Heating of HQ building via 2 x 250kW biomass boilers and woodchip fuel

Quantity or scope

The successful operator will be required to supply, commission, operate and maintain 2 x 250 kW biomass boilers and associated equipment. As part of the maintenance service, the successful operator will be required to source, stock and deliver to Udaras the relevant woodchip fuel for use with the biomass boilers.The removal of the existing boiler and any associated installation works of the new boiler system (excluding commissioning) will be carried out by an external party appointed by Udaras.The duration of the contract will be for either 5 or 10 years.

Additional information

All queries in relation to this project must be sent by email only to g.dorchai@udaras.ie. Responses will be circulated in clarification documents which will be issued only to those candidates that have registered an interest in the competition on the Irish Government procurement opportunities portal www.etenders.gov.ie. The identity of a person making a query will not be disclosed when circulating the response.

1) Interested parties must register their interest on the eTenders web site (www.etenders.gov.ie) in order to be included on the mailing list for clarifications. Registration is free of charge. The contracting authority will not accept responsibility for information relayed (or not relayed) via third parties;

2) This is the sole call for competition for this contract;

3) The contracting authority will not be responsible for any costs, charges or expenses incurred by candidates, participants or tenderers;

4) Contract award will be subject to the approval of the competent authorities;

5) It will be a condition for the award of contract that the successful tenderer produces and maintains a valid tax clearance certificate from the Irish Revenue Commissioners;

6) If for any reason it is not possible to award the contract to the designated successful tenderer emerging from this competitive process, or if having awarded the contract, the contracting authority considers that the successful tenderer has not met its obligations, the contracting authority reserves the right to award the contract to the next highest scoring tenderer on the basis of the terms advertised and tendered by that party. This shall be without prejudice to the right of the contracting authority to cancel this competitive process and/or initiate a new contract award procedure at its sole discretion;

7) At its absolute discretion, the contracting authority may elect to terminate this procurement process at any time;

8) Without prejudice to the principle of equal treatment, the contracting authority is not obliged to engage in a clarification process in respect of missing or incomplete information. Therefore, candidates are advised to ensure that they fully addresses the criteria listed in section III.2) of this notice in order to avoid the risk of elimination from the competition;

9) A grouping of economic operators may rely on the capacities of participants in the group or of other entities;

10) Competitive dialogue procedure

Udaras is using the competitive dialogue procedure to award the contract. The procedure will take place in the following stages:

Stage I – qualification.

1. Interested parties are invited to fully addresses the criteria listed in section III.2) of this notice and submit it to the address in section I.1) before the specified deadline. In order to be considered for participation in the competition, candidates must in the first instance meet the selection criteria and minimum standards indicated.

2. Responses will be assessed in accordance with the selection criteria, weightings and minimum rules listed in section III.2) of this notice. It is envisaged that the top 5 scoring candidates (subject to the number and quality of applications received) that also meet the minimum requirements will be invited to participate in the dialogue stage.

Stage II - dialogue.

3. A descriptive document will be issued with the invitations to participate to the chosen participants. This will provide more detailed information about the requirements of the required solution, the format of the conduct of the dialogue stage and the applicable award criteria and weightings.

4. The purpose of the dialogue is to allow participants to develop their proposed solutions in response to Udaras’ objectives prior to formal tendering. The dialogue may take place in one or more phases to allow for the refinement of solutions. The number of participants in each dialogue may be successively reduced by applying one or more of the published award criteria, all in accordance with the public procurement rules.

5. The solutions proposed by participants and the confidential information communicated by them in the course of the competitive dialogue procedure will be held in strict confidence and not revealed to any other parties without express permission, subject always to legal obligations. Similarly, all participants in the competition are required to treat all of the information provided by Udaras during the process as confidential.

Stage III - formal tendering.

6. Participants offering solutions which are deemed to fulfill the requirements following the completion of the dialogue phase(s) will be invited to submit formal tenders based on the solutions presented during the dialogue. Tenders received will then be assessed on foot of the published award criteria. Tenderers may be asked to clarify certain aspects of their tenders or to confirm any commitments contained in their tenders.

(ET Ref:199275).

Suitability to pursue the professional activity

None at this stage, however, participants in the dialogue stage will be required to confirm that none of the conditions for exclusion referred to in Article 45 of Directive 2004/18/EC regarding bankruptcy, payment of taxes, etc apply to their particular case. As part of this confirmation, participants will be asked to sign a declaration of bona fides which will be included in the descriptive document. Failure to meet any of the relevant criteria may result in the elimination of a participant.

Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded

A grouping, if successful, may be required to contract as a single entity having joint and several liability but subject to the agreement of the contracting parties. If it is proposed to sub-contract the delivery of any portion of the contract, it may be a condition of award of contract that both the operator and any proposed sub-contractor enter simultaneously into a collateral warranty with the contracting authority for the relevant portion of that contract.

Information about review deadlines

The contracting authority will not award this reviewable public contract to which a standstill period applies in accordance with Irish Statutory Instrument SI 130 of 2010, until after the expiry of the standstill period which commences on the day following the date of notification of concerned candidates and tenderers. The duration of the standstill period will be 14 calendar days where notifications are sent electronically or by fax and 16 calendar days where these are sent by any other means. The statutory instrument mentioned above provides that review procedures are available in the High Court to a person who has or has had an interest in obtaining the reviewable public contract and alleges that he or she has been harmed or is at risk of being harmed by an infringement of the law in relation to that reviewable public contract.