The contract is for the replacement of the Regional Nominations Platform (RNP) currently used to operate a number of UK-EU interconnectors. The procurement covers application development, hosting, maintenance, support and helpdesk services.
The RNP is used to nominate against capacity purchased in the Long-term, Day Ahead and Intraday auctions. 24/7 helpdesk is available to the customers and the Power Trading Team to support if there is an issue with completing the nominations process or if there is an interconnector unplanned outage.
Scope
The scope of the contract/tender covers the following:
• Hosting (either deployed on physical hardware or to the cloud) secured by design to meet the standards of NIST cyber security framework including maintenance patching, disaster recovery solution, etc.
• Application development - UI rich interface to support our customers in the nominations process, either through intuitive GUI and an option for an API for data extraction. Needs to be secure by design. Should include testing, roll out, support, patching, disaster recovery solution, training, user guides/manuals.
• Support and maintenance;
• 24/7 Helpdesk services to support the Client, customers, trading teams, provide reporting, user management, support during system incidents, development of standard operating procedures.
The RNP 2.0 aims to deliver a new solution for Belgium, France, Denmark and UK in the current scope for handling the Nomination aspects of the overall Capacity Management of the Interconnector as well as the interfacing with the national TSOs, and other market coupling systems.
The details of the scope are outlined below:
• Receipt/Calculation, Verification and Processing of Net Transfer Capacity
• Interconnector Outage Management
• Calculation of Available Transfer Capacity and provision to the Allocation Platform(s)
• Facilitating of Explicit Auctions and Market Coupling at various timescales on other platforms
• Receipt of Capacity Rights from the Allocation Platform(s)
• Nominations at Long Term, Day Ahead and Intraday timescales
• Market Notifications
• Nomination interfaces for Physical Transmission Rights (PTR)
• Nomination Curtailment
• Publications (includes Transparency publications to UK/EU TSOs and Transparency Platforms)
• Customer self-service for account management
• APIs to support data extraction and submission by Client and end users including auditable confirmations of successful use for end users
• Multifactor authentication of users
• Clean UI central screen that allows customisable end user dashboards/homepages/data tables to tailor the UI to their preference
• End user notifications which are effective and customisable based on preferences
Timescales
The Client anticipates to award the contract in January 2025 with a view that the Design will commence within 4 weeks of Contract Award and the Implementation phase being completed by October 2026, giving an absolute maximum contingency period until December 2026.
Provisional tender timeline - Please note that these timescales are indicative only and are subject to change solely at the discretion of the Client. Bidders should ensure that appropriate personnel are available throughout the procurement process.
• Issue of PQQ on Achilles: 14th February 2024
• PQQ deadline: 13th March 2024
• Issue RFP: 2nd May 2024
• RFP deadline: 13th June 2024
• RFP clarifications, presentations, demos: Mid-June to mid-September 2024
• Negotiations: October to November 2024
• Contract award: 6th January 2025
Participation
The Client uses a global qualification system Achilles UVDB for 1st stage pre-qualification. Suppliers willing to express an interest in the tender event will be required to be registered on Achilles UVDB as a Silver Plus member under the following code(s) before the end of 13th February 2024:
• 1.5.10 Utility Software and/or
• 2.1.3.5 Software Helpdesk Services
Suppliers not registered under the code(s) at the point of tender launch (PQQ) will not be able to participate.
The PQQ will be a questionnaire divided into general questions regarding the applicant and more specific questions regarding the applicant's experience relevant to the scope of the project. Full details about the PQQ process will be described within the PQQ documentation.
The Client
RNP 2.0 platform will be shared by the Interconnectors IFA, IFA2, Nemo Link, Viking Link and North Sea Link. The Client may wish to add additional parties to the Platform throughout the lifetime of the Contract.
The applicable national procurement law is that of England & Wales, with a parallel notice being published in the OJEU and the procurement complying with relevant requirements of the national procurement laws of France and Denmark.