Climate Innovation Pull Facility (CIPF) - Facility Manager - Invitation to Submit Initial Tenders

Description

The UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero is procuring a supplier to manage a new facility - the Climate Innovation Pull Facility (CIPF). Through pull finance, this facility will support innovation, scale up and market building for climate change mitigation solutions for developing country contexts, focusing on innovative clean energy technologies and business models in a small number of specific applications/sectors, where the evidence shows support is most needed. In public innovation financing, "pull mechanisms" create incentives for innovators and other actors by creating viable market demand. They seek to reduce viability gaps and induce innovation by signalling demand for solutions to specific problems. Mechanisms often cited include Advanced Market Commitments, Results or Outcomes Based Financing, Prizes/Challenges, innovation bulk procurements, Contracts for Difference, among others. By contrast, much innovation support has to date utilised "push mechanisms" directly subsidising up-front R&D costs. In terms of climate mitigation solutions, the CIPF will support the development of innovation projects aligned to Ayrton Fund themes: industrial decarbonisation, sustainable cooling, smart energy systems and storage and clean transport Further details of Ayrton Fund thematic challenges are set out on gov.uk. The procurement of this requirement will be in two parts: i) A contract for a Facility Manager to manage the programme and identify, incubate, commission and oversee 6-10 climate pull projects of £10m - £50m each. This contract will also cover programme monitoring and learning. ii) A separate contract for an Independent Evaluator of the programme, who will conduct a mid-term and end-of-term evaluation of the programme’s achievement of its development objectives, theory of change and value for money. This procurement is subject to a separate procurement procedure. The procurement for the Facility Manager is the focus of this notice and will be run as a competitive procedure with negotiation. This contract notice is to invite initial tenders from the market. Further details of the planned procurement process are provided in the procurement documents available on the DESNZ procurement portal at the above link. The initial contract value is £183m over 5.5 years with options to extend by up to £317m and up to 3 additional years. Of the £183m initial contract value, at least £150m of this will be allocated for climate pull projects, the majority of which will be grant funding. Lot 1: The Facility Manager (FM)for CIPF will deliver the following services: - An Implementation Period of 6 months from the Effective Date to set up the contract and develop programme level strategies and workplans. The most significant of these is the CIPF Portfolio Strategy which will detail the how the pull project portfolio will be identified and managed by the FM. - A Pull Project Identification Period which runs from Month 7 to the end of Month 21 of the Contract. During this period the FM will work to identify and filter potential climate Pull Projects to deliver a recommendation to DESNZ for approval of diverse portfolio of climate pull projects to receive grant funding. The portfolio will made up of 6-10 projects valued between £10m and £45m in terms of the CIPF contribution. Detailed portfolio and project characteristics are provided in the Statement of Requirements. Project selection will follow a pre-determined process with projects maturing through a 3-stage selection process, with the DESNZ Steering Board approving at each stage including at the final Green Light decision point where funding is awarded. - Pull project incubation support of up to £500,000 per project before the final approval stage. During project identification, the FM will deliver technical support to potential Pull Projects to support their readiness for approval. This may be delivered directly by the FM, subcontracted by the FM or provided as grant funding to the potential Pull Project depending on the project needs. - Pull Project management where the FM will provide management and oversight of approved Pull Projects. This may include in-country presence and support with stakeholder engagement including FCDO teams at Post (High Commissions and Embassies) and local government stakeholders among others. - Overall programme management, governance, monitoring and impact reporting for the programme. - Knowledge management, learning and communications services to support the development and sharing of lessons learned with wider stakeholders.