Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council has launched a preliminary market engagement exercise inviting interested suppliers to participate in a potential £3.2 billion district heat network opportunity.

The Council has published a preliminary market engagement notice in respect of the Oldham Green New Deal Partnership - the Council is seeking to develop a long-term energy / decarbonisation partnership for the local authority area with a Strategic Delivery Partner.

The Strategic Partnership's key anchor project will be the Town Centre Heat Network including the existing St Mary's scheme, which will serve as the foundation for a regional Heat Network. The Project is supported by, and is a key element of, the DESNZ / GMCA Local Net Zero Accelerator programme. The Council has additionally secured an £8.87 million grant from the Green Heat Network Fund to support the Oldham Town Centre heat network project, with plans for future expansion under the Advanced Zoning Programme.

The value of the contract has been estimated according to the potential total future revenues from opportunities arising from the contract. Although the contract has a maximum term of 25 years, it is expected that projects arising from the contract may have lifetimes of up to 40 years and the contract value has been calculated on this basis. The estimated contract value is currently put at between £2.2 billion (excl VAT) and £3.2 billion (excl VAT) .

The Strategic Delivery Partner will work in collaboration with the Council, key stakeholders and organisations across the borough to bring about the transformation and decarbonisation of Oldham's energy infrastructure.

The Council and Strategic Delivery Partner will work together to originate, define, develop, finance, deliver and operate a broad range of decarbonisation projects and initiatives across Oldham. The Strategic Delivery Partner is expected to leverage its expertise, experience, capacity and capabilities to innovate and generate holistic and deliverable energy solutions.

The Partnership is expected to be for an initial term of 15 years with options to extend in 5 year increments up to 25 years.

Oldham Council is inviting interested suppliers to download the Market Engagement Pack (available free of charge through The Chest/Proactis platform) which contains a number of attachments including the Project's 'Project Information Document' - this provides a thorough overview of the Joint Venture Partnership and the opportunities it presents.

The Council uses The Chest e-tendering system https://www.the-chest.org.uk/ where the market engagement pack is available free of charge. The pack contains full instructions for participation, details of the project opportunity, indicative procurement timeline and process, and a set of questions to respond to. Suppliers should click on Current Opportunities and enter Oldham in the Keyword search.

Suppliers who require assistance with the use of or access to the Council's e-tendering portal, are asked to go to https://www.thechest.org.uk/SupplierSupport.html. For critical and time-sensitive issues (normally requiring resolution within 60 minutes) suppliers can call 0330 005 0352 - the telephone number is attended 09.00 - 17.30 Monday to Friday.

This latest market engagement exercise is fully independent and separate from the Council’s previous market engagement in 2022 - the primary objectives are:

• to share information in relation to the project and the planned tender opportunity;
• to obtain feedback from potential suppliers/the market
• to enable potential suppliers to network with other organisations who may be interested in forming a consortium or otherwise.

The planned stages are:

Stage 1 - An online Supplier Engagement Session will be held on Zoom Thursday 8th May 2025 at 09.00 and will last up to 3 hours. The session will allow for questions and answers.

The link to register is:https://ey.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Mxsy54waRO-qKU-5QT75aw#/registration

Once registration is complete, an automatic email will be triggered providing suppliers with all the necessary information to join the session on the day.

Stage 2 - Written responses to the market engagement pack: Suppliers are asked to submit through The Chest written responses to a number of questions detailed in the Market Engagement Pack (Appendix 2) by the deadline stated within the PMEN (Friday 23rd May 2025 @ 13.00). Written responses are not mandatory nor are they a prerequisite for accessing future procurement documents.

Stage 3 - Follow Up Discussions: Following the receipt and consideration of all written responses to the market engagement exercise, the Council may issue a written request for clarification to a respondent or invite a respondent to take part in a one-to-one discussion around their Appendix 2 responses via MS Teams. The Council intends that only those organisations which submit a substantial written response to Appendix 2 will be considered for one-to-one discussions.

The Council intends for this round to be its last before proceeding to a substantive procurement process to select its Strategic Delivery Partner. 

Ernst and Young has already been appointed as its Independent Assurance Provider, together with Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP as Legal Advisors and Buro Happold Ltd as Heat Network Consultants

The Council is encouraging responses from both newly interested suppliers and any supplier who had previously engaged with its previous market engagement exercises.

Estimated publication date of a formal tender notice is currently 2 September 2025.

Current estimated contract dates are 25 January 2027 to 24 January 2042 with a possible further extension to 24 January 2052.

Click here to download the PMEN