CONTRACT NOTICE – OFFICIAL JOURNAL

Section I: Contracting Authority

I.1)

Name, Address and Contact Point(s)

I.2)

Type of contracting Authority and Main Activity or Activities

Other (Please specify) Crown Body

General public services Defence Public order and safety Environment Economic and financial affairs Health Housing and community amenities Social protection Recreation, culture and religion Education Other (Please specify) Property Management

Section II: Object of the Contract

II.1)

Description

II.1.1)

Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority

II.1.2(a))

Type of works contract

II.1.2(b))

Type of supplies contract

II.1.2(c))

Type of service contract

II.1.2)

Main site or location of works, place of delivery or performance

Seabed off Blyth within UK territorial waters.

II.1.3)

This notice involves

A public contract
The setting up of a Dynamic Purchasing System
The establishment of a framework agreement

II.1.4)

Information on framework agreement (if applicable)

Framework agreement with a single operators
Framework agreement with several operators

Number of participants to the framework agreement envisaged

Duration of the framework agreement

Justification for a framework agreement the duration of which exceeds four years

Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement

Frequency and value of the contracts to be awarded

II.1.5)

Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

The Crown Estate is offering an opportunity to lease development rights for an area of seabed off the coast of Blyth within United Kingdom territorial waters for the purpose of deploying an offshore wind test and demonstration project.

The site is a 14 square kilometre area situated off the coast of Blyth and has been consented for the deployment of an up to a 99.9 MW wind farm. The site is consented to accommodate a test and demonstration project of 3 arrays in water depths of 35, 45 and 55 m (respectively) with up to 5 turbines in each array. The blade tip height 195 m.

A Marine Licence from the Marine Management Organisation (Offshore Marine Licence L2013/00303) and a planning consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1998 were awarded for the site in October 2013 and it is anticipated that these consents will be made available to the successful tenderer.

The Crown Estate is looking for projects to come forward which will have a minimum of 70% of the installed generating capacity being from prototype or Series 0 wind turbines that have not previously been deployed commercially. In addition to this requirement, other innovative technologies, such as foundations, may also be included.

Applicants should be aware that there will be a strong preference at the ITT stage for those projects that demonstrate a credible plan and the necessary resourcing to deliver a project that commences operation in the 2016/17 financial year. The Crown Estate will consider bids that would construct a project beyond this time horizon, subject to a longstop date of construction commencing prior to 3 October 2018.

Expressions of Interest and registration for pre-qualification are invited from 12 May to 11.6.2014 which will be followed by an Invitation to Tender on 1 July with tenders required by 15.8.2014. Responses should propose projects that demonstrate up to 15 turbines with installed capacity within the existing consents (99.9 MW).

Subject to the terms of the tender the successful tenderer will be awarded an Agreement for Lease over the aforementioned site with rights to step through to a Lease subject to satisfactorily meeting agreed conditions.

II.1.6)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.7)

Contract covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

II.1.8)

Division into lots

II.1.9)

Will variants be accepted

Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial and Technical Information

III.1)

Conditions Relating to the Contract

III.1.1)

Deposits and guarantees required

Parent company or other guarantees will be required.

III.1.2)

Main Terms of financing and payment and/or reference to the relevant provisions

III.1.3)

Legal form to be taken by the grouping of suppliers, contractors or service providers to whom the contract is to be awarded

III.1.4)

Other particular conditions to which the performance of the contract is subject

III.2)

Conditions for Participation

III.2.1)

Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers

As set out in the relevant PQQ and the relevant pre-qualification invitation documents.

III.2.2)

Economic and financial capacity

III.2.3)

Technical capacity

III.2.4)

Reserved contracts

The contract is restricted to sheltered workshops
The execution of the contract is restricted to the framework of sheltered employment programmes

III.3)

Conditions Specific to Service Contracts

III.3.1)

Is provision of the service reserved to a specific profession?

