Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure & Associated Services - LEVI Fund Portsmouth Partner Operator Concession Agreement - Preliminary Market Engagement

Descriptions

1. Introduction 1.1. Portsmouth City Council - the 'Council' - is undertaking preliminary market engagement over April - May 2025 to inform its procurement strategy for the delivery of electric vehicle charging infrastructure within Portsmouth to be delivered via an open book partnership concession agreement. 1.2. Once the preliminary market engagement process has been completed the Council will review findings, finalise its strategy and documentation and submit these for approval by the funder - Office for Zero Emission Vehicles - by no later than 13th June 2025. 1.3. Once approved the Council will then undertake a formal procurement process over Summer / Autumn 2025 instigated via issue of a Tender Notice to appoint a partner operator for the supply, installation, maintenance, operation and, at the council's option, decommissioning of electrical vehicle chargepoints within the city on a mutually incentivised commercial concession basis. 2. LEVI Funding & Concession Approach 2.1. The Council has secured Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) funding to the value of £3,682,000, the majority of which will be used to part fund the delivery of a minimum of 3,600 new electric vehicle chargepoints (sockets) over a phased 5-year delivery programme. 2.2. The LEVI funding cannot be utilised for the on-going operation, maintenance and end of contract decommissioning of the infrastructure which will have to be met by the operator. Whilst the Council will work in partnership with the successful operator to help maximise successful development of the scheme and mitigate risks the operator will take risk in respect of demand. 2.3. In line with the LEVI funding objectives concerning commercialisation of networks, leveraging high levels of private sector investment and cross subsidisation, the council expects that the successful operator to secure and deploy the significant majority of the capital funding required to supply and install the target number of chargepoints. 3. Infrastructure Deployment & Programme 3.1. In line with the objectives of the LEVI funding and the council's own strategic objectives, the deployment of the charging infrastructure will need to be targeted within areas of the city where there is a lack of off-street parking available to residents. 3.2. In line with LEVI fund objectives, the chargepoints will primarily be low powered (up to 7kW), on-street and for the use of residents. However, on a secondary basis and only where there is a clear benefit to the scale and commerciality of the on-street resident charging offer, the council may also target the deployment of higher-powered fast charging (up to 22 kW) chargepoints. These may serve, for instance, resident focused car club scheme bays and off-street Council owned -car parks used by residents and visitors to the city. 3.3. There is some flexibility on the type of chargepoint technology to be deployed, with lamppost charging, free-standing bollards and other innovative unit designs permitted. Currently, chargepoint gullies, rapid and ultra-rapid (50 kW and above) chargepoints will not fall within the scope of the future procurement process. 3.4. The installation locations will be decided collaboratively between the successful operator and the council after contract award. The successful operator should commit to providing equitable coverage across the city, focused on serving those without off-street parking who are currently unable to charge at home. There is a need to meet the demand for residential EV infrastructure now and in the future, to support residents of Portsmouth to convert to electric vehicles. It is not envisaged that a list of pre-defined sites will be released as part of the tender pack for the future procurement. 3.5. The Council is targeting to have appointed the successful partner operator by January 2026 who will then be required to work in partnership with the council to rollout a minimum of 3,600 new chargepoint (sockets) installations by a target date of 2031. 4. Out of Scope ORCS Funded Infrastructure 4.1. The Council has also recently undertaken a procurement process in Autumn 2024 to appoint an operator - Zest Eco Ltd - via a 15 year concession agreement to deliver and operate approx. 300 new on-street chargepoints (sockets) using approx. £887,000 of On-Street Residential chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) funding. Roll out of the new chargepoints is underway and is expected to be completed over the course of 2026. Under the concession agreement Zest will also take on delivery and operation of chargepoints at approx. 100 existing on-street chargepoint locations. 4.2. There is no expectation that the successful operator secured to deliver the LEVI funded chargepoints (sockets) will take on any of the approx. 400 in total chargepoints operated by Zest. Neither the successful operator appointed to deliver the LEVI funded infrastructure or Zest will be granted exclusivity by the Council to operate on street chargpoints within Portsmouth. 4.3. When the existing chargepoint locations, new ORCS funded chargepoints and LEVI funded chargepoints are combined this should equate to approx. 4,000 on-street charepoint sockets being in operation within the city by 2031. These numbers have modelled using the LEVI Support Body's NEVIS Insights tool which shows that there should be sufficient demand for this number of on-street chargepoints within the city. 5. Contract Period, Terms, Estimated Value & Income 5.1. The contract will run for a period of 15 years, extendable by a further year if required to enable effective demobilisation. The contract will be let using flexible open book commercial concession terms prepared by the Council's Legal Advisors Browne Jacobson. 5.2. The council forecasts that the anticipated income that could be generated by the successful operator top deliver the minimum of 3.660 chargepoints could equate on average to £14,600,000 per annum. Over the contract period of 15 years this could equate to £219,000,000. 5.3. The anticipated forecast is based on the following: - an average of 3,200 operational sockets (only reaches 3,600 sockets by year 5) - consumption of 25 kWh per chargepoint per day, 365 days per year - underlying electricity costs of £0.35 per kWh - a £0.15 mark up between the energy supply cost and tariffs to cover overheads 5.4. The council is providing these estimates for transparency purposes only and is not placing any binding upper or lower volume and value parameters which could constrain development of the scheme in terms of scope and revenue generation. It is expected that the revenue generated will be impacted positively or negatively by numbers of chargepoints installed, speed of rollout programme, local electric vehicle sales, energy costs and a range of factors both within and outside of the control of both parties. The above figures, assumptions and associated demand projections will be tested as part of the preliminary market engagement process. 5.5. Whilst the Council is not seeking to make a direct profit from the operation of the chargepoint infrastructure, the operator will be required to provide an income stream to the Council which will be used by the Council to cover its own running costs. 6. Procurement Procedure & Programme 6.1. For the future procurement process, the Council envisages utilising an 'Open Procedure' procurement strategy in full accordance with the requirements of the Procurement Act 2023 that apply to above threshold 'concession contracts'. 6.2. The envisaged outline programme which will be tested as part of the preliminary market engagement process is set out below: • Issue Tender Notice & Procurement Documents - 1st August 2025 • Tender Return Deadline - 30th September 2025 • Completion of Evaluation & Submission to Funder for Approval - 24th October 2025 • Issue Assessment Summary & Contract Award Notice - 17th November 2025 • 8 Working Day Standstill Period Completes - 27th November 2025 23:59 • Confirmation of Award - 28th November 2025