2025-061 Technical Auditing for Engineering

This procurement is for auditors to be employed by the Authority, to carry out asset management audits and engineering asset assurance inspections at gas and electricity sites.

Ofgem requires a supplier to assess, inspect and investigate the asset management systems and equipment of licensees with a view to providing assurance that suitable governance is in place and equipment is being maintained in accordance with the relevant standards in practice.

In order to do so, the suppliers may be required, but not limited to the following pieces of work:

Item 1

The suppliers would provide their expert view on the following:

Whether the Licensee’s asset management policies and procedures are fit for purpose and consistent with international best practice. Additionally, the supplier would provide an assessment of asset management maturity within the organisation.

Whether licensees are following these policies and procedures correctly, in terms of the monitoring, maintenance and repair/replacement of their assets and whether the staff responsible for completing these procedures are appropriately trained.

Whether licensees are accurately recording these activities, including into Network Asset Risk Metrics (NARMs)/other metrics, and making appropriate/timely interventions where issues are identified through such measures and otherwise.

Item 2

The Inspectors provided by the suppliers will be employed to carry out engineering asset assurance surveys and Inspections at onshore gas and electricity sites.

The scope of services, as further detailed in Annex A technical specification, would include (but is not limited to) the following:

To inspect key electricity assets and systems including: transformers, reactors, circuit breakers, protection & control equipment, auxiliary systems, high voltage connections, cabling, busbars and buscouplers, disconnectors, earth switches, civil structures, fire suppression equipment, batteries, overhead lines (including towers and poles) and cables (including fluid filled systems, cooling and monitoring equipment).

To inspect key gas assets and systems including: gas terminals, local distribution zone offtakes, above ground installations, pipeline safety and maintenance records, compressor stations, protection and control equipment, metering installations, odorant injection facilities, storage facilities, pressure control installations, auxiliary systems, civil structures, associated electrical and communication & instrumentation installations, gas monitoring and fire suppression equipment, pre-heating and cooling installations.

For above assets that are within scope of the audit, review of maintenance schedules and plans and historic maintenance records, defects and repairs; also audit of technical and performance data submitted to Ofgem.

The supplier’s inspectors will be asked to give a view as part of submitted reports and or presentations to Ofgem, on the adequacy of the maintenance regime, maintenance performance and forward plans for the assets based on their findings from the site visits and review of maintenance schedules and maintenance records. The supplier’s inspectors will also need to make recommendations on improvements to maintenance plans and performance where they identify gaps and shortcomings based on their findings from the audit, their knowledge of best practice and experience of working with other operators of similar equipment.

Item 3

The supplier’s inspectors may also be asked to investigate the circumstances of electricity or gas network incidents or issues and provide a technical report to Ofgem setting out the root cause with conclusions about the wider circumstances and recommendations to ensure compliance with the relevant standards and policies. This work would involve:

Inspecting the relevant plant and equipment

Researching the circumstances of the incident or issue by reviewing data and other information

Writing a report on findings and presenting it to Ofgem.

For each inspection, Ofgem will require the suppliers to:

A report on the findings from a process and procedures audit on each licensee.

Item 1.

A report detailing the findings of each site audit carried out.

Item 2.

A report detailing the facts and conclusions of a network incident.

Item 3.

A presentation to Ofgem setting out the findings from each audit / inspection / investigation.

For further information, please refer to the attached Invitation to Tender (ITT) documents.