Find a TenderAwarded
Published 9 Mar 2022, 09:26 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

0942 – Supply of Electricity and Gas utilities to Essex County Council

Official notice

Authority: Essex County Council (Local council)

2 lotsGoodsOpen procedureMax 2 lots per supplier
Published estimate£50,400,000total for 2 lots
Submissions closed 8 Apr 2022awarded 7 Jun 2022
Awarded to Drax Energy Solutions Limited, SSE Energy Supply Limited2 awards
Contract term 3 yrsends 30 Sept 2025 · extension options published · starts 1 Oct 2022

What is being bought2 lots · detail below

Published requirement description

Essex County Council is responsible for procuring energy for its core estate and infrastructure – this includes circa 250 operational buildings (including offices, libraries, children’s centres, youth and respite centres, country parks), highways, street lighting and other infrastructure. The number of operational buildings is expected to reduce as the Council’s estate rationalisation programme progresses. The Council has a mix of electricity (half hourly and non-half hourly) and gas meters for its sites and infrastructure.

The Council has procured flexible supply contracts for 2 lots – Lot 1 Electricity and Lot 2 Gas and via an Open procedure procurement exercise. Each Lot was awarded to a single supplier for the contract duration. Each contract will be for an initial term of 3 years (commencing 1st October 2022), with an option to extend for up to a further 3 years, at the Council’s discretion.

Bidders are Ofgem licensed energy suppliers and offer flexible supply contracts, which encompasses the ability to forward purchase the commodity element via a trading desk using OTC (Over the counter) after the contract has been completed. In addition, bidders for Lot 1 Electricity must: (i) be able to provide sleeving arrangements under which any renewable electricity sourced from off-site renewable generators can potentially be included at an additional cost in the electricity supply contract should the Council choose to do so at a later date; and (ii) provide REGO (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin) backed renewable energy across the electricity portfolio.

CPV: Electricity · Gaseous fuels · Petroleum products, fuel, electricity and other sources of energy

Lots and requirements (2)Procurement structure

2 lots · all with a published value (£50,400,000 together) · win at most 2 of them · same evaluation weights on every lot
Lot #1Electricity supply contract - flexible Purchase, combined non hourly and half hourlyAwardedRenewal 3 yrsPublished value£45,600,000

Key selection criteria, in addition to the Selection Questionnaire, included the product specification, fixed costs, REGO, commission, basic trading requirement, default position, day ahead functionality, reforecasting, payment and process service, account management structure (including supplier meetings), site additions/removals, commodity and non-commodity invoicing, adherence to service level agreements, power purchase agreement requirements, electronic billing, pricing submission, T&Cs, web portal access, billing and volume variation.

Bids were assessed on a 60:40 basis for price:quality (of which 5% of the quality score assessed social value) in accordance with the evaluation and award criteria set out in the tender documents. Tenders were awarded on a most economically advantageous tender basis. All evaluation and award criteria are set out in the tender documents.

Pricing was broken down into half hourly and non-half hourly rates for the commodity (the cost of the energy itself including production, supply and supplier’s margin) and non- commodity charges (including government levies and tax, and transportation and distribution charges).

Quality questions will cover such topics as volume and risk management, invoicing, account management, renewable energy (REGO), environmental sustainability and social value.

Successful suppliers will comply with a service level agreement (which will be included in the tender pack) for the contract duration, which is incorporated into the flexible supply contracts.

Contract period: 1 Oct 2022 – 30 Sept 2025 (3 yrs)
Delivery: East of England
Extensions: Option to extend for up to a further 3 years, solely at the Council’s discretion.Variant bids: not allowed
Lot #2Gas supply contract - flexible PurchaseAwardedRenewal 3 yrsPublished value£4,800,000

Key selection criteria, in addition to the Selection Questionnaire, included the product specification, pricing submission, T&Cs, fixed costs, commission, basic trading requirement, default position, day ahead functionality, reforecasting, payment and process service, account management structure (including supplier meetings), site additions/removals, commodity and non-commodity invoicing, adherence to SLAs, electronic billing and web portal access, billing and volume variation.

Bids were assessed on a 60:40 basis for price:quality (of which 5% of the quality score assessed social value) in accordance with the evaluation and award criteria set out in the tender documents. Tenders were awarded on a most economically advantageous tender basis.

Pricing was broken down into appropriate commodity rates for the Supplier (the cost of the energy itself including production, supply and supplier’s margin) and non-commodity charges (including government levies and tax, and transportation and distribution charges), as per the pricing schedule.

Quality questions covered topics such as volume and risk management, invoicing, account management, environmental sustainability and social value.

Successful suppliers will comply with a service level agreement (which will be included in the tender pack) for the contract duration, which is incorporated into the flexible supply contracts.

Contract period: 1 Oct 2022 – 30 Sept 2025 (3 yrs)
Delivery: East of England
Extensions: Option to extend for up to a further 3 years, solely at the Council’s discretionVariant bids: not allowed

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add more
How bids were scored · same split on all 2 lots
Quality: 40%Price: 60%
Published sub-criteria (3)
  • Quality criterion - Name: Qualitative Criteria / Weighting:: 35%
  • Quality criterion - Name: Social Value / Weighting:: 5%
  • price: 60%
Published award criteria (3)
  • Quality criterion - Name: Qualitative Criteria / Weighting:: 35
  • Quality criterion - Name: Social Value / Weighting:: 5
  • Price: 60
What this means for your bid
  • Price carries 60 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 6 points. This one is won on the number: sharpen the price before polishing the prose.

Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record · publisher note attached
Procedure method
Open procedure
Legal basis
CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
Procurement category
Goods
Notice status
Awarded
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Yes (GPA)
Recurring procurement
No (one-off requirement)
First published
9 Mar 2022, 09:26 GMT
Last source update
8 Aug 2022, 15:02 BST
Award evaluation window
8 Apr 2022 – …
Authority reference
DN585854
FTS notice number
2022/S 000-021753
Classification (CPV)
ElectricityGaseous fuelsPetroleum products, fuel, electricity and other sources of energy
Delivery area
East of England (UKH3)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-031f9e Find a Tender
Contract terms
Electronic trading
e-invoicing allowed · electronic ordering · electronic payment

Publisher note: The Council considers that this contract may be not be suitable for economic operators that are Small or Medium Enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement. The estimated values set out in this contract notice for Lot 1 and Lot 2 and in aggregate are based on the Council’s forecast spend for electricity and gas purchases in 2022/23 and is not a representation by the Council as to the actual values which may be higher or lower dependent on other factors such as price fluctuations in commodity prices and rationalisation of the Council’s estate. It is anticipated that the Council will enter into contracts for Lot 1 and Lot 2 by May 2022 and will seek to make purchases thereafter for the period from 1 October 2022 onwards as required by the Council. The successful suppliers will facilitate any change of energy supplier as required under the minimum selection criteria. For this tender the Authority will be using the ProContract (aka Due North) eSourcing portal https://procontract.due-north.com throughout the procurement process, and all communications with Essex County Council relating to this procurement exercise must be via the portal's messaging system. Supplier registration on the portal is free of charge and can be done via: https://procontract.due-north.com/ It is recommended that any bidder not already registered on the ProContract eSourcing portal, register at the earliest opportunity. The Council reserves the right to amend timescales for any reason and change the evaluation criteria where necessary for example if there are genuine omissions or mistakes. We also reserve the right to cancel the procurement exercise and/or not to award all or part of a contract. The Council will not be responsible for any costs incurred by bidders in relation to this procurement exercise. Essex County Council is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). If a bidder considers that any of this information supplied as part of this procurement exercise should not be disclosed because of its commercial sensitivity, confidentiality or otherwise, it must, when providing this information, identify clearly the specific information it does not wish to be disclosed and specify clearly the reasons for its sensitivity. Essex County Council shall take such statements into consideration in the event that it receives a request pursuant to FOIA and EIR which relations to the information provided by a supplier. However, if the information is requested, Essex County Council may be obliged under FOIA and/or EIR to disclose such information, irrespective of the suppliers wishes. Please note that it is not sufficient to include a statement of confidentiality encompassing all the information provided in the response.

How it was run

Official notice
Run through: ProContract (Due North) · Who buys & how to bid on ProContract
Supplier login requiredLanguage: EN
Access & registration note: Free · short registration with manual review; public opportunity list
Submission deadline
8 Apr 2022, 12:00 BST
Submission channel
{"electronicSubmission"}
Accepted languages
en
Bid validity
60 days from the deadline
Bids opened
8 Apr 2022, 12:05 BST
Detailed submission instructions & authority contactsFrom official release

Timeline

8 Apr 2022 → 1 Oct 2022 · 4 dates
  1. Submission deadline
    8 Apr 2022, 12:00 BST
  2. Bids opened
    8 Apr 2022, 12:05 BST
  3. Notice published
    8 Aug 2022, 15:02 BST
  4. Contract starts
    1 Oct 2022, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 2 releases on Find a Tender
  1. Status changed to complete
    8 Aug 2022, 15:02 BST

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast
Awards 2
Awarded value £51,998,8682 contracts exc. VAT
Bids received 4
Contracts signed 2latest 7 Jun 2022

Contracts

  • Electricity supply contract - flexible Purchase, combined non hourly and half hourly · Drax Energy Solutions Limited

    Signed
    7 Jun 2022
    Value
    £46,567,626
    Period
    … – 30 Sept 2025
    Status
    active
  • Gas supply contract - flexible Purchase · SSE Energy Supply Limited

    Signed
    26 May 2022
    Value
    £5,431,242
    Period
    … – 30 Sept 2025
    Status
    active

Bid statistics published by the authority

LotBidsSMEVCSEValid bid range
1 · Electricity supply contract - flexible Purchase, combined non hourly and half hourly3bids———
2 · Gas supply contract - flexible Purchase1bids———

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Essex County Council

Contracting authorityLocal CouncilRegional or local authorityGeneral public services County Hall, Market Road, Chelmsford, East of England, CM1 1QHContact name, email Published organisation website ↗

Dispute resolution & review bodies

  • High CourtMediation bodyReview body LondonContact phone

Bidders & participating suppliers

2 commercial parties on the notice

Official documents & specifications

Official links; attachments are not copied

No document links were published on the notice.