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

Tender 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. Lot 1: Electricity supply contract - flexible Purchase, combined non hourly and half hourly 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. Lot 2: Gas supply contract - flexible Purchase 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.