Submarine Main Battery TDP Phase 3a - Final Module Design

CPV: Battery packs · Development of military electronic systems

Procedure method

Restricted procedure

Legal basis

CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

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

26 Aug 2021, 22:45 BST

Last source update

17 Dec 2021, 22:45 GMT

FTS notice number

2021/S 000-031701

Classification (CPV)

Battery packsDevelopment of military electronic systems

Delivery area

Australia (AU)UK

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-02da56 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

No tenders or no suitable tenders/requests to participate in response to negotiated procedure with prior publication of a contract notice; The products involved are manufactured purely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development under the conditions stated in the directive; The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons

Published justification

(i) The purpose of this Voluntary Transparency Notice (VTN) is to alert the market of the intention of the Technology Development Management Group (TDMG), which forms part of the Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA), to enter into a contract on a single source basis with PMB DEFENCE ENGINEERING PTY LTD.

(ii) The contract shall be for the development and testing of a Nickel-Zinc (NiZn) battery technology which includes the delivery of a final module design, build of initial production standard modules, shock testing and EMI qualification. The work undertaken under this contract shall be a further iteration of a module design produced under an earlier contract with PMB DEFENCE ENGINEERING PTY LTD. The NiZn battery is being developed as an alternative to the Lead-Acid battery which is currently required to support the Astute Class submarine with the aim of achieving enhanced energy storage and safety improvements.

(iii) A competition was conducted for Phase 1 of the Submarine Main Battery Technology Development Project (TDP) to test the energy storage market and the NiZn cell design which is being developed by PMB was taken forward. The Submarine Main Battery TDP is moving into Phase 3 of the NiZn battery development.

(iv) The contract shall be subject to the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Article 28(1)(e) of Directive 2009/81/EC and Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations (DSPCR) 2011 (SI 2011/No 1848) where for technical reasons the contract may only be awarded to a particular economic operator. This is due to the technical need to utilise the PMB cell design for the existing NiZn battery module design work conducted under Phase 1 and 2 of the Submarine Main Battery TDP. PMB DEFENCE ENGINEERING PTY LTD are the only economic operator with the tools, knowledge, skills and expertise to be able to continue the development of the NiZn Submarine Main Battery.

(v) The existing module design has been developed using the PMB NiZn cell design, PMB are the only contractor who can continue to develop the main battery design without having to redesign the battery module to make use of a different cell design or battery technology.

(vi) It is anticipated that the contract award date will be November 2021 with an estimated value of GBP 2.3 million (ex VAT). Please note that the date and value are provided for indicative purposes only.

• PMB DEFENCE ENGINEERING PTY LTDAwarded supplier Osborne, AU
• PMB Defence Engineering Pty LtdAwarded supplier Osborne, AU

No document links were published on the notice.