In the coming years, the Vechtstromen Water Board (hereinafter referred to as the water board) will face a major replacement and renovation task in the sewage treatment plants. An important part of this task are investments in electrical and process automation. Many automation systems at the sewage treatment plants are outdated and at the end of their technical life. In order to be ready for the digital future, the executive board of the water board has decided to replace the process automation of the sewage treatment plants in a future-oriented and risk-based manner in the coming years.

For the purposes of this task, the water board wants to have a framework agreement with several system integrators. The deployment of these system integrators is primarily aimed at providing engineering capacity (effort obligation on an hourly basis) for the PA roll-out across all purifications.  This tender relates to this necessary hiring of capacity.

The Vechtstromen Water Board is currently replacing the process automation of the sewage treatment plants in a future-oriented and risk-based manner.

The rollout of the new Process Automation (PA) should be completed by the beginning of 2032. The roll-out of the new PA will achieve the following objectives:

- Future-proof and central control;

- Risk-based replacement of PA;

- Reduction of vulnerability in PA assets;

- Control of operating costs management PA.

In mid-2022, a cooperation agreement was concluded with Siemens Nederland N.V. as system supplier for the roll-out of the new PA. The pilot for the further roll-out at the Sleen location is currently underway. The intended PA system is based on PCSNeo.

At the moment, the water board employs approximately (2 FTE) programmers who carry out part of the work. In order to ensure that the further roll-out is successful after a successful implementation of the pilot, the water board foresees that extra capacity will be needed for all engineering activities. This capacity cannot be filled internally, for this the water board wants to use the capacity of the market.

In the future, the water board wants to have a framework agreement with several system integrators. The deployment of these system integrators is primarily aimed at providing engineering capacity (effort obligation on an hourly basis) for the PA roll-out across all purifications.