PS22419 - PIN - The Provision of Energy Catalyst Innovation Accelerator Programme

UKRI now seek to gauge the market response to Innovates requirements so that we can deliver improvements and benefits through new contracted provision.

Supplier Days

This Prior Information Notice is being issued in order to undertake a market consultation exercise with regards to the current view of requirements detailed.

UKSBS would like to invite prospective bidders to attend a pre-market engagement session on Monday 28th November 2022 at 13:00 via MS Teams: If you believe that this will be of interest to you and your organisation, please register your interest by sending an email to the following email address [email protected]

By registering and attending you will be engaging in non-competitive dialogue which will enable Innovate to develop and assess the market's appetite, concerns, and views on formulation of its requirements.

Please register by 25th November 2022 including reference PS22419.

The estimated value of the project excluding VAT is £9,000,000.00. We anticipate the new provision being a 4 year contract

The award of this contract will be based on a single lot, with multiple work packages and one supplier/consortium will be appointed

Despite significant progress in recent years, we are not on track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) to deliver universal access to energy by 2030. Around 789 million people lacked access to electricity in 2018. Without sustained efforts, 650 million people will still be left without access to electricity in 2030. Even more remain without access to clean cooking - almost 3 billion people across Africa and Asia in 2016. The World Bank has estimated that poor electricity access is costing Africa 2% point reduction off gross domestic product (GDP) growth each year. To solve this, there is a need for investment, innovation and business support.

The Energy Catalyst's mission is to accelerate the innovation needed to reach SDG 7. By providing financial and advisory support to innovators we help create strategic partnerships, uncover insights and develop business models to improve lives in Africa and Asia. To date we have provided £158m of public grant funding to 374 projects delivered by 1100+ organisations to support innovators through 8 rounds of the Energy Catalyst Programme.

This all-forms part of the UK's aid budget meaning all projects are awarded in line with the Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment following the ODA guidelines. The support to undertakings in the EU also falls under State aid rules and we expect the appointed contractor will need to ensure both State aid compliance (including necessary checks) and ODA rules are followed and reported against as required