An energy transmission operator is seeking ESG and climate advisory support, highlighting how infrastructure buyers are reshaping consulting spend around sustainability.
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An early market notice in December 2025 signals that the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan plans to buy a new package of environmental, social and governance (ESG) advisory services. The planned consultancy for ESG integration would cover ESG diagnostics, sustainable development reporting, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions assessment and staff training – bringing sustainability into the core of grid operations rather than treating it as a side issue.
The prior information notice, published on 11th December 2025, is brief but pointed. It seeks “qualified consulting firms” to support the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan across four linked areas: ESG diagnostics, sustainable development reporting, GHG emissions assessment and capacity-building for staff.
By bundling these services, the grid operator is signalling that it wants a coherent ESG framework, not a one-off report. That has implications both for how it manages risk and for how it steers future investment in its transmission network.
The push towards ESG is not occurring in isolation. Just days earlier, in December 2025, the same utility flagged a wider programme in its Electricity Sector Transformation and Resilient Transmission notice, aiming to strengthen the transmission system, integrate renewable energy and modernise infrastructure through digitalisation and institutional development. The new ESG consultancy looks set to sit alongside this technical modernisation as part of a broader reform story.
Although detailed terms are not yet public, the scope outlined in the notice suggests four main strands:
In procurement terms, this is a strategic services package rather than a narrow compliance purchase. The combination of diagnostics and training in one contract hints at a desire not just to measure performance but to embed new practices.
The emphasis on staff training is notable, and consistent with how Uzbekistan’s public sector has been using consulting spend more broadly. In October 2025, for example, the Uzbekistan National Power Grid issued a notice for Training for Digital Substations, seeking specialised instruction for personnel on commissioning, operation and maintenance of protection and control systems at digital substations.
Elsewhere in government, consulting contracts are being framed around institutional capability as much as technical outputs. In August 2025, the Ministry of Preschool and School Education launched the Uzbekistan Education Capacity Building consultancy, seeking firms to assess and map a roadmap for education management information systems and ERP tools. In November 2025, the Agency for Innovative Development invited firms to support Consulting for Technoparks Reload, including on-site training for start-ups.
The ESG consultancy for the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan follows this pattern. Training is not an optional add-on, but a core workstream. For procurement teams, that means designing contracts that transfer knowledge as well as deliver reports, and evaluating bidders partly on their ability to build local skills.
Other parts of the Uzbek administration are also turning to advisory contracts to develop new policy tools around sustainability. In August 2025, the National Agency for Social Protection sought expertise for Social Taxonomy Development in Uzbekistan, while in December 2025 the Ministry of Economy and Finance launched a Quality Infrastructure Consultant procurement to assess and enhance the national standardisation system and roll out energy efficiency standards.
Taken together, these notices suggest that the ESG work at the grid operator will plug into a wider effort to define how “sustainable” activity is classified, measured and governed across sectors.
The Uzbek grid’s planned ESG consultancy also reflects a global trend: energy and infrastructure buyers are using procurement to bring specialised ESG and disclosure expertise into their organisations.
In August 2025, a municipal waste company in Slovakia issued a contract notice for ESG Strategy Consulting Services, seeking a tailored ESG strategy and sustainability report for selected municipal companies, plus supporting documentation and software solutions. The focus there, as in Uzbekistan, is on creating an integrated framework rather than ticking a box.
In July 2025, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) launched a contract for Sustainability Disclosure Development in Peru, aiming to strengthen disclosure requirements for financial institutions through technical assistance and capacity building. While the sector is different, the underlying procurement logic is similar: buy in targeted expertise to shape how sustainability is reported and regulated.
In the energy sector specifically, prior information notices during 2025 show utilities commissioning ESG-related advisory work alongside more traditional engineering studies:
These examples show how ESG considerations – from community impacts to disclosure norms – are increasingly being carved out as distinct consultancy packages within major energy programmes. For category managers, this raises questions about how to structure professional services frameworks: whether to bundle ESG into general engineering lots, or to treat it as its own specialist category demanding different supplier capabilities.
There is also a financing angle. In November 2025, the ASEAN Centre for Energy published a notice for a Sustainable Energy Financing Study on how transmission projects can access international climate finance. While the Uzbek grid’s ESG consultancy does not explicitly reference finance, a robust ESG profile and emissions data are likely to be relevant for any future funding discussions.
The National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan is already deep into a physical expansion and modernisation drive. In October 2025, its project implementation unit advertised a contract for Electricity Market Infrastructure Works, covering 220 kV transmission lines and substation extensions under a regional interconnectivity and trade project. In November 2025, the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Communal Services launched an Energy Efficiency Renovation Program feasibility study aimed at improving multi-apartment buildings and planning investments.
Against this backdrop, the ESG consultancy is likely to serve as a cross-cutting layer, helping the grid operator understand its current impacts and prepare for future regulatory or stakeholder expectations. The inclusion of GHG emissions assessment suggests a desire for a clearer view of the transmission system’s climate footprint, which could influence how new projects are prioritised and justified.
For suppliers, the notice points to growing demand for multi-disciplinary teams that can combine technical understanding of power systems with ESG, reporting and training skills. For procurement teams, it underlines the need to specify outputs that can be used across projects and departments – for example, diagnostic findings that feed into both investment planning and national reporting frameworks.
As this early notice progresses towards a full competition, several aspects will bear watching:
The December 2025 prior information notice confirms that ESG is moving from the margins into the mainstream of power transmission planning. For public buyers and consultants alike, it offers an early view of how sustainability, climate data and capacity building are being woven into the next generation of grid modernisation programmes.
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