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Meeting: |
Executive |
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Meeting date: |
2 June 2026 |
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Report of: |
Garry Taylor, Director of City Development |
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Portfolio of: |
Councillor Kate Ravilious, Executive Member for Transport |
EV Back Office Contract Replacement
Subject of
Report
1. The current back-office provider for York’s public EV charging network has advised that they are unable to renew the contract at the end of the initial 5-year term as is permissible under the conditions of the contract.
2. CYC Procurement officers have indicated that a replacement provider could be appointed to provide services until the previously proposed contract renewal end date of November 2029 under the previous Full Executive decision.
3. Given careful consideration of the options, it would be beneficial to secure a new contract with a longer duration to reduce customer disruption and support residents and businesses to have confidence in transitioning to EV vehicles. Securing a new contract requires a new Full Executive decision and is the reason for this report being brought forward.
4. Back-office and maintenance services are essential to the ongoing operation of York’s public charging network.
5. This report does not seek decisions on individual capital EV charging projects. These projects will be brought for decision individually at an appropriate time in the future.
Benefits and Challenges
6. The procurement of a 5+3 year contract will confer the following benefits:
· Enable the continued operation of York’s public EV charging network.
· Less disruption for customers
· Competitively priced EV charging for customers.
The CYC tariff is set annually to take account of changes to the Council's electrical supply contracts which are fixed for 12-month periods. The tariff setting process includes a review of all costs including network/back-office fees, maintenance fees, and transaction fees to ensure that tariffs cover all day to day running costs of the Network.
The current approach to tariff setting is to have a simple tariff structure that represents good value for users. As a result there are no additional connection fees, no hidden fees, and no time of use tariffs, with separate tariffs established for standard charging and Rapid/Ultra Rapid charging. This is easy to understand for users and simplifies management of the Network for the Council.
The Network benefits from embedded solar PV and onsite battery energy storage systems at HyperHub sites which reduces demand on the grid and enables grid services to be delivered directly benefiting grid stability.
· Reduces requirement for council to undertake further procurement exercises
· Contract length is in line with market expectations
· Provides a delivery route for a number of future EV projects.
Policy Basis for Decision
7. Continued operation of York’s Public EV Charging Network is supported by:
· York Local Transport Strategy 2024-2040, Implementation Plan for the period 2024 to end 2026: Package 5: Safeguarding our Environment
· Air Quality Action Plan 4
· City of York Council EV Charging Strategy
· Climate Change Strategy (supporting transition to EV vehicles)
Financial Strategy Implications
8. Day to day operation of the charging Network is cost neutral to the Council. This is achieved by setting charging tariffs at a level to cover day to day running costs of the network. This is only possible with a back-office provider which will allow tariffs to be set on this basis and to facilitate the receipt of payments from our customers.
9. This contract could also be used for the supply and installation of EV charging equipment to support a range of projects with a potential total value around £5million over the 8-year contract duration.
Recommendation and Reasons
10. Recommendation: Approve the procurement of a new contract for a period of 5+3 years, to provide back-office services, maintenance and servicing of CYC owned charging infrastructure and supply and installation of new EV charging equipment.
11. Delegate authority to the Director of City Development (in consultation with the Executive Member for Transport and the Head of Procurement) to take such steps as are necessary to procure, award and enter into the resulting contract.
12. Reason: To enable continued operation of the public charging network.
Background
13. The existing Charge Point Operator (CPO) providing back-office and maintenance services for CYC’s public charging network was contracted following an executive decision to appoint an EV supplier on 06/10/2020.
14. The contract was awarded for a period of 5 years, with the option to extend by 2+2 further years.
15. The incumbent supplier gave notice that they were unable to meet their contractual obligations regarding tariff setting and, due to internal changes within the organisation, they would not be continuing to install or operate standard speed chargers from 2026. As such, they were unable to extend the contract for the remaining 4 years.
16. The Council now need to appoint an alternative provider for all EV charger installations to provide maintenance and back-office operations for the public network.
17. Soft Market testing has been carried out and Oxford City Council’s EV DPS has been selected as a suitable framework from which to procure these services.
18. The tender to be offered via the Oxford EV DPS framework will include requirements for potential suppliers to support CYC in delivery of the EACH (Equality, Affordability, Climate, Health) principles of the council plan as well as demonstrating social value elements for their own organisation which align with CYC’s preferred initiatives.
19. An indicative timetable for the procurement process to be undertaken is as follows:
Tender Released through Oxford DPS W/C 08/06/26
Tender open for response 8 Weeks
Evaluation and Decision announcement Approx 2 Weeks
Formalise Award/Seal Contract Approx 2 Weeks
Contract Start Up TBC with winning supplier
20. This decision request does not seek approval for the expansion of the existing public charging network at this time. Future investment in the wider roll out of additional charging infrastructure will be sought under individual decisions at the appropriate level as individual projects progress.
