IMPACT: Investigating Mine Potential for Cooling and Thermal storage

Location

Description

We will explore the technical possibilities and challenges of cooling and thermal energy storage in mine workings by discharging warm water into mine workings at the BGS UKGOES site in Glasgow. Thermal storage in mine workings is part of our Business Plan 2032 vision and Mine Water Heat Framework and is vital to understand if we want to unlock mine water heat advisory services and deliver value to coalfield communities. Thermal energy storage will be a vital technology in decarbonising heat and making net zero a reality. Underground coal mine workings could be an important thermal store for a number of sources including excess heat from data centres and for balancing heating networks. To overcome these challenges, we want to undertake the mine heat storage experiment at the British Geological Survey (BGS) owned mine workings 'observatory' in Glasgow. This is a unique research facility designed for investigating this shallow, low-temperature, mine-water heat energy and potential heat storage resources. It is fully constructed and ready to use and it has all the permits, licences and equipment in place to test heat storage. It is the only place in the UK that has suitable infrastructure to enable us to undertake this research. Scope of work This project requires BGS to manage, co-design, undertake and report on a mine heat thermal storage experiment at their Geoenergy Observatory in Glasgow. The exact parameters of the experiment will be defined in collaboration with the MRA. BGS will collect, process and analyse samples, details of which will be confirmed prior to start date. The outputs will include summary reports, produced by BGS with MRA contribution on the works undertaken and data packages including all the data collected at the Observatory during the experiment, which the Mining Remediation Authority will publish as an open access dataset. The IPR of new data will remain the property of the MRA.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• None found

Legal Justification

In accordance with the Procurement Act 2023, the need for a specialist provider is justified where the goods or services required can only be supplied by a single supplier due to their unique capabilities-in this case, access to the BGS mine workings observatory. The requester has confirmed that the market has been reviewed. The UKGEOS observatory in Glasgow is a unique research facility and there is nowhere else in the UK that allows experiments to be undertaken in fully monitored mine workings. The technical expertise of BGS staff is also instrumental to obtaining and collecting the data during the experiment, and no one else would be able to provide the same service. The Procurement Act 2023 consolidates the grounds for making a direct award, which may be necessary where unique opportunities exist. Specifically, a direct award can be justified for reasons such as technical specifications, exclusive rights, or other unique circumstances. In this instance, the exclusive and special nature of the working environment, forefront of innovation and data, combined with the lack of market competition, supports proceeding without a competitive tender process.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. **