Decision details

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet:

a)         approvesthe Council’scontinuation inthe LASERFramework arrangementand completion of an Access Agreement to commit to procuring electricity and gas through LASER for the period from 1st October 2024 to 30th September 2028.

b)         delegatesthe negotiation,approval andcompletion ofall relevantlegal documentation,to the Head of Major Projects and Commercial Services, Head of Governance, People and Performance, in consultation with the appropriate Cabinet Member (Generic Delegations 2 and 3 will be used to enact this recommendation)

c)          delegates the review of the green basket option to the Head of Major Project and Commercial Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Resources and the Cabinet Member for Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change (Generic Delegation 3 will be used to enact this recommendation). 

Any such change as a result will be recorded via a Significant Operational Decision.

Reasons for the Recommendations

LASER benchmarkstheir purchasingperformance eachyear andshares this informationwith its customers. The current frameworks have delivered cost avoidance of £274.2k pa to Crawley Borough Council since they commenced. LASER's track record in monitoring the market and buying at lower-than-average market prices accounts for £246.4k pa of cost avoidance. This calculation compares the prices achieved by LASER from the start of the framework with the average market price. Lower Supplier Management Fees also account for £20.5k pa, with reduced fees from our gas and electricity suppliers compared to buying as astand-alone customer. Thishas beenshown to reduce deliveredenergy costsby ~4%pa.

Given the estimated savings achieved through a flexible procurement strategy, it is recommendedthat theCouncil continueits arrangementwith LASERand participatein the framework contract for the 4-year period from 1^st October 2024 to 30^th September 2028.

The Pan Government Energy project recommended that to spread market risk, and avoid buying during periods of peak market pricing, “all public sector organisations adopt aggregated, flexible, and risk-managed energy procurement” as provided under the LASER framework. One of the benefits with the new framework is Protection Against Supplier Failure.Since 2020,over twentyenergy suppliershave ceasedtrading. LASER’sframeworks include a financial stability test to minimise the risk of a framework provider failing during the term of the agreement. The frameworks contain a panel of suppliers which provides a ready compliant route to appoint a new supplier should an existing supplier fail (either because they cease trading, or they materially breach the terms of the contract).