Decision details

District Heating Systems require a specific expertise and BC needs to procure this expertise from external organisations to ensure that the correct technical and commercial decisions are being taken in relation to the construction and commissioning of the District Heating Systems and that compliant documentation is produced for an effective handover to operations.
In this case it was decided that the best way of procuring this expertise was through Sustainable Energy due to the previous work they had carried out on these systems and that this would mean that design integrity and indemnity would be maintained for these works.

Approval to award work to Sustainable Energy.
The Energy Service has several District Heat Network Projects at an advanced stage of construction, involving commissioning, starting operation and handing over to the Operating Company. The conceptual and detailed design of these projects has been carried out by Sustainable Energy, and the decision has been made to award work to Sustainable Energy to review the installed construction, commission, accept and handover the projects to the BCC Operations Team.

Option 1 - If the work is not carried out then the District Heating works could not be completed The Council does not have the capacity or expertise to carry out this work internally, so the work needs to be procured. The alternative options for procurement were to arrange a procurement exercise and invite any interested parties to bid for the work. This was rejected because the nature of the work ideally uses the same organisation from design to completion to ensure that Professional indemnity for the design intent is maintained. It was decided that if a new organisation was used then it may not be possible to maintain the professional indemnity cover if the design organisation had not approved all the construction activities, commissioning and handover.
Option 2 -
Option 3 -