Update: Battery Storage opportunities for Ireland 2019 – procurement process commences

An opportunity exists for up to 140MW of new high availability technology (envisaged to primarily comprise battery storage) to be contracted with EirGrid by September 2019 as mentioned in our previous update on DS3 System Services - Volume Capped Contracts

Procurement of the new fixed term Volume Capped Contracts is a two stage process:

Stage 1 – Pre-qualification of applicants.

Stage 2 – Qualified applicants are invited to submit competitive tenders.

On 4 March 2019, EirGrid commenced Stage 1 with the issue of a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) which is available on the Government e-tenders website. The objective of the PQQ is to identify a shortlist of applicants who will subsequently be entitled to submit a competitive tender in order to be awarded a fixed term Volume Capped Contract by EirGrid.

PQQ Selection Criteria

The PQQ sets out the relevant criteria on which applicants will be evaluated, namely:

1. Legal Standing
2. Financial & Economic Standing. EirGrid state in the PQQ that: "Candidates must demonstrate annual turnover relevant to the services required of €50,000 per MW of proposed POR service provision in at least one of the past three financial years, or pro-rata if more recently established."
3. Health and Safety, Environment and Employment
4. Previous Experience. EirGrid state in the PQQ that: "Candidates are required to demonstrate that they have sufficient recent and relevant experience to deliver contracts of this nature, specifically relating to a generation capability or demand reduction capability of at least 1 MW in size which were connected to either an Electricity Transmission or Electricity Distribution system, or equivalent."
5. Grid connection. The applicant must have:

   a) "a binding connection agreement; or 

   b) a connection offer; or 

   c) confirmation from the TSO or DSO that they will be receiving an offer, such that the offer or agreement provides appropriate access to the transmission or distribution networks so as to allow provision of the full amount of contracted services by September 1st 2021. The successful tenderers must have a binding connection agreement in order to sign the contracts i.e. ahead of August 31st 2019."

6. The applicants providing units must be proven technology. A list of these proven technologies are published by EirGrid here.

Failing to meet the above criteria will preclude the applicant from moving to Stage 2 in the process. Notably EirGrid has said that it "envisages qualifying all Candidates who pass the minimum requirements in this pre-qualification process".

Timetable going forward to Volume Capped Contract Award

The timetable published by EirGrid in relation to the PQQ process is as below:

The indicative timetable to contract award published by EirGrid is as follows:

For more information please contact John Dallas, Partner, or any member of our Energy, Infrastructure & Natural Resources team.

Date published: 13 March 2019