Expressions of interest are sought for a contract to provide continuous water quality monitoring services, including site planning, hardware installation, maintenance, and data visualization, with options for either a managed service or asset ownership model.
Continuous Water Quality Monitoring (CWQM). This notice is seeking expressions of interest for the establishment of a Contract for Continuous Water Quality Monitoring (CWQM) related to: • Site Planning & Investigation; • Hardware & Data Transmission; • Installation, Maintenance & Calibration; and • Data Visualisation & Analysis. This Contract Agreement is envisaged to be the primary route for selecting supplier(s) for the delivery of the CWQM hardware and services for the duration of the Agreement. Any estimated quantities or values contained or referred to in this or other documentation are for guidance only and do not bind YWS to buy any specific quantities should the bidder be successful and enter into an Agreement. Yorkshire Water has a statutory obligation to deliver continuous water quality monitoring up and downstream of all discharges for parameters as outlined in the Interim Technical Standard of Section 82 of the Environmental Act 2021. Interested bidders will have the opportunity to express interest to this tender and Yorkshire Water will reserve the right to either award everything to the lead supplier under a "Data as a Service" managed service model (Lot 1), or Asset Ownership model (Lot 2). Lots 1 and 2 have the same service scope and requirements but under different commercial models. Interested bidders can provide submission(s) for Lots 1 and / or 2. Bidders need to deliver all the required services of the Lots they intend to submit a response. Lots will be awarded at Yorkshire Water's discretion. Procurement Process: To express an interest in participating in the tender, please contact David Archer (David.Archer@yorkshirewater.co.uk) through email by 17:00 (GMT) on 9th October 2024. Once a bidder expresses an interest, a Selection Question (SQ) document pack will be shared with them at a later date. This will include the SQ document that must be completed by all bidders and submitted in line with the deadlines included within the pack, which will be after the deadline to express an interest, giving bidders enough time to complete the documents. All clarifications should be submitted on Ariba and can also be emailed to David Archer (David.Archer@yorkshirewater.co.uk) by 17:00 (GMT) on 27th September 2024. YWS will periodically consolidate clarifications that would be relevant to everyone and share the response to these with all bidders anonymously. Following an assessment of the SQ responses received, successful bidders will be invited to participate in the ITT. This is planned for November 2024 but is subject to changes based on YWS discretion. "Data as a Service" Managed Service Lot 1: "Data as a Service" Managed Service Yorkshire Water has a requirement to ensure continuous water quality monitoring of the receiving watercourse upstream and downstream of storm overflows and wastewater treatment works, with monitoring data collected should be available to the public in a near real-time manner. To ensure Yorkshire Water's compliance with legal obligations and commitments to customers, several objectives need to be delivered, including: Site Planning & Investigations - Yorkshire Water requires the supplier to conduct on-site survey in designated monitoring locations to identify optimal site for monitoring equipment installation and devise deployment plan. Testing on-site instrument connectivity and transmission of monitoring data. The supplier is also responsible for developing investigation / pilots to assess site suitability for continuous water quality monitoring in a number of environments, such as estuarine, coastal and complex inland locations. Hardware and Data Transmission - Yorkshire Water requires the supplier to secure water quality monitoring sensors for deployment that meet technical specifications, as outlined in the Interim Technical Standard of Section 82 of the Environmental Act 2021, and can reliably operate in the riverine environments. The supplier would be responsible to set up network for data transmission from on-site sensors with potential integration with Yorkshire Water's internal data management system. The supplier would also be providing necessary equipment and deploying appropriate measures for the secured housing of monitoring and telemetry assets. Install, Maintain & Calibration - Yorkshire Water requires a relationship with a supplier to deploy monitoring sensors at identified installation sites. Devising servicing programme that includes regular maintenance, calibration and reactive repair in alignment with technical specifications outlined in the Interim Technical Standard of Section 82 of the Environmental Act 2021. The supplier would also be responsible for implementing necessary patching / updates on equipment software, and, in case of hardware failure, taking immediate mitigating actions to guarantee data availability and conducting failure investigations. Data Visualisation & Analysis - Development and maintenance of a public-friendly online portal that visualises monitoring data in near real-time manner (normal data update every hour, with capability to increase frequency to every 15 