By Simon | September 2026 | 10 min read

 

HERMEQ UK invites tenders for solar PV at its West Bromwich powder coating plant: the scope, the risk and the deadline

HERMEQ UK Ltd has opened a solar PV tender for its powder coating plant in West Bromwich, closing at 23:59 on 31 October 2026, and the scope of works commits the winning contractor to a good deal more than supplying panels. No kWp figure has been published, so the sizing case is the bidder's to build and argue. The Distribution Network Operator application, the judgement on whether the existing roof can take an array and the full handover pack all sit with the contractor as well. Seven evaluation criteria decide the award, and the lowest price does not automatically win it.

 

The opportunity at a glance

Detail	Information
Buyer	HERMEQ UK Ltd
Site	Powder coating plant, West Bromwich, West Midlands
Scope	Design, supply, installation and commissioning of a new solar PV system
Published	9 September 2026
Closing date	31 October 2026, 23:59
Contact	Simon Brough, HERMEQ UK Ltd, simon.brough@hermeq.com

This is a manufacturer's own invitation to tender rather than a framework call-off, and it is open to any solar photovoltaic installer, supplier or manufacturer bidding direct. The package is design, supply, installation and commissioning, so it suits an EPC contractor carrying single-point responsibility; a supply-only quotation does not answer the scope. Simon Brough holds the full specification and the site information a bidder needs to price the job. There is no portal to register on and no site visit offered as part of the process, so the first move is an email.

Submissions received after the closing date may not be considered.

 

Why this tender sits outside Find a Tender

HERMEQ is a private manufacturer, so none of this touches public procurement. There is no notice on Find a Tender (FTS), Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland or Sell2Wales, because none of those systems apply to a company buying work for its own site with its own money. The Procurement Act 2023 has no bearing either: HERMEQ is not a contracting authority, so there is no standstill period before award, no scored social value weighting and no framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system a bidder has to sit on first, Crown Commercial Service RM6252 included.

For a bidder that changes the mechanics in both directions. Nothing stands between you and the documents except an email, and HERMEQ sets its own evaluation criteria; a contracting authority would be running a most advantageous tender assessment, the successor to the most economically advantageous tender test, against published weightings. What you lose is the standard public-sector document set. There is no published capacity figure and no fixed document pack, so whoever gets the specification and the consumption data earliest is pricing with better information than the field.

For scale, Find a Tender records a £320,822.60 excluding VAT solar PV installation at Carterton Leisure Centre for West Oxfordshire District Council, and a five-year Gentoo Group solar PV maintenance contract awarded at £672,774 excluding VAT after 12 tenders under the open procedure. Public buyers classify that work under CPV 09331000 for solar panels, 45261215 for solar panel roof-covering work and 71314000 for energy and related services, which is how bidders filter the portals; a private tender carries no code at all. Neither published value is a guide to what the West Bromwich job is worth, and HERMEQ has not published a contract value.

 

Capacity is the bidder's decision, not HERMEQ's

HERMEQ has published no kWp figure. The installed capacity is to be confirmed by HERMEQ, which makes the sizing argument part of the bid: whoever models the site load best writes the number the buyer confirms.

The stated objective points that modelling one way. HERMEQ describes the project as part of its ongoing investment in energy efficiency and sustainability, aimed at cutting grid electricity consumption and the operating cost that comes with it, and at reducing the carbon impact of manufacturing on the site. Nothing in that mentions export revenue. This is a self-consumption brief, so a roof-mounted array sized past daytime demand, dumping the surplus to grid at a lower value, does not answer what the buyer asked for.

The design phase is spelled out in the scope:

Full system design, including assessment of the available roof area, orientation, shading, anticipated annual generation and optimisation of the installation against the site's electricity consumption profile.

A powder coating plant's load shape is what makes that workable. Curing ovens and extraction plant run on a daytime schedule through the working week, which is close to the shape solar generation produces on its own, and that overlap is the sizing case. Model against half-hourly demand and size to the point where generation tracks consumption through the working day instead of running past it into export.

So the first thing to request, before anything is priced, is half-hourly consumption data for the site. An annual kWh figure tells you nothing about when the plant draws power. Half-hourly data lets you build the load profile, overlay projected annual generation for a given kWp, and put a defensible capacity figure and yield forecast in the submission.

 

The scope of works, line by line

The published scope reads as a list of deliverables, but each line carries a different pricing risk. Build the bid from these nine items, and price the risk column as carefully as the equipment.

