COV - Strategic Energy Partner

Description

The overall objective of this Project is to enable the city of Coventry to reach net zero carbon emissions (Net Zero) in the long term, in a sustainable and economically viable way. In doing so, the Project is expected to achieve the following outcomes that support the aims of the One Coventry Plan (https://letstalk.coventry.gov.uk/onecoventryplan) and the (draft) Climate Change & Sustainability Strategy. • Enable zero carbon, energy efficient, resilient and adaptable buildings across the city • Enable the move toward a zero-carbon circular economy approach throughout the city • Enable low carbon, sustainable and equitable transport across the city including electrification and Active Travel • Enable the creation of sustainable and resilient energy infrastructure for the long-term development needs of the city • Deliver meaningful and significant social value for the long-term benefit of the city's residents • Deliver awareness and enable behavioural change across energy and transport throughout the city's residents and organisations • Become an active partner in delivering Coventry's Digital ambitions. Lot 1: The Council recognises the role it must play in mitigating and adapting to the Climate Emergency, as a key influencer and policy maker. It also has a key role in delivering economic growth in the city and tackling inequalities. All three areas make up strands of the One Coventry plan. Providing the right energy infrastructure across the city is critical to all three of these strands. A strategic outlook on energy infrastructure will support and enable delivery of what is identified as needed. What is also recognised are the constraints in delivering this strategic outlook and infrastructure development, in resources, expertise, project delivery and routes to funding. Therefore, it is anticipated that an Energy Partner would sit alongside the Council in a long-term contractual joint venture relationship to deliver the following objectives: • To contribute to and influence the review of energy needs in the city (also in relation to impact upon climate change and carbon emissions reduction), and how these may be achieved with discrete or strategic projects (including community, residential, commercial and industrial developments). • To assist with the authoring of the energy infrastructure strategy (which complements completely the broader Sustainability & Climate Change strategy) • To identify projects or initiatives that will deliver the strategy and complete the corresponding business case(s) to support implementation of these projects. • Apply resource across a project or initiative lifecycle to deliver the required outcomes, or attract further third party resource and input to deliver the same (sub-contracting) • To fund via debt or equity, or to assist in third party fund raising, to deliver projects or initiatives • To identify opportunities for viable commercial enterprise and income generation which assists to secure additional resources to re-invest in developing energy infrastructure and services and meet environmental standards required by developers and investors now and in the future. • To be the Councils operating partner or to oversee other operational models for each of the projects or initiatives as they are delivered. • To provide the appropriate level of stakeholder engagement/consultation activity required in the design and delivery of business case(s) and projects. • To embed social value within the strategic outlook, business case(s) and delivery approach and ensures that outputs/outcomes can be clearly measured. The following outcomes have been identified by internal stakeholders as priorities for delivering the One Coventry Plan. This is not an exhaustive list as CCC will work with the Strategic Partner to develop and refine the intended outcomes of the project. The Partner will be encouraged to challenge and add to the intended outcomes. • Enable zero carbon, energy efficient, resilient and adaptable buildings across the city o a programme of activity across the city and available to all building owners / occupiers to maximise the energy efficiency, optimise heating and cooling systems and climate change resilience of their buildings and infrastructure • Enable the move toward a zero carbon circular economy approach throughout the city o All project planning, procurement and funding taking account of the full carbon life cycle of products and services - e.g. recycling of solar PV panels, 2nd life batteries, optimising of heat and electricity generation and consumption to avoid wasted energy • Enable low carbon, sustainable and equitable transport across the city including electrification and Active Travel o Decarbonising Vehicle and Mass Transport Movement - facilitating the decarbonisation of vehicles across the City through strategic energy (charging) infrastructure development and optimisation, for public and private transport - cars, buses, HGVs and future mass transport solutions (e.g. VLR) o Active Travel for All - facilitating the Council's aspirations for making active travel available for all city stakeholders - e.g. energising multi-modal travel hubs, creating optimised environment to encourage and enable more walking & cycling • Enable the creation of sustainable and resilient energy infrastructure for the long term development needs of the city o Grid Capacity Resilience - the Council, Energy Partner and other stakeholders working together to ensure the energy grid for electricity and heat in Coventry is sufficient to meet the requirements of the City and its future development o Energy Generation & Storage - seeking out and implementing local energy generation and storage opportunities in and around the City that seeks to decarbonise energy usage across the City • Deliver meaningful and significant social value for the long term benefit of the city's residents o Meaningful tackling and creation of significantly positive set of values - for employment and upskilling, economic inequality education, health and wellbeing, equal opportunity and empowerment o Inward Investment Enabler - creating a local economic environment that supports local supply chain investment in green technologies and services to support the wider Climate Change Strategy • Promote public awareness and enable behavioural change across energy use (domestic and commercial) and transport throughout the city's residents, public and voluntary organisations and private businesses o To ensure success of programmes in the partnership, deliver appropriate stakeholder engagement to gain understanding, buy-in and support with behavioural change approaches. • Become an active partner in delivering Coventry's Digital ambitions o Working with partners across the city in delivery of high speed, ultra-reliable, ubiquitous connectivity and digital services to underpin existing and future next generation experience, for citizens, businesses and learners. o Establishing Coventry as a leading digital city, both nationally and internationally, supercharging innovation in the digital energy environment and wider. The Council will also be looking to use the proposed procurement as a means of enabling and facilitating the actual delivery of specific energy projects across Coventry (and potentially also outside its boundary) during the lifetime of its joint venture with the Energy Partner. During the proposed procurement, the Council therefore expects to evaluate the means by which a potential Energy Partner would, if appointed, ensure the delivery of projects within the relevant scope in a way which complies with applicable procurement law at the relevant time. Such activity may (to the extent that it applies) include the procurement of projects which would operate on a concession model, or those which would be regulated as utility activities, or those which would be subject to the procurement regime as contracts for the supply of goods or services or for the carrying out of works. The procurement of some or all projects may be governed by the forthcoming new UK procurement regime (brought forward in the 2022 Procurement Bill) as opposed to the existing sets of Regulations governing the award of public, utilities or concession contracts. In any event, the Council will require an Energy Partner to be in a position to deliver each specific project in the way that secures best value for money for the Council and the local population. The Council will expect this to be demonstrated, tested and verified during the procurement to select the Energy Partner, and the requirement is expected ultimately to be established as a contractual term of a joint venture agreement with the selected Energy Partner. Market engagement is planned for Monday 03 October 2022 with regards to the Procurement approach on this tender exercise. During the market engagement event, the Council seeks to engage with those interested in taking the role of lead bidder/lead contractor only, and not (at this stage) with those interested in taking the role of subcontractors, supply-chain members or other non-lead roles in a strategic partnership. This requirement is dictated by constraints of both time and space. Potential lead contractors should, however, be prepared to demonstrate during a subsequent procurement the means by which they are able to, and would, lead a potentially multidisciplinary specialism/supply-chain structure in conjunction with their role as the Council's Energy Partner in a strategic collaborative joint venture. Spaces at the market engagement event will be limited and distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Booking information for the market engagement will be released on 26 September 2022. To access the documents relating to the market engagement exercise, interested bidders must register on www.csw-jets.co.uk and express an interest in the project COV-14006 Strategic Energy Partner. Once interest has been expressed, interested bidders must download the template Non-Disclosure Agreement, published via 'Clarifications', complete, sign and return to the Council through the 'Correspondence' function on www.csw-jets.co.uk. Completed and signed Non-Disclosure Agreements must be returned to the Council no later than 12:00pm, 19 September 2022.