UNITED KINGDOM: UK government to procure new PPAs for public sector bodies

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS), acting on behalf of the Cabinet Office at the heart of the UK government, has initiated a tender process to procure potentially several new renewable PPAs with generators.

The body is running the process to create the possibility for various public sector organisations to directly purchase clean electricity, including ministerial government departments, government executive agencies, police, fire and ambulance services, NHS and educational establishments, national parks, councils and housing associations, alongside many others.

The CCS envisages entering a circa four-year framework agreement with a supplier, or multiple entities, under which the public sector authorities can directly contract their PPAs.

The offtakers could participate in the framework under various structures, such as through aggregated bulk-buying deals, outsourced PPAs managed by the CCS or direct PPAs managed by the ultimate offtakers.

These deals are expected to run for several years, potentially up to 25 years in some instances, according to information published by the CCS.

Interested parties have until November 4 to lodge bids into the procurement exercise, with award notices expected to be produced by February 21, 2025.

While the volume of the resulting PPAs will be set by the demands of whichever public sector entities participate in the framework, the CCS expects this to the a large-scale exercise and has given it an initial tentative total value of GBP 25bn.

The framework agreement has been in the works for some time, which the CCS first engaging with the market on it almost three years ago.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM Europe subscribers.

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