Energy Management Services - Bill Validation & Energy Procurement

The specification of requirements:

Section 1. BILL VALIDATION SERVICES (Electricity, Gas, Water)

S1a. Where agreed, The Supplier will provide Northern Gas Networks with information regarding utility invoicing in order to help avoid the payment by Northern Gas Networks of erroneous utility invoices for selected sites.

S1b. The Supplier account manager will liaise with Northern Gas Networks and its authorised agents to facilitate the delivery of the Services.

S1c. The Supplier will process and refine Northern Gas Networks' site, consumption and MPAN/MPRN/Account reference information, which will remain the property of Northern Gas Networks and shall be made available by the Supplier on the request of Northern Gas Networks.

S1d. The Supplier will arrange the re-direction of utility invoices to the Supplier offices in order to undertake validation of invoices.

S1e. Validated invoices will be summarised in the form of reports to Northern Gas Networks (payment files) advising the Company as to which invoices are correct for payment and which are incorrect and therefore payment should be withheld.

S1f. The Supplier will investigate and report on incorrect invoices, liaise with utility suppliers to correct the invoice and seek to recover any Company over-payments.

S1g. KPI 1 - The Supplier will process incoming utility invoices and advise Northern Gas Networks of the decision to pay or withhold payment within 5 working days of receipt of invoice.

S1h. KPI 2 - The Supplier will ensure that, for site addresses confirmed by Northern Gas Networks as Company sites, at least 99% of associated utility invoices will be re-directed to the Supplier for processing through KPI 1.

S1i. KPI 3 - Monthly gas, electricity and water reports will be issued to NGN Supply Chain and HS&E representatives. The data will include:

 A summary of all cost (including net value, gross value, VAT amount etc) and usage for electricity, gas and water

 Electricity/gas and water supply details by MPAN or meter number

 Electricity/gas and water usage and cost details by MPAN or meter number per calendar month

 Query log - showing open and closed queries

 New supply installations

 Disconnected MPANs

 Meter exchanges

The information is to be provided at the end of each calendar month relating to the previous month's supply. The information is to be provided to NGN in electronic format (MS Excel) in addition to being uploaded to NGN's third party internet based environmental data reporting tool portal. The information is to be provided to enable NGN to fulfil its regulatory reporting obligations as set by Ofgem to accurately measure and confirm its carbon footprint. The data provided must therefore be both accurate and validated prior to submission to NGN and should include any retrospective adjustments as a result of actual meter reads.

S1j. KPI 4 - All refunds received by the Supplier from utility suppliers associated with Company utility accounts will be forwarded to Northern Gas Networks within 5 working days.

SECTION 2. ENERGY PROCUREMENT SERVICES (Electricity, Gas)

S2a. Where agreed, the Supplier will provide the Company with information regarding electricity and/or gas contracts in order to facilitate the Company contracting for their electricity and/or gas requirements for selected sites.

S2b. The Supplier account manager will liaise with the Company to facilitate the delivery of the Services.

S2c. The Supplier will process and refine the Company's site, consumption and MPAN/MPRN information.

S2d. The Supplier will present the information from S2c to chosen electricity and/or gas suppliers together with any specified Company requirements with a request to provide prices for specified contract periods and specified purchasing arrangements.

S2e. The Supplier will have access to the full market of established and reliable electricity/ gas suppliers.

S2f. Upon receipt of responses to S2d, the Supplier will process and analyse the received data and produce a best offer report which will be sent to the Company in order to allow direct comparison between the offers from suppliers.

S2g. The Supplier will resubmit S2c data or request re-quotations from chosen suppliers and subsequently re-perform S2e as judged appropriate by the Supplier in the Company's interest.

S2h. In all cases, the Supplier will forward all necessary acceptance forms, etc., to facilitate the Company accepting any chosen offer (subject to same offer not expiring).

S2i. The Supplier will facilitate the migration of the sites from the Company's previous supplier to their new supplier chosen from the Supplier best offer report.

S2j. The Supplier will provide confirmation to the Company of each site being successfully registered with its chosen supplier.

S2k. The Supplier will check the first supplier invoice received for each site in order to verify that the rates and conditions made in the supplier's offer have been honoured in the charges applied.

S2l. KPI 1 - The Supplier will endeavour to respond to any Company queries: a) verbally within 1 working day and b) in writing within 3 working days.

S2m. KPI 2 - The Supplier will endeavour to provide any best offer report such that from the time of email delivery to the Company to the time of expiry of the recommended offer this is a period of at least 2 hours.

S2n. KPI 3 - Provided the Supplier is in receipt of all necessary information from the Company within an appropriate timescale the Supplier will provide information and offers to the Company such that the Company has the opportunity to avoid being out of contract on sites covered by this Agreement.