Sheffield City Council is seeking supply chain interest in its market engagement exercise for the heat network development opportunity in the city - the Council intends to shortly procure a Heat Network Development Partner.

Sheffield City Council has been selected as part of the Department of Energy Security & Net Zero's Advanced Zoning Programme to develop the country's first zonal scale heat networks.

To deliver this, Sheffield City Council is seeking a Development Partner to develop (and present for their approval) a zonal scale heat network in the Sheffield area. The Council has undertaken work to identify a reference scheme in an area of Sheffield city which has an estimated annual heat demand of c. 60 GWh.

The area which will be the subject of the procurement (and which the Development Partner will be invited to deliver development proposals in respect of) is wider and has an estimated annual heat demand of up to. 900GWh.

If successful, Sheffield City Council and the Development Partner would enter an agreement for development services only (known as the Development Agreement Only model) under which the Partner would put forward proposals for a zonal scale heat network in the area.

The proposals would need to meet minimum criteria and would be subject to review and approval by Sheffield City Council. Delivery of such a network in the area would be on a non-exclusive basis (subject to any future regulation).

The Council does not propose to have any shareholding in the corporate vehicle which will develop and, subject to the terms of the Development Agreement, go on to deliver and operate the heat network in Sheffield.

More information on the scale of the opportunity, the reference scheme and the contractual and procurement approach will be presented at the Market Engagement Day.

If a contract is awarded for the Development Partner, current estimated total value is £1.2 million (inc VAT)

and estimated start and end contract dates are 1 April 2026 to 1 April 2027.

The preliminary market engagement related to this project will take the form of a Market Engagement Day which will be held on 5th November 2025 in The International Suite, Sheffield United Football Club, Bramall Lane, Sheffield, S2 4SU.

Suppliers interested in bidding for this opportunity are invited to complete an online registration form via the link: https://forms.office.com/e/akwPwfySmg

Places are limited to 3 representatives per organisation and booking of places will be made on a first come first served basis.

There will also be an opportunity for local suppliers to attend a networking lunch from 12:30 to find out how they might become involved in the project. Suppliers wishing to join the networking session should register via the following separate link: https://forms.office.com/e/SBjM9cwvrm

Places are limited and again will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Any queries regarding the Market Engagement Day should be emailed to the team on: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it The market engagement exercise is not an invitation to tender or a request for formal expressions of interest.

All questions raised either via the YORtender platform or at the event will be answered after the event and circulated to all attendees alongside the materials from the presentation. Both will also be included in the procurement documents published alongside the Tender Notice.

Sheffield City Council currently expects to publish a formal tender notice in December 2025 – at this stage the Council is not committed to commence a procurement in respect of this opportunity as a result of conducting the market engagement engagement activity.