South of Scotland Electric Vehicle Charging Delivery Partner

A concession contract for the operation, maintenance, and expansion of the public electric vehicle charging network across eight collaborating local authorities in the South of Scotland. The contract includes migrating existing ChargePlace Scotland assets to a new back-office system and delivering approximately 1,800 additional charge points by 2030.

A regional collaboration of Scottish local authorities wish to put in a place a concession contract for an electric vehicle charging network across a large geographical region. The authorities are City of Edinburgh Council (lead authority), Dumfries and Galloway Council, West Lothian Council, Midlothian Council, Scottish Borders Council, Clackmannanshire Council, Fife Council and Falkirk Council.

The concession contract will assume responsibility for the existing public charging estate. This will include migration of these assets from the Chargeplace Scotland network onto a new back office.

Further to this, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund (EVIF) grant funding in the region of GBP6 million has been secured from Transport Scotland to support the expansion of the network by approximately 1800 additional chargepoints by 2030. The authorities will work with the operator throughout the contract term to support further network expansion beyond the initial expansion phase which may be funded from a range of sources.

The contract will be for a single operator who can provide a mix of charging solutions and capacities across the region with an expectation the majority by number will be long dwell time AC charging. The back office software will facilitate fleet charging.

The tender process is expected to be as follows; Initial SPD submission to shortlist five operators. Shortlisted operators will be invited to submit a proposal following which they will be invited to discuss and explore their proposal for the region. Subsequently shortlisted operators will be invited to submit a full tender.