Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) is seeking supply chain input via a preliminary market engagement exercise for the proposed Rotherham Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP).

The Council keen to understand the market options and availability for an upcoming procurement for the development of the internal business case for a local area energy plan covering the geographic area of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough.

The Council is looking to develop an internal business case for a local area energy plan which covers:

• the geographic area of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough
• the full range of innovation which the market can provide, in respect of LAEP outputs;
• the likely costs and timescales associated with different levels of ambition, in drafting the specification for a Rotherham LAEP.

The Rotherham LAEP will be expected to deliver the following outputs:

• A pathway to 'Net Zero by 2040' in line with local and regional decarbonisation goals, accounting for committed government policy and spending as appropriate.
• A high-level summary for policy makers which conveys the scale and range of activity needed to achieve local decarbonisation goals, as well as key differences between areas within Rotherham Metropolitan Borough.
• Evaluation and prioritisation of projects, policies and partnership actions needed to deliver local decarbonisation goals.
• Identification of opportunities for commercial or community-owned renewable energy generation in Rotherham Metropolitan Borough, to include assessment of opportunities to attract external funding and investment.
• Estimation of the investment required to deliver local decarbonisation goals, in total and in each year up to 2040, segmented by sector and geographic area.
• Estimation of additional economic, social and environmental value to be realised by delivery of the LAEP, compared with a reasonable baseline.
• Setting out next steps required of the Council and other key actors to mobilise the LAEP, with clearly identified milestones and lead roles.
• A data model or platform such as a 'digital twin', which allows the LAEP to be continuously updated

The Council is seeking supply chain input to gather any knowledge and insights in orderto understand the capacity of the market, costs and timescales associated with assessing the feasibility of a low carbon district heat network in Rotherham Town Centre, to include:

• the identification of heat network opportunity areas
• evaluation of low carbon heat sources (including but not limited to mine water heat, waste heat from industry and air, water or ground source heat pumps combined with renewable electricity generation)
• technologies for implementation
• delivery models
• project costs
• forecast return on investment
• opportunities to attract external funding and investment.

The market engagement is seeking information which potential suppliers can provide, regarding the preparation of a Rotherham LAEP and heat network study, their outputs and viability.

RMBC emphasis that all costs associated with providing a response to the market engagement must be borne by the supplier – the Council will not contribute in any way to meeting the production costs of any response.

Supplier participation in the market engagement exercise is via a questionnaire published on the tendering portal YORtender at the following link: https://yortender.eusupply.com/login.asp?B=YORTENDER

All correspondence will be carried out via the YORtender portal where potential providers can raise questions or seek clarification at any time prior to the response deadline. Questions must be submitted using the 'Messaging' function on YORtender in sufficient time to allow the Council to formulate and distribute a response at least 3 calendar days before the final due date – deadline for submissions to be returned via the YORtender portal is 9an on 30 Sepember 2025.

Current estimated start and end contract dates are 1 January 2026 to 31 May 2026.

All of Rotherham Council's procurement opportunities are published on YORtender - to bid for the opportunity when it becomes live suppliers will also need to be registered on the portal if not already registered: https://yortender.eusupply.com/login.asp?B=YORTENDER