 

Scope item as published	What the bidder must price	Where the risk sits
PV array and modules	Module count, wattage and layout for the confirmed capacity, plus the structural loading that follows	Module specification stays open until capacity is agreed with HERMEQ, so anything priced against a placeholder gets revised
Inverters and associated AC/DC electrical equipment, protection devices, isolators, cabling and distribution equipment	Appropriately sized commercial inverters and every downstream item: protection devices, isolators, cable runs, distribution equipment	Cable runs and distribution capacity depend on where the array sits relative to the existing switchroom, which nobody prices from a roof photograph
Design and system optimisation	Full design against roof area, orientation and shading, optimised against the site's consumption profile, with an anticipated annual generation figure	Optimisation against a load profile you never requested produces a design that misses the sizing brief
Structural assessment and mounting system	Assessment of the existing roof structure's suitability, plus a commercial mounting system with fixings and weatherproofing	Roof build-up and existing loading are unknown until surveyed, and a mounting system priced against an assumed deck type is the most common under-pricing on this list
Electrical integration into existing site infrastructure	Any modifications and protection requirements needed to connect into HERMEQ's existing electrical infrastructure	A working powder coating plant's distribution boards may have no headroom for the new supply without upgrade work nobody has scoped
DNO application and approval, including G99/G100	Preparing and submitting the application, then carrying it through to approval	The timescale belongs to the Distribution Network Operator, so approval can land well past the installation programme
Online monitoring platform	A platform tracking generation, performance and energy savings, handed over working at commissioning	Licence or data costs beyond year one are the easiest thing to leave out of a capital price
Testing, commissioning and certification	Full testing and commissioning of the installed system, certified before handover	Access to a live production plant, and the scaffold or MEWP hire needed to reach the roof, rarely appear as their own line
Handover documentation and warranty	The documentation pack and warranty terms due at project close	Covered in full below

HERMEQ describes this as the anticipated scope of works, and says it is not necessarily limited to these items. Treat that as a warning: lines get added once the roof survey and the DNO application are underway.

 

The DNO application belongs to the contractor

The Distribution Network Operator application is the contractor's job, not HERMEQ's. One line in the scope does it:

Completion and management of the appropriate Distribution Network Operator application and approval process, including G99/G100 requirements where applicable.

That hands the winning bidder the application, the correspondence with the network operator, and the decision on whether to accept whatever connection offer comes back. If the offer arrives with a reinforcement cost or a lead time longer than the programme assumed, the contractor is holding it.

Which of the two standards applies depends on how the array is connected. G99 governs connecting generating plant of this size to the distribution network and requires the operator's approval before connection, which is the normal route for a commercial rooftop array feeding a site supply. G100 is the export limitation route, used where the network operator will not accept the full export a system could produce and a limiting device has to cap what leaves the site. Because the buyer's objective is self-consumption rather than export revenue, a design that keeps generation inside the plant's own demand may never approach an export limit, which points this job towards G99 with export capped by design.

Do not leave any of that implied in the bid. State the route you are assuming, the export limit you are designing to, and what happens commercially if the operator asks for network reinforcement before it will grant approval. That last point is the one that rarely gets costed, and a bidder who treats the application as a fixed administrative fee ends up absorbing both the delay and the bill when the determination lands.

 

The roof decides the price

The scope hands the contractor two jobs at once: judge whether the existing roof can take a solar array, then supply the mounting system, fixings and weatherproofing that make it work. That is a design liability. A bidder who signs up to assessing the existing roof structure's suitability without having seen the roof is accepting the cost of getting that judgement wrong.

Before a price is credible, get answers on roof construction and age, purlin spacing and load capacity, sheet type and coating condition, and where the existing penetrations sit. Ask whether the roof is fragile and what that implies for installation access and for every future maintenance visit. Ask whether array loading has been checked against wind and snow loading for the location, because that answer decides the mounting system, the fixing pattern and how much of the roof is usable at all.

A working powder coating plant adds constraints a drawing will not show. Extraction stacks and flue outlets throw shadow across parts of the roof and usually carry an exclusion zone, which is why the shading assessment has to be done on the roof and not on a satellite image. Roof-level plant, ducting and access walkways eat into area that looked usable on a layout.

