Official UK procurement notice
Solar Battery Pilot · UK public procurement notice
Authority: Department for Education (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Solar Battery Storage Pilot will develop requirements, procure and deliver 6 to 8 containerised battery pods on school sites to manage and aggregate energy from PV and Smart Tariffs. The supplier will also undertake market testing to validate supply chain capacity, cost realism and the technical feasibility of the battery pods.
During the project, the supplier will record lessons learned and iterate the initial specification provided by the Department. Once the installation and monitoring of the pilot sites have concluded, the supplier will produce a final specification in keeping with the Department’s Specification 2025 (abbreviated as Spec25) and develop comprehensive implementation guidance for schools. The supplier will report case studies throughout the project and prepare these for publication. Finally, the supplier will develop a national feasibility assessment with a proposed implementation plan.
The Department is considering a call-off from Construction Professional Services 2 (RM6356) or an Open Procedure tender. If we proceed with RM6356, the specific lot will be determined as the project develops.
CPV: Advisory and consultative engineering services · Battery packs · Chargers · Development consultancy services · Energy and related services · Energy-efficiency consultancy services · Energy-management services · Feasibility study · Feasibility study, advisory service, analysis · Installation services of electrical equipment · Research and experimental development services · Solar installation
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Department for Education buys Solar energy (CPV 0933), and who usually turns up
Department for Education’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Solar energy (CPV 0933) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
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How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 50 days of the bid deadline.
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How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
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How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid9% / 4%
2–335% / 21%
4–624% / 14%
7+31% / 61%
How did awards compare with estimates?
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Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate39% / 52%
Within ±2%50% / 24%
Above estimate11% / 24%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 7131Published estimate£2.5m
This lot is listed as CPV 7131. The table above uses the notice category.
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How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 452 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid14%
2–324%
4–629%
7+33%
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Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Award under framework
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 20 May 2026, 09:47 BST
- Last source update
- 20 May 2026, 09:47 BST
- Authority reference
project_10394- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-046093- Latest notice
- Pipeline notice (UK1)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-069cadFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
20 May 2026 → 5 Oct 2026 · 2 dates- Planning notice published160 days ago20 May 2026, 09:47 BST
- Contract starts22 days ago5 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Pipeline notice published20 May 2026, 09:47 BSTUK1
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender