Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 9 Jul 2026, 13:53 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Plant Control Systems Functional Assessment

Authority: UK Fusion Energy Ltd (Public body)

ServicesBelow threshold
Planned pipeline value£0pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 7 moends 31 Mar 2027 · starts 17 Aug 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

UKFE is looking to ascertain interest from suppliers regarding a requirement for a Plant Control Systems Functional Assessment.

As part of the engineering delivery of STEP Plant Control Systems preliminary design, this delivery package is required to support in overall delivery of the FY 26/27 Plant Control plan. This package of work will fit with and complement parallel Plant Control System design activities, thus regular engagement with stakeholders in the STEP design team will be necessary.

The STEP Plant Control System will form the plant operational interface (via the Command & Control facility) and implement plant wide permissive control and coordination of all lower-level control system functions.

The level of detail applicable to this package of work is broadly Preliminary. Scope of this work package is limited to the Plant Control System and its interfaces to lower-level control systems (maximum 2 levels below Plant Control).

Proposed deliverables:

D1.Plant Control - Interfaces Identification & Detailing

D2.Plant Control - Processes, Regulations & Standards Identification

D3.Plant Control – Plant Control Operations & Maintenance

D4.Plant Control - Safety Hazard Assessment

D5.Plant Control - Protection Assessment

D6.Plant Control - Security Assessment

D7.Plant Control - Control Assessment

Please note that this is Preliminary Market Engagement, and does not constitute a live opportunity nor request for bids. Should UKFE be in a position to proceed to request tenders for this requirement a separate notice is expected to be published.

For more information about this opportunity, please visit the eSourcing portal at:

ukfe.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-Abingd… ↗

To respond to this opportunity, please click here:

ukfe.delta-esourcing.com/respond/V74VQQ56RJ ↗

CPV: Engineering services · Engineering-design services for industrial process and production · Feasibility study, advisory service, analysis · Information systems or technology strategic review services · Integrated engineering services · Monitoring and control services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How UK Fusion Energy Ltd buys Systems and technical consultancy services (CPV 7222), and who usually turns up

UK Fusion Energy Ltd’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Systems and technical consultancy services (CPV 7222) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerUK Fusion Energy Ltd · division 72
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 5 known-size awards · market: CPV 7222 · UK-wide, n=624
20%47%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 0 of 2 known-location awards · market: CPV 7222 · UK-wide, n=477
0 of 241%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: CPV 7222 · UK-wide, n=73
—48 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 48 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 4 of 6 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7222 · UK-wide, n=936
67%58%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer21 lots with bid counts · all categories
10% had one bid
The market135 lots with bid counts · CPV 7222 · UK-wide
13% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid10% / 13%
Buyer: 2 of 21 lots with published bid counts. Market: 18 of 135 lots with published bid counts.
2–357% / 33%
Buyer: 12 of 21 lots with published bid counts. Market: 44 of 135 lots with published bid counts.
4–610% / 24%
Buyer: 2 of 21 lots with published bid counts. Market: 33 of 135 lots with published bid counts.
7+24% / 30%
Buyer: 5 of 21 lots with published bid counts. Market: 40 of 135 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyer20 lots with estimate and award · all categories
30% below estimate
The market95 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7222 · UK-wide
41% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate30% / 41%
Buyer: 6 of 20 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 39 of 95 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%65% / 45%
Buyer: 13 of 20 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 43 of 95 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate5% / 14%
Buyer: 1 of 20 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 13 of 95 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 72227 monthsNo real estimate
Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 135 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet13% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 135 similar lots
1 bid13%
18 of 135 similar past lots received 1 bid (13%).
2–333%
44 of 135 similar past lots received 2–3 (33%).
4–624%
33 of 135 similar past lots received 4–6 (24%).
7+30%
40 of 135 similar past lots received 7+ (30%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—No real estimate
The buyer published £0 as the estimate (a placeholder, not the contract’s value), so there is nothing to forecast against.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
9 Jul 2026, 13:53 BST
Last source update
9 Jul 2026, 13:53 BST
Authority reference
PPUKFE617
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-064733
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Engineering servicesEngineering-design services for industrial process and productionFeasibility study, advisory service, analysisInformation systems or technology strategic review servicesIntegrated engineering servicesMonitoring and control services
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06c78f Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

9 Jul 2026 → 17 Aug 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published109 days ago
    9 Jul 2026, 13:53 BST
  2. Market engagement98 days ago
    20 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST

    To register your interest in this requirement and in the event that it is tendered, please login to the UKFE Delta portal and message us via the Messaging Portal function within the tenderbox titled "Plant Control Functional Assessment - Preliminary Market Engagement"

  3. Contract starts71 days ago
    17 Aug 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    9 Jul 2026, 13:53 BST
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

UK FUSION ENERGY LTD

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PCRM-7973-DCBL Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, South East, OX14 3DBContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure