Soft Market Testing Exercise. Deep Geothermal Drilling Contractors - Skills, Availability and Further Information

The North East Combined Authority (North East CA), a mayoral combined authority representing 7 local authorities in the North East of England, is currently undertaking various feasibility studies to understand the potential for deep geothermal heat and power generation in the North East of England and are keen to undertake a complementary soft market test to understand the appetite for such work by specialist contractors.

To support this, we would like to gain information from the broader market regarding several issues related to the potential procurement exercise.

You are therefore invited to complete the attached questionnaire.

This notice is not an invitation for formal expressions of interest. North East CA is issuing this request for information only, to assess the reaction of the broader market and thus make any potential procurement process more focused and efficient.

This process is being undertaken to gather knowledge in the following areas:

• Appetite for such work
• Skills availability
• Minimum requirements to attract organisations to the area
• Equipment availability
• Estimation of cost & draft timelines

The information gathered will be used to:

• Inform decision making around the techno-economic feasibility study

The benefits to your organisation in participating in this process include:

• the chance to assess whether the opportunity will be suitable and of interest to you

ensuring that specifications are realistic and market-focused

• the chance to raise any risks, concerns or issues regarding the potential opportunity

Your responses are highly valued and will assist us in creating a procurement process which is well-framed, focused, feasible and likely to be of interest to the market.

There is no commercial advantage or disadvantage to your organisation as a result of being involved in this market testing exercise. This process focuses on the market as a whole, rather than on the merits of individual suppliers. It involves no element of supplier selection or bid evaluation.

Finally, please be assured that any commercially-sensitive information provided to us as part of this process will be treated in confidence, used only for the purposes of this market testing exercise, and will not be disclosed to any other organisation, subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Combined Authority may disclose with other Public Sector Contracting Authorities any of the information/documentation (including any that is considered to be confidential and/or commercially sensitive). The information will not be disclosed outside of the public sector.

Subject to the Combined Authority's requirement to comply with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act / Environmental Information Regulations, any commercially-sensitive information provided to us as part of this process will be treated in confidence, used only for the purposes of this market testing exercise, and will not be disclosed to any other organisation.

The Soft Market Testing Exercise Documentation is available by emailing Procurement@northeast-ca.gov.uk