Decision details

There is a clear and pressing need to maintain compliant contracts for power to supply council buildings, streetlights, and schools.
Failure to decide before the current contracts expire on 31/3/22 would mean the council pays off-contract rates until new contracts are in place. These rates are up to 100% more expensive.
It is therefore not financially viable to wait for a key decision to be taken at the next Cabinet meeting on 5th April 2022.

Procurement of an 18-month flexible electricity contract via a compliant public sector framework (LASER) covering streetlights and supplies to smaller buildings (called “non-half-hourly”) and extension of the current supply contracts to cover the transition to new arrangements: half-hourly buildings extended by two months.

Option 1 - Seek approval at May Cabinet before contracting. Rejected as this would incur additional costs because the council would default to off-contract rates for at least two months, which are up to 100% more expensive.
Option 2 - Run competitive tenders for fixed price contracts using existing Cabinet approvals: rejected as these are estimated to be more than £1m more expensive per year.
Option 3 - Re-run a competitive tender for sleeved electricity to cover all supplies. Rejected as the previous tender received no bids so there is a significant risk that the same would happen again.