procuRE is a PCP to buy R&D services to support cities' transition to carbon neutrality. The procurement aims to trigger new solutions to be developed and tested to address the common challenge: Achieving 100% Renewable Energy Supply in existing public buildings.
Suppliers are to design, develop, and test an innovative Renovation Approach capable of generating Renovation Packages delivering 100% renewable energy supply to any existing non-residential building with adequate envelope quality. The Renovation Approach is to be tested through generating and implementing Renovation Packages for specific non-residential buildings in Buyers Group portfolios, the Demonstration Sites.
More information can be found on the procuRE website: https://procure-pcp.eu.
The procurement will take the form of a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) under which R&D service contracts will be awarded to R&D providers in parallel in a phased approach. This will make it possible to compare competing alternative solutions. Each selected operator will be awarded a framework agreement that covers three R&D phases. The three phases are: solution design, prototype development, original development and validation and testing of a limited volume of first products or services. After each phase, intermediate evaluations will be carried out to select the best of the competing solutions. The contractors with the best value-for-money solutions will be offered a specific contract for the next phase.
The selected operators will retain ownership of the intellectual property rights (IPRs) that they generate during the PCP and will be able to use them to exploit the full market potential of the developed solutions i.e. beyond the procurement. The market potential is estimated to be the majority of educational buildings (780,000) and offices (3.4 million) across Europe.
In their proposal, tenderers are requested to describe a Renovation Approach which can be applied to any school or office across the EU in response to the Challenge Brief (TD2). The Renovation Approach constitutes the set of methods, technologies, services and devices integrated in a well-documented toolkit with which suppliers tackle the 100% RES challenge in any specific building. During the project, tenderers are expected to apply their Renovation Approach in full to the Demonstration Sites. In their proposal, suppliers are to apply the relevant part of their Renovation Approach on two hypothetical reference buildings and report on the expected resulting performance of those buildings. The proposal is rated according to the Weighted Award Criteria.
In Phase I, six contractors apply their Renovation Approach and develop a specific Renovation Package for each of the six Demonstration Sites. The design level is schematic; planning and calculations are preliminary. Contractors and procurers interact via the Co-Design procedure (such a procedure must be included in the Renovation Approach) to clarify detail and decision-making. This phase aims to verify the conceptual, technological, organisational, regulatory, safety and budgetary feasibility of the solutions.
In Phase II, four contractors refine and increase the level of detail of their designs and organise tests of all user-facing ICT-systems. The design level is as detailed as possible without the requirement to constitute construction drawings. Planning and calculations should be final. The use of the Co-Design procedure should be intensified. This phase aims to turn the schematic design to detailed designs preparing all parties involved for rapid implementation; and to give future users the opportunity to test all ICT-systems.
In Phase III, two contractors implement their Renovation Packages at the three Demonstration Sites allocated to them. Designs are turned into construction drawings, the solutions are installed, made operational, maintained and performance data collected. Contractors and procurers interact via the Continuous Commissioning procedure (this must be included in the Renovation Approach) and demonstrate how O&M and contracting plays out in real-life. This phase serves to verify both the prototype Renovation Packages and the whole prototype Renovation Approach.
After the end of the project, it is the intent of procurers to continue the operation of the solutions at all Demonstrations Sites. To enable this, contractors will submit performance and O&M offers during Phase III based on the Renovation Package submitted. There is the possibility of a follow-up project (PPI) to ensure solutions can be scaled up depending on project success and whether service prices are, at this point, commercially competitive or require further support.