The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS): Field trial to evaluate the performance of in-situ biomass boilers

UK-London: Research and development services and related consultancy services.

Section I: Contracting Authority
   I.1)Name, Addresses and Contact Point(s):
      Department of Energy and Climate Change
      3 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2AW, United Kingdom
      Tel. +44 3000682976, Email: jonathon.foxbatt@decc.gsi.gov.uk, URL: www.decc.gsi.gov.uk, URL: www.delta-esourcing.com
      Contact: Jonathon Foxbatt, Attn: Jonathon Foxbatt
      Electronic Access URL: www.delta-esourcing.com
      Electronic Submission URL: www.delta-esourcing.com

      Further information can be obtained at: As Above       
      Specifications and additional documents: As Above       
      Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: As Above       
   
   I.2)Type of the contracting authority:
      Body governed by public law

   I.3) Main activity:
      General Public Services

   I.4) Contract award on behalf of other contracting authorities:
      The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: No

Section II: Object Of The Contract: SERVICES
   II.1)Description
      II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority: Field trial to evaluate the performance of in-situ biomass boilers
      II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance: SERVICES         
         Service Category: 8

         Region Codes: UK - UNITED KINGDOM         
      II.1.3) Information about a public contract, a framework or a dynamic purchasing system:The notice involves a public contract                                                       
      
      II.1.5)Short description of the contract or purchase:
      Research and development services and related consultancy services. Research and experimental development services. Research services. Social research services. Machines and apparatus for testing and measuring. System quality assurance planning services. System quality assurance assessment and review services. Project management consultancy services. Boilers. Research and data analysis services are required to carry out a comprehensive study in to the performance of biomass boilers deployed under the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme. This will comprise of a number of components including: review of research to date, metering of in-situ biomass boilers including site surveys, laboratory testing and data analysis.

The research is expected to be formed of an in-situ boiler field trial, for which all boilers deployed under the RHI are within scope. This field trial will evaluate the in-situ performance of the boilers as well as provide data to help understand boiler operation in different applications with varying fuel types. In-situ emissions will need to be quantified however this may be problematic on metered sites. As such additional laboratory testing will need to be carried out on similar boiler types to establish a representation of the metered boilers likely emissions. The project is due to continue monitoring for up to 2 years, however there will be contract break points at 6 and 18 months. An understanding of how metered site operators interact with their boilers will be needed to allow separation of boiler performance affected by physical factors and those created by user operation, an element of social research will be required to understand this. With the volume of data gathered through all the components of the research a significant portion of data analysis will be required. This data analysis will be conducted in the second phase of the project and at the termination of the field trial metering. There will be a requirement for the successful contractor to work with a digital delivery partner to feed data from metered site to a web based reporting tool for DECCs use, and will require some automated post processing of data to put the data into a format usable by DECC staff.
         
      II.1.6)Common Procurement Vocabulary:
         73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services.
         
         73100000 - Research and experimental development services.
         
         73110000 - Research services.
         
         79315000 - Social research services.
         
         38540000 - Machines and apparatus for testing and measuring.
         
         72224200 - System quality assurance planning services.
         
         72225000 - System quality assurance assessment and review services.
         
         72224000 - Project management consultancy services.
         
         44621200 - Boilers.
         

      II.1.7) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA):
         The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): No       
      II.1.8)Lots:
         This contract is divided into lots: No
      II.1.9)Information about variants:
         Variants will be accepted: No    
   
   II.2)Quantity Or Scope Of The Contract
      II.2.1)Total quantity or scope:
      The contract is to be for a period of 24 months including extension. The first phase will be for 5 months (31 March 2016). Subject to internal approvals the second phase will then go ahead for up to 15 months (31st July 2017) unless terminated or extended by the Department in accordance with the terms of the contract. There will be a contract break point following the first stage of research (expected to be end of March 2016) to allow for a decision on whether to proceed with the second stage of research and if so to allow emerging findings to inform the scope of the second stage. In order to evaluate the performance of the biomass boilers deployed under the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme a field trial is proposed, however additional phases of work including laboratory testing, and social research will form part of the project. The project will be split in to 2 phases; the initial phase (running up to the end of March 2016) will comprise the bulk of the project and will involve metering a number of boilers as well as carrying out evaluations of the metered boilers. In addition a review of relevant research into factors affecting biomass boiler performance will be required with a research gap analysis to inform the areas for further laboratory work to be carried out in phase 2. Phase 2 will involve laboratory testing to fill the research gaps as well as replicating boiler operation in the field trial sites to more accurately quantify various performance affecting factors. Social research will be carried out in phase 2 to understand the impacts of users on boiler performance; this will be restricted to the biomass boilers involved in the field trial and evaluated as part of a wider data analysis to be carried out on all the data received from the field trail. The data analysis should also include data received for other sites already metered by operators, which the successful contractor will be required to source:

