Supply & Delivery of PLC, HMI, SCADA and Industrial Networking Equipment

Description

The requirement is to supply a range of site based hardware & software supported by a supervisory control and data acquisition platform to support the United Utilities Wholesale business and its need to automate, monitor &control. - Local Automation PLC/HMI Hardware & Software - SCADA Software - Supervisory Control Software - SCADA Systems Hardware - Servers & PLC's Lot 1: The contractual arrangement for supplies will include: - Local Automation PLC/HMI Hardware & Software - SCADA Software - Supervisory Control Software - SCADA Systems Hardware - Servers & PLC's The contractual arrangement for services will include: - Pre and post sales application support - Technical support and training - Engineering software licences. - Supply of hardware and software compliant with the BS EN 62443 Standard for Cyber Security and represent best practice with regards to the NIS Directive - Associated Spares - Field Services In delivering the supplies under this contractual agreement, it is a requirement that the Supplier shall comply with the relevant technical standards which will be detailed within the agreement. With regards to the hardware and software (i.e. supplies), these shall be required by a number of third party routes, including but not limited to: - UU Internal teams - UU Framework Systems Integrators working for UU's delivery partners - Maintenance delivery partners - Construction delivery partners - Design & Build contractors Additional information: Type of procedure Negotiated procedure without prior call for competition Additional deliveries by the original supplier ordered under the strict conditions stated in the directive Explanation: United Utilities the contracting entity, 90% of its operational sites are controlled, monitored and automated using Siemens S7 PLCs and WinCC SCADA software and the next investment programme calls for circa 2% of its PLC/SCADA to be replaced. Awarding the PLC/SCADA contract to any supplier other than the incumbent will re-introduce 'Islands of Automation' onto our sites. This introduces numerous potential issues such as: - Single Points of Failure; - Duplication of both tasks and data; - More complex designs; - Lengthier troubleshooting; and - is generally and much more inefficient way to automate a site. At a site level United Utilities has mostly eliminated this issue, to introduce differing technology (with limited to no interconnectivity) to these sites would be to reintroduce issues such as the above. An alternative to introducing Islands of Automation would be to replace all hardware and software on a site that is introducing new hardware. This would require software to be reverse engineered and redesigned in a way to work on the new platform and then being re-commissioned. Independent third parties have provided proposals for a full PLC replacement project (using non incumbent technology), based on a typical UU Waste Water plant size using the above scenario for verification. The technical complexity (design, coding and testing effort required) to achieve this, when compared to implementing an additional PLC onto a site using the incumbent's technology, was found to be a ratio of 11:1. The Framework was last tendered in 2009, with minor amendments to scope and terms negotiated with the successful supplier, (Siemens PLC), as part of the strategy for Kit Framework awards for AMP6 in 2015. Prior to 2009, Siemens were also the incumbent supplier for these products and services and have been the UU SCADA platform provider since 2004 The Kit Framework is still in place with Siemens PLC until Sept 2020, with no further extension options under the current arrangement which has now expired. United Utilities conducted stakeholders meetings and agreement sought that confirm the optimum solution would be to re-negotiate with the current incumbent, there is a need to justify and confirm the disproportionality of re-tendering v transition costs, i.e. the cost of changing asset base, associated protocols, training material, maintenance regimes, spares and knowledge etc., should the solution provider change. United Utilities conclusion is that the significant extra technical steps required to transition to a change of supplier would oblige the utility to acquire supplies having different technical characteristics which would result in incompatibility or disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance. It is therefore, necessary to conduct a negotiated procedure without prior call for competition, as highlighted above United Utilities have acted in good faith prior to coming to this decision based on the due diligence that has been conducted.