District Heating · UK public procurement notice

Grounds for direct award under the Procurement Act 2023 are:

-Schedule 5: The following conditions are met in relation to the public contract- (a) due to a particular supplier having intellectual property rights or other exclusive rights, only that supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and (b) there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works.

This is demonstrated by the current contract with BRING and the technical incompatibility of multiple suppliers operating on the same Heat Network at differing specifications.

-Schedule 7: The public contract concerns the supply of goods, services or works by the existing supplier which are intended as an extension to, or partial replacement of, existing goods, services or works in circumstances where- (a) a change in supplier would result in the contracting authority receiving goods, services or works that are different from, or incompatible with, the existing goods, services or works, and (b) the difference or incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation or maintenance

This is demonstrated by technical incompatibility of operating two independent Energy Centre's operating at incompatible specifications on the same Heat Network.