Stage 1: up to £692,000 (excluding VAT)
Stage 2 (if confirmed): up to £270,000 (excluding VAT)

Should DECC fail to recruit a digital delivery partner to supply the web based reporting tool through the appropriate framework, the contractor will be required to source and subcontract this work. Budget set aside for this work will be:
Up to £50,000 (excluding VAT)

DECC may also decide to extend the contract by up to 1 further year after July 2017.                  
         Estimated value excluding VAT:
         Range between: 692,000 and 962,000
         Currency: GBP
               
      
      II.2.2)Options: Not Provided         
         II.2.3)Information about renewals:
            This contract is subject to renewal: Not Provided         
   II.3)Duration Of The Contract Or Time-Limit For Completion      
         Duration in months: 32 (from the award of the contract)

   Information About Lots
               
Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial And Technical Information
   III.1)Conditions relating to the contract
      III.1.1)Deposits and guarantees required:
      Not Provided
      
      III.1.2)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:
      Not Provided
      
      III.1.3)Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:
      Not Provided
      
      III.1.4)Other particular conditions:
         The performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: Not Provided      
   III.2)Conditions For Participation
      III.2.1)Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers:
      Not Provided      
      III.2.2)Economic and financial capacity
         Economic and financial capacity - means of proof required:         
         (a) appropriate statements from banks or, where appropriate, evidence of relevant professional risk indemnity insurance;

      
      III.2.3)Technical capacity
         Technical capacity - means of proof required         
         Not Provided      
      III.2.4)Information about reserved contracts: Not Provided   
   III.3)Conditions Specific To Service Contracts
      III.3.1)Information about a particular profession:
         Execution of the service is reserved to a particular profession: Not Provided      
      III.3.2)Staff responsible for the execution of the service:
         Legal persons should indicate the names and professional qualifications of the staff responsible for the execution of the service: Not Provided
Section IV: Procedure
   IV.1)Type Of Procedure
      IV.1.1)Type of procedure: Open
   
   IV.2)Award Criteria
      IV.2.1)Award criteria:      
         The most economically advantageous tender in terms of
            The criteria stated in the specifications, in the invitation to tender or to negotiate or in the descriptive document

      IV.2.2)Information about electronic auction:
         An electronic auction will be used: Not Provided
   IV.3)Administrative Information
      IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting authority: 1055/08/2015      
      IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract: Yes
         Prior information notice
            Notice number in OJEU: 2015/S 155 - 285736 of 13/08/2015
               
         Other previous publications: No                

      IV.3.3)Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents or descriptive document:

      Date: 26/10/2015
      Time-limit for receipt of requests for documents or for accessing documents: 13:00
         Payable documents: No       
      
      IV.3.4)Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate
         Date: 26/10/2015
         Time: 14:00      
      IV.3.6)Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn up:         English
         
      IV.3.7)Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender
         Duration in month(s): 6
      
      IV.3.8)Conditions for opening tenders
         Date: 26/10/2015
         Time: 14:00


Section VI: Complementary Information

   VI.1)This Is A Recurrent Procurement: Not Provided
   VI.2)Information about European Union funds:
      The contract is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: Not Provided      
   VI.3)Additional Information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement, and the contract will be awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender.
For more information about this opportunity, please visit the Delta eSourcing portal at:
https://www.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-London:-Research-and-development-services-and-related-consultancy-services./22A3WTDQFJ

To respond to this opportunity, please click here:
https://www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/22A3WTDQFJ
GO-2015102-PRO-7143338 TKR-2015102-PRO-7143337
   
   VI.4)Procedures For Appeal
      VI.4.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures:
      Dept for Energy and Climate Change
      3 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2AW, United Kingdom
      Tel. +44 3000682976, Email: jonathon.foxbatt@decc.gsi.gov.uk

      VI.4.2)Lodging of appeals: Not Provided   
   
      VI.4.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained:
            Not Provided

   VI.5) Date Of Dispatch Of This Notice: 02/10/2015

ANNEX A