III.3.2)

Will legal entities be required to state the names and professional qualifications of the personnel responsible for the execution of the service?

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Type of Procedure

Open		Restricted
Accelerated restricted		Negotiated
Accelerated negotiated		Competitive dialogue

Justification for the choice of accelerated procedure

IV.1.1)

Have candidates already been selected?

IV.1.2)

Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate

Objective criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates

IV.1.3)

Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue

Recourse to staged procedure to gradually reduce the number of solutions to be discussed or tenders to be negotiated

IV.2)

Award Criteria

IV.2.2)

An electronic auction will be used

IV.3 Administrative Information

IV.3.1)

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting authority

IV.3.2)

Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

Prior Information Notice
Notice on a Buyer Profile

Other previous publications

IV.3.3)

Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents

IV.3.4)

Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate

IV.3.5)

Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates

IV.3.6)

Language or languages in which tenders or requests to participate can be drawn up

IV.3.7)

Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender 

IV.3.8)

Conditions for opening tenders

Section VI: Other Information

VI.1)

Indicate whether this procurement is a recurrent one and the Estimated timing for further notices to be published

VI.2)

Does the contract relate to a Project/Programme financed by Community Funds?

VI.3)

Additional Information

This application process will be controlled using The Crown Estate's eTendering Portal - https://etendering.thecrownestate.co.uk/web/login.shtml).

In order to express interest in the application process, log on to the eTendering Portal, register to participate in the project and submit a pre-qualification questionnaire and later (for pre-qualified bidders) submit tenders.

If you have not done so in the past interested parties must register to use The Crown Estate's eTendering Portal. A supplier guide to using the eTendering Portal is available via the help section on the eTendering portal.

Interested parties should note that all questions relating to the interpretation of any part of this tender must be submitted through the eTendering Portal messaging service.

For the avoidance of doubt submission of a request to participate is by the return, via the eTendering Portal, of a completed pre-qualification questionnaire by no later than the date identified in Section II.1.5.

Further information about the competition as well as the information which interested parties must provide in applying for pre-qualification in the competition will be made available in the Pre-Qualification Invitation and PQQ documents which are accessible through the Crown Estate's eTendering Portal.

The Crown Estate is not subject to public procurement regulation and is not, therefore, required to advertise its requirements in the Official Journal of the EU or indeed to comply with any other obligation relating to public procurement which may emanate from the relevant public procurement EU directives, UK implementing legislation or the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. The publication of this or any other notice is voluntary and does not set a precedent.

In publicising this or any other notice, The Crown Estate is not required and does not undertake to comply with any of the legal authorities referred to above and therefore accepts no liability in that respect. Accordingly, references to the negotiated procedure in this notice do not constitute reference to the negotiated procedure with prior publication of a contract notice as described in Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31.3.2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts (the “Directive”), and should not be construed in any way as constituting an undertaking by The Crown Estate to carry out a tender process in line with the requirements that apply to the carrying out of a tender process by means of the negotiated procedure with prior publication of a contract notice under the Directive.

Compliance by candidates with all relevant legislation is required both in the contract award procedure and during the term of any resulting contract.

The publication of this notice in no way obliges The Crown Estate to commence any competitive tender process.

The Crown Estate is not and shall not be liable for any costs incurred by those expressing an interest or negotiating or tendering for this contract.

The information contained in this notice is neither exhaustive nor binding, and may be amended at the time of issue of any further notice or notices or at any other time at the discretion of The Crown Estate.

Tenders and all supporting documentation must be priced in pounds sterling.

Any resulting contract will be considered a contract made in England according to English law.

The Crown Estate reserves the right not to award a contract, to make whatever changes it sees fit to the structure and timing of the procurement process and to cancel the process in its entirety at any stage.

VI.4)

Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)

Body responsible for appeal procedures

Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.4.2)

Lodging of appeals
Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals:

VI.4.3)

Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.5)

Dispatch date of this Notice