No site visit is offered before the closing date, so the only route to this information is Simon Brough. Treat any roof area figure in the bid as provisional until the structure has been surveyed, and say so in the submission instead of pricing it as settled.

 

What has to be handed over

Nothing closes out until testing, commissioning and certification are complete, and the pack that follows is longer than the single line most bids allow for it. HERMEQ requires operating and maintenance documentation, system drawings, commissioning records, warranties, certification and the recommended maintenance requirements for the installed system.

Each of those has a version that costs money and a version that does not. The operating and maintenance documentation is a manual for whoever runs the plant day to day, not a folder of manufacturer data sheets. The drawings are as-installed, not the design-stage layout priced at tender. The commissioning records are the measured results and the inverter settings captured on the day. Warranty terms need a named route for a claim, clear enough that someone can use them in year eight. The maintenance requirements need a stated interval and scope, cleaning included, not a reference to periodic servicing.

The monitoring platform belongs on the same list. The scope asks for generation, performance and the associated energy savings, so a dashboard reporting kWh and nothing else misses the brief, and the licence cost past year one belongs in the tendered price rather than in a renewal invoice nobody warned the buyer about.

 

How the bids will be judged

Seven criteria decide this tender and price is one of them. The published evaluation covers technical suitability, system performance, proposed generation, project delivery, warranty and aftercare provision, contractor experience and overall value for money. A submission built around a low headline figure is being scored against six criteria it has not addressed.

HERMEQ UK Ltd reserves the right not to accept the lowest-priced tender and will select the proposal considered to provide the most appropriate technical and commercial solution for the project.

Read that literally. This is not a price-weighted public-sector scoring exercise, and the cheapest compliant submission can lose to one that performs better over the life of the array.

The scope also opens a door most tenders keep shut: HERMEQ will consider alternative equipment, system configurations and technical solutions where a bidder can demonstrate equivalent or superior performance, reliability, efficiency and whole-life value. That is an invitation to argue engineering.

Use it properly. Submit a compliant offer priced against the published scope, then a clearly labelled alternative alongside it, with the generation forecast, degradation curve and whole-life cost comparison that justify the substitution. An alternative submitted on its own, with no compliant baseline, leaves HERMEQ nothing to compare it against.

Whole-life value is the thread running through all seven criteria. Because the stated objective is lower grid consumption and lower operating cost, a bid showing lower degradation, a longer inverter warranty or a maintenance regime that holds performance can outweigh a marginally cheaper capital price.

 

How to get the specification

The full specification, the site information and the submission details come from Simon Brough at HERMEQ UK Ltd: simon.brough@hermeq.com. Put two requests in that first email: half-hourly consumption data for the plant, and the roof structure and layout information. Without the first you cannot size the array to the brief, and without the second the mounting system is a guess.

The closing time is 23:59 on 31 October 2026, and late submissions may not be considered.

 

FAQ

What is the difference between G99 and G100 on a commercial solar PV installation?

G99 covers connecting generating plant of this scale to the distribution network and requires the contractor to submit an application and obtain the Distribution Network Operator's approval before connection. G100 covers export limitation: it allows a system to generate more than the local network would otherwise accept, provided export to grid is electronically capped. On a job like the HERMEQ tender, whether the network operator requires export limitation can decide whether the connection is straightforward or needs network reinforcement, so the contractor managing the application has to establish which route applies before pricing the connection.

Do I need to be on a framework such as CCS RM6252 to bid for this solar PV tender?

No. Crown Commercial Service frameworks exist for public sector procurement. HERMEQ UK Ltd is a private manufacturer buying this work with its own money for its own site, so public procurement frameworks and thresholds do not apply. Bidders deal directly with the named contact and no framework pre-qualification is required.

What happens if my tender submission arrives after the closing date?

The closing time is 23:59 on 31 October 2026, and submissions received after it may not be considered. This is a private tender, so HERMEQ sets its own terms and there is no public procurement rule to fall back on. If timing is going to be a problem, raise it with Simon Brough before the deadline rather than after it.

Where are UK solar PV tenders normally published?

Public sector solar PV tenders above the relevant value threshold appear on Find a Tender, with Contracts Finder used for lower-value public contracts and Public Contracts Scotland or Sell2Wales for devolved public bodies. Those platforms exist because public procurement law requires public bodies to advertise openly. A private manufacturer buying solar PV for its own site is under no such obligation, which is why the HERMEQ tender sits outside all four systems and is issued direct.