Purpose

West Sussex County Council (WSCC) has a commitment to sustainability, tackling climate change, and enabling the transition to a low carbon economy for the county. The generation of renewable energy is an important element of the Council’s Energy Strategy to meet this commitment, which has led to the Council developing a portfolio of rooftop solar PV systems.

Energy Services manage the ongoing operation and maintenance (O&M) of these systems to ensure that they work effectively over their lifetime, maximising the revenue they generate and carbon they save, while ensuring that they operate safely.

Currently, rooftop solar PV O&M activities are delivered through individual suppliers across separate contracts. However, this approach has required significant contract management resource and led to recurring capacity constraints. It is proposed that a Rooftop Solar PV O&M Framework will provide a more efficient approach to service delivery, which will help maximise energy generation across the rooftop solar PV portfolio, reducing energy costs and carbon emissions while increasing revenue generation.

Decision

The Cabinet Member for the Environment and Climate Change has:

1)   approved the implementation of a four-year Rooftop Solar PV O&M Framework with a £2.5m (ex VAT) revenue allocation and the procurement of contractors onto the four lots set out in paragraph 2.2 of this report; and

2)   delegated authority to the Service Director for the award of call-off contracts under this framework, and any subsequent decisions relating to these contracting arrangements.