A single UK award notice quietly fixes the equipment stack, data flow, and commercial shape of 31 heat networks for the next five years. [S1]
For specifiers picking meters, payment terminals, in-home displays, and a billing agent for communal heat, this notice sets a concrete baseline: a 31 site, circa 1500 property portfolio on a service contract running from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2030, procured openly above threshold, and CPV coded to repair and maintenance of gas meters (50411200) despite the heat network scope. [S1]
What the notice actually specifies
The description states a requirement for a new heat network metering and billing solution and a metering and billing agent across a heat network portfolio of 31 sites and circa 1500 properties. The equipment list is partial but explicit: heat meter, payment meter, and in home display, with the agent role bundled into the same award. [S1]
Procurement reference is P2161. Industry classification is CPV 50411200, repair and maintenance services of gas meters. The geography is West Midlands, the procedure is open procedure above threshold, and the contract is marked suitable for SMEs and VCSEs. Whether that suitability is a real scoring lever or a portal default is not stated and is worth confirming with the buyer. [S1]
Commercial and term shape
The award carries a value of contract of 3,400,000 GBP, a contract start date of 1 October 2025, and a contract end date of 30 September 2030. No annual price, no per site or per property rate, and no indexation mechanism are disclosed in the excerpt, so any benchmarking exercise has to treat the figure as a single envelope rather than a schedule of rates. [S1]
Contract type is recorded as service contract. For metering and billing that has practical consequences: the agent typically retains responsibility for device lifecycle, data validation, billing output, and resident queries, while the asset may sit with the agent under a managed service rather than with the client as owned stock. Specifiers elsewhere should mirror that split if they want a comparable bid field. [S1]
Implications for a new specifier
If you are writing a similar specification, the minimum hardware set to call out is heat meter, payment meter, and in home display, with the billing agent scoped in. Plan for a service contract structure and decide up front who owns the meter, the communications gateway, and the billing data, since the notice does not separate capital and revenue elements. [S1]
Use CPV 50411200 only if your scope is truly gas meter repair and maintenance. For a heat network metering and billing requirement the description is what matters, and you should expect portal validation friction if the code does not match the wording. The published close was 4 April 2025 at 12pm and the award was published 26 January 2026, which is a useful real world timeline for planning your own procurement calendar against a five year service contract. [S1]
Primary notice: Contracts Finder.