Official UK procurement notice
Drive System Upgrade — UK public procurement notice
Authority: Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (Public body)
Sectors: Transport Equipment & Vehicles (34) Delivery: UK
Awarded value£605,849published award · inc. VAT
Awarded 29 Sept 2026no call for competition
Awarded to ABB Limited
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe purpose of this direct award is to contract ABB limited to carry out an upgrade to the ACS6000 drive system on the 3MW drive train located within the Nautilus facility in Blyth, the upgrade in inclusive of two key elements:
Replacement of the existing control platform with ABB’s latest USU-26 system
Hardware replacement to improve spare part availability, removing life cycle issues with the currently aging components
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Lot 1Awarded
34320000 Mechanical spare parts except engines and engine parts
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Direct award
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award — no call for competition
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- No (one-off requirement)
- First published
- 29 Sept 2026, 17:01 BST
- Last source update
- 29 Sept 2026, 17:01 BST
- Authority reference
ORE/26/058- Latest notice
- Contract award notice (UK6)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-077cea
- Why no open competition
- Single Suppliers Technical Reasons
- Published justification
- The equipment within the drive unit was manufactured by ABB, and currently there are no other companies who have the specific knowledge of the aging electronic drives of both 3MW, and are able to provide an upgrade to the system.
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics — not a forecastAwards 1
Awarded value (inc. VAT) £605,8491 award inc. VAT — no net value published
| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABB Limited12 Oct 2026 — 30 Sept 2028 | £605,849 inc. VAT | 29 Sept 2026 | Awarded |
Notice history
3 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 29 Sept 2026- Contract signature expected9 Oct 2026, 23:59 BSTscheduled
- Contract award notice published29 Sept 2026, 17:01 BSTUK6
- Transparency notice published29 Sept 2026, 16:56 BSTUK5
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- ABB LimitedAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (3)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Conflict of interest declarationNot published
Notices published for this procedure
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Transparency notice Transparency notice on Find a Tender