In March 2024, revenue budgets were approved for the implementation of hydrotreated vegetable oil (also known as “HVO”) as an alternative low emission fuel source for North Ayrshire Councils (“NAC”) heavy trucks, including NAC’s fleet of refuse collection vehicles (“RCVs”).
HVO fuel is a renewable diesel that can be produced from a wide array of vegetable oils and fats which are thermochemically treated with hydrogen. The fuel can be used either in its pure form as an alternative to conventional diesel fuel or in a mixture to improve overall environmental performance.
The use of unblended HVO leads to dramatic improvements in CO2 emission performance, with a 90% reduction of CO2 emissions possible, depending on how the HVO is sourced and produced. It is therefore expected that NAC’s demand for HVO fuel will increase over time and in turn the volume of diesel purchased will decrease.
NAC considered a number of routes to market including the national collaborative contract for the procurement of liquid fuels. The national contract consists of four Scottish lots (North, West, Central and South) covering heating oil; automotive fuel; and marine oil. However, as HVO fuel was out of scope, a Crown Commercial Services (“CCS”) framework was used which covers HVO fuel.
The contract was procured as a mini competition against the CCS RM6177 National Fuels 2 Framework, which provided a compliant route to market and access to economies of scale through further competition against a national framework to obtain value for money. Framework was based on 70% quality, 10% social value and 20% price. Framework has now expired and been replaced with RM6035 National Fuels 3.
The contract commenced on 10th December 2024, and will run for a period of 3 years, to December 2027. It was awarded to Certas Energy UK Limited trading as Scottish Fuels who are based in Birchwood.
The estimated value of the contract is £1,295,820.
