Oldham Green New Deal Partnership (GNDP)

Descriptions

Oldham Council ("the Council") is conducting preliminary market engagement in respect of the Oldham Green New Deal Partnership ("the Project"): The Council is seeking to develop a long-term energy / decarbonisation partnership for the local authority area with a Strategic Delivery Partner. The Strategic Delivery Partner will work in collaboration with the Council, key stakeholders and organisations across the borough to bring about the transformation and decarbonisation of Oldham's energy infrastructure. The Strategic Partnership will facilitate Oldham's transformation to net zero whilst improving the wellbeing of Oldham's local communities. The Council and Strategic Delivery Partner shall work together to originate, define, develop, finance, deliver and operate a broad range of decarbonisation projects and initiatives across Oldham. The Strategic Delivery Partner is expected to leverage its expertise, experience, capacity and capabilities to innovate and generate holistic and deliverable energy solutions. The Strategic Partnership's key anchor project will be the Town Centre Heat Network including the existing St Mary's scheme, which will serve as the foundation for a regional Heat Network. The Project is supported by, and is a key element of, the DESNZ / GMCA Local Net Zero Accelerator programme and the Council has additionally secured an £8.87 million grant from the Green Heat Network Fund to support the Oldham Town Centre heat network project, with plans for future expansion under the Advanced Zoning Programme. This is an exciting opportunity to develop a long-term partnership to take forward a range of schemes over the years to come, joining a unique eco-system of public, private and community organisations for positive environmental, social and economic change and to make a significant impact on a key borough in Greater Manchester. The Market Engagement Pack (available free of charge through The Chest/Proactis) contains a number of attachments including the Project's 'Project Information Document' which provides a thorough overview of the Joint Venture Partnership and the opportunities it presents. The Partnership is expected to be for an initial term of 15 years with options to extend in 5 year increments up to 25 years. The value of the contract has been estimated according to the potential total future revenues from opportunities arising from the contract. Although the contract has a maximum term of 25 years, it is expected that projects arising from the contract may have lifetimes of up to 40 years (for example in the case of heat networks) and so the contract value has been calculated on this basis. Factors considered include the ratio of required capital investment to revenue for different energy technology types, proportion of domestic v commercial customers, and deliverability factors in terms of the expected proportion of projects currently identified at a high level which are deliverable in reality. Taking into account all of the above factors, the estimated contract value is estimated at between £2.2bn (excl VAT) / £2.62bn (incl VAT) and £3.2bn (excl VAT) / £3.8bn (incl VAT). As set out above, this is over a period of up to 40 years which is the expected maximum lifetime of projects arising from the contract. The estimated value cannot be guaranteed, and so should not be relied upon by interested parties which might subsequently choose to pursue this procurement opportunity in making their bid/no-bid decision. Any interested party should make their own independent commercial enquires, estimates, judgements and decisions associated with this Project. The planned procurement will be a 'mixed procurement', and the Council envisages the lead CPV code being 71314000 Energy and Related Services. The set-up options for this UK2 Preliminary Market Engagement Notice have not enabled the distinct selection of a 'lead' CPV code, and therefore the Energy and Related Services code is captured under the hierarchy of the higher level Engineering Services code. Conflicts of interest: The Council will take all reasonable steps to identify and mitigate any conflicts of interest or potential conflicts of interest. Details are contained in the market engagement pack and a conflicts assessment in relation to the procurement is underway. Previous market engagement: The Council has previously conducted market engagement (dating back to 2022) in respect of its ambitions for the heat network and to form a Green New Deal Partnership, seeking feedback for the high-level concept of a partnership. The Council intends for this round of market engagement to be its last before proceeding to a substantive procurement process to select its Strategic Delivery Partner. The Council's requirements have been developed considerably since its previous market engagement consultations. The Council has also appointed Ernst and Young as its Independent Assurance Provider. This (Chest project reference DN748209) is a brand-new market engagement exercise, fully independent of and separate to any previous market engagement exercise conducted by the Council. Responses to this market engagement exercise are most welcome and encouraged from both newly interested suppliers and any supplier which has previously engaged with the Council in its previous market engagement exercises. The Council reserves the right not to commence any formal procurement process, discontinue any procurement it commences and not to award any contract(s). It also reserves the right at its absolute discretion to amend the information stated in this notice at any time.