest in its sign-posting service if its offering is of interest:
The Council highlighted Green Economy's offering in its market engagement pack and at its online market engagement event. Green Economy are supporting the Council's procurement process by collating and sharing data (within agreed parameters and with consent) between organisations which are capable of bidding for the Council's planned tender/project, and organisations which are capable or have potential to be sub-suppliers or sub-contractors to such larger organisations.
Any organisation is welcome to contact Green Economy to see if it is appropriate to engage with them for this purpose. You can read more about Green Economy on their website: https://www.greeneconomy.co.uk/
Oldham's Local Area Energy Plan sets out a potential investment opportunity in low carbon projects of several billion pounds over the next 25 years or so to help meet Greater Manchester's target of carbon neutrality by 2038 - investment that is expected to create significant opportunities for Oldham and the wider city-region's low carbon supply chain.
Green Economy, part of the Greater Manchester Business Growth Hub, is funded by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to provide specialist business support and advice to grow the local low carbon sector and drive business decarbonisation.
To support local sector development and ensure businesses are aware of upcoming opportunities, the Council has engaged with Green Economy to provide a range of fully funded support services for local businesses looking to access and be part of the opportunities presented by the Oldham Green New Deal
An overview of services available to businesses include:
• Visibility of services on the Green Economy Market Place via a searchable profile with access to opportunities including those emerging from the Oldham Green New Deal
• Access to an advisor providing 1-1 growth advice, including but not limited to market research, competitor analysis, business planning and diversifying supply chains.
• Training, events and community peer networking across Oldham and Greater Manchester.
Green Economy are well placed to engage and support the local supply chain, providing visibility of opportunities and growing local capability. They therefore are also well positioned to support any potential future bidding Supplier for the Oldham Green New Deal Partnership Project which may wish to engage with them to access their local networks to support business-to-business networking, potential collaboration, knowledge sharing or otherwise.
The Council is sign-posting Green Economy as an organisation of interest to potential bidding Suppliers, which can be contacted/engaged with at any stage by any organisation. For the avoidance of any doubt, contact or engagement with Green Economy is not a mandatory pre-requisite to engaging in the Council's planned procurement process.
EXCLUSIVITY RULES FOR BIDDING MODELS
The Council considers it important at this early stage to draw the market's attention to the Council's intention to stipulate in its planned substantive procurement process regarding bidding models; that any person or organisation that is a proposed Key Sub-Contractor, Partner, Consortium Member (SC-P-CM) or similar for a bidding Supplier may be a Key SC-P-CM or similar for one bidding Supplier only.
If the bidding Supplier intends to appoint a Key SC-P-CM or similar, it must ensure that the Key SC-P-CM or similar is not also proposed as a Key SC-P-CM or similar in any other bidding Supplier's response to the tender document.
In context of the Council's anchor project (the Town Centre Heat Network), the Council understands this approach may serve as an anti-collusion measure for the procurement process, and reflects the approach we understand to be employed by DESNZ (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) regarding AZP heat network procurements.