Electric Vehicle to Building Charging Project

This PIN is to advise the market of a forthcoming procurement opportunity and suppliers do not need to express an interest at this time. A further contract notice will be issued as a call for competition; this is expected to be published in May 2019. The Council are undertaking a 'Vehicle to Building' (V2B) project at their headquarters, City Hall. Leicester is part of a six centre, EU (Interreg) programme of pilot projects, (Smart, clean Energy and Electric Vehicles for the City - SEEV4-City), studying how to optimise the use of electrical vehicles, renewable energy resources and smart ICT, in various urban settings; to maximise the amount of renewable energy available to charge electric vehicles. This is a small pilot project. However, the Council is aware that with the growth in decentralised energy generation, the V2B concept has the potential to be upscaled and implemented in a range of urban settings.The project has 3 objectives:1. Maximise electric vehicle's EV's use of renewable energy; by prioritising PV generation for: a.) EVs; b.) City Hall. 2. Increase Energy Autonomy; by EVs discharging to City Hall during evening peak. 3. Avoid grid investments; by EVs discharging to City Hall during evening peak and scheduling main EV recharge for overnight.The workings of this 'behind the meter' project should save money by reducing City Hall's electrical demand at peak times. (V2B) system components Existing components • 23.4 kWp PV array, with a Schneider Conext TL 20000 E, 20 kVA PV Inverter • Four Nissan Leaf electric cars Required Project Components The project will replace the existing chargers with four smart, bi-directional chargers (thus V2B chargers). With the V2B system, the EVs on charge at the end of the working day will initially be available to provide a controlled discharge to City Hall of the residual energy in their batteries, (to a minimum level). This will help City Hall to meet its 35-40% baseload energy requirement during the expensive evening electricity peak demand period. These smart chargers will permit overnight charging of the EVs to be scheduled from midnight utilising cheaper overnight electricity rates. However, we also require that the charger hardware is designed to work as standard chargers; then, if there is a problem with the V2B functionality they can still operate. An interface/integration piece is required to co-ordinate the workings of both the existing and new elements. The interface should function upstream of City Hall's Schneider Struxureware BMS. It must also link with the BMS, in order to ensure a Mains supply to the EVs when there is no solar supply. V2B chargers don't need to handshake with the BMS, just with the interface. The interface should be installed and commissioned before the V2B chargers arrive.No single supplier is expected to be able to provide all these elements. It is the Council's preference to receive tenders from a lead contractor with sub-contractors