Consultation Analysis
21. No consultation has been undertaken. This decision seeks approval to replace the services of an existing supplier with a “like for like” solution.
Options Analysis and
Evidential Basis
22. Option 1:
Approve the procurement of a new back office and maintenance contract to replace the existing, defaulted contract, offering an extended term totalling 8 years from commencement of the contract.
23. Reasons:
CYC can continue to operate the public charging network for the next 8 years.
24. Migration of chargers to a new back-office system will take time to complete, including changes to hardware, a settling in period and the need to build a good working relationship with the appointed Charge Point Operator (CPO.) Procuring a longer contract at this point will avoid repeating this exercise again in 2029, causing further network change and disruption.
25. Standardising equipment and installation practices through a single contract makes the EV network more resilient/easier to maintain and provides a higher degree of cost certainty for allaspects of the EV network and for forthcoming projects requiring EV charging installations.
26. Changes to the charging app, prices, processes etc are never popular with service users. A longer contract procured at this time will offer a more stable experience for our customers, improving their experience of using our services.
27. Option 2:
Do not approve the procurement of a new back office and maintenance contract to replace the existing defaulted contract.
28. Impact:
Under current arrangements, with our supplier unable to renew the existing contract, CYC have limited ability to ensure or guarantee continued operation of the service, both in the short and long term.
Organisational Impact and Implications
29.
· Financial,
Progressing the recommended option will have no direct financial implications to the Council. The contract model operates on a cost neutral basis. If this option is not progressed there is a risk that York’s EV charging network fails to operate, and will also put new installations at risk, which are required to support the operations of the Council as well as the public.
· Human Resources (HR),
No implications raised by the relevant officer
· Legal,
Legal Services will provide related support, including reviewing and producing contracts as necessary.
· Procurement,
Any proposed works or services will need to be commissioned via a compliant procurement route under the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules and where applicable, the Procurement Act 2023, or any other applicable procurement regulation (PCR2015). All tenders will need to be conducted in an open, fair, and transparent way to capture the key principles of procurement. Further advice regarding the procurement routes, strategies and markets must be sought from the Commercial Procurement team.
· Health and Wellbeing,
Public health supports option 1 in the report and have no further comments.
· Environment and Climate action,
The continued operation of York’s public EV charging network aligns with the ambitions of the Climate Change Strategy, with objective 3.3 requiring motorised personal vehicles to switch to electric. An affordable and accessible public network is essential in facilitating the transition to low carbon forms of transport.
The publicly available EV charging network is also utilised by a range of CYC services for the operation of fleet vehicles when away from the Hazel Court Eco Depot site. Any revision to the methodology allowing CYC fleet vehicles to access the network must be confirmed and communicated to CYC fleet management officers so that there is no break in provision of this service.
· Affordability,
There are no implications to consider, as this is a replacement contract to ensure continuity of service provision.
· Equalities and Human Rights,
The Council needs to take into account the Public Sector Equality Duty under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 . This is a duty to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other prohibited conduct; advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it in the exercise of a public authority’s function.
§ A HREAT (Human Rights and Equity Analysis Tool has been carried out and is annexed to this report at Annex A
§ The recommendation of the assessment is there be no major change to the proposal.
· Data Protection and Privacy,
The data protection impact assessment (DPIAs) screening questions were completed for the recommendations and options in this report and as there is no personal, special categories or criminal offence data being processed to set these out, there is no requirement to complete a DPIA at this time. However, this will be reviewed following the approved recommendations and options from this report and a DPIA completed if required.
· Communications,
Any change to the user experience or ways of operating the system will need to be highlighted through public communications, albeit this will likely only reach those within the city. A longer-term contract would avoid the need for repeated public communications, with the potential of this becoming a negative issue played out within local media.
· Economy,
No implications raised by the relevant officer.
Risks and
Mitigations
30. Option 1 Risk: The principal risk to appointing a new service provider is reputational, either through under performance of the incoming supplier, or through their associations.
31. Mitigation: Due diligence and screening has been undertaken for all suppliers registered with the Oxford EV DPS.
32. Option 2 Risk: If the public charging network was no longer operational, there would be fewer public charging sites available to the public and the average cost of charging would increase.
33. Mitigation: Continue to operate the Council’s public charging network by appointing a new back-office provider.
Wards Impacted
34. All Wards
Contact details
For further information please contact the authors of this Decision Report.
Author
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Name: |
Stuart Andrews |
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Job Title: |
Project Manager |
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Service Area: |
Transport |
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E-mail: |
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Report approved: |
Yes |
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Date: |
20/05/2026 |
Background
papers
· Public Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy. Available to download at https://www.york.gov.uk/sustainable-transport/public-electric-vehicle-charging-strategy
Annexes
· Annex A: HREAT – EV contract Replacement