SC19038 - Market Consultation Opportunity for the Development of a Maidstone Energy Network

Tender description

Kent County Council (KCC) has ambitious plans for carbon reduction and tackling climate change with the Kent and Medway Energy and Low Emissions Strategy to support the delivery of the Kent Environment Strategy. Its purpose is to identify an evidence-based approach to deliver clean growth. This includes strategies and actions to reduce carbon emissions, eliminate poor air quality, reduce fuel poverty and deliver an affordable, clean and secure energy supply. As part of the action plan based on the above policy, KCC with support from the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy are developing a heat network in the centre of Maidstone. KCC seeks to decarbonise its heating for the main County Hall campus in Maidstone. The project team is now keen to engage with the market to understand private sector appetite for the further development of the project. Feedback from this engagement exercise will help develop the procurement and delivery strategy. All comments will be reported back to the project team and potentially used to inform the outline business case, which will set the future direction for the development of the proposed project. The objective of the soft market test is to gather private sector views on; 1) potential structures for the delivery and operation of the project network 2) potential availability of third party, private funding and financial/commercial challenges 3) the technical and non-technical challenges facing the implementation of the proposed network 4) appetite to participate as a delivery partner This market test exercise seeks to gather information and KCC encourages respondents to provide feedback. KCC would like to take the opportunity to invite respondents to view the information and answer the questionnaire. KCC is the largest county council in England covering an area of 3,500 square kilometres. It has an annual expenditure of over £900m on goods and services and a population of 1.3m. County Hall is located within Maidstone Town Centre. Organisations who do not participate in this early market consultation opportunity will not be precluded from bidding for any future contracting opportunity. Key Dates: • Return of questionnaire 17:00 on Thursday 14 November 2019 • Supplier day January 2020 (date TBC) Keywords: district heat network, energy, utilities, heat network, environment