minutes). The supplier would also develop relevant analysis tool to automatically generate insights from data, which can be leveraged to devise action plans under different scenarios. Under the "Data as a service" Managed Service model, the bidder is expected to take ownership of installed hardware for the duration of agreement (and its extension). While bidders have flexibility on the arrangements post-installation, they would be fully accountable, on behalf of Yorkshire Water, to satisfy requirements on hardware functionality and data availability as stipulated in the Interim Technical Standard of Section 82 of the Environment Act 2021 for the duration of agreement (and its extension), and thus would also be accountable for any risks in case of non-compliance. Suppliers that are wishing to express an interest in Lot 1, should either be able to cover all the service requirements listed above, or form a partnership with other suppliers that can carry out elements of the service, with them performing the role of lead bidder and being ultimately accountable for the overall delivery of any agreement. Please note, it is Yorkshire Water's intention to award either Lot 1 or Lot 2, depending on the efficiencies that can be provided through "Data as a Service" over the Asset Ownership model. Yorkshire Water Procurement will follow a full EU OJEU process. Additional information: The value of the direct contract with Yorkshire Water is estimated at £97,500,000. Asset Ownership Lot 2: Asset Ownership Yorkshire Water has a requirement to ensure continuous water quality monitoring of the receiving watercourse upstream and downstream of storm overflows and wastewater treatment works, with monitoring data collected should be available to the public in a near real-time manner. To ensure Yorkshire Water's compliance with legal obligations and commitments to customers, several objectives need to be delivered, including: Site Planning & Investigations - Yorkshire Water requires the supplier to conduct on-site survey in designated monitoring locations to identify optimal site for monitoring equipment installation and devise deployment plan. Testing on-site instrument connectivity and transmission of monitoring data. The supplier is also responsible for developing investigation / pilots to assess site suitability for continuous water quality monitoring in a number of environments, such as estuarine, coastal and complex inland locations. Hardware and Data Transmission - Yorkshire Water requires the supplier to secure water quality monitoring sensors for deployment that meet technical specifications, as outlined in the Interim Technical Standard of Section 82 of the Environmental Act 2021, and can reliably operate in the riverine environments. The supplier would be responsible to set up network for data transmission from on-site sensors with potential integration with Yorkshire Water's internal data management system. The supplier would also be providing necessary equipment and deploying appropriate measures for the secured housing of monitoring and telemetry assets. Install, Maintain & Calibration - Yorkshire Water requires a relationship with a supplier to deploy monitoring sensors at identified installation sites. Devising servicing programme that includes regular maintenance, calibration and reactive repair in alignment with technical specifications outlined in the Interim Technical Standard of Section 82 of the Environmental Act 2021. The supplier would also be responsible for implementing necessary patching / updates on equipment software, and, in case of hardware failure, taking immediate mitigating actions to guarantee data availability and conducting failure investigations. Data Visualisation & Analysis - Development and maintenance of a public-friendly online portal that visualises monitoring data in near real-time manner (normal data update every hour, with capability to increase frequency to every 15 minutes). The supplier would also develop relevant analysis tool to automatically generate insights from data, which can be leveraged to devise action plans under different scenarios. Under the Asset Ownership model, Yorkshire Water will purchase and take ownership of the installed hardware from bidder, and the bidder is to comply with maintenance and calibration schedule defined by Yorkshire Water. While Yorkshire Water is mainly accountable to satisfy requirements on hardware functionality and data availability as stipulated in Environment Act 2021 for the duration of agreement (and its extension), the bidder would also be partially responsible for any risks in case of non-compliance as part of risk proportioning mechanism. Suppliers that are wishing to express an interest in Lot 2, should either be able to cover all the service requirements listed above, or form a partnership with other suppliers that can carry out elements of the service, with them performing the role of lead bidder and being ultimately accountable for the overall delivery of any agreement. Please note, it is Yorkshire Water's intention to award either Lot 1 or Lot 2, depending on the efficiencies that can be provided through Asset Ownership over the "Data as a Service" model. Yorkshire Water Procurement will follow a full EU OJEU process. Additional information: The value of the direct contract with Yorkshire Water is estimated at £97,500,000.