How to read a tender notice: 12 things to check before you bid
A tender notice holds most of what you need for a first bid decision. These twelve checks, with examples from grid and substation work, help you spot deal-breakers in minutes instead of days.
A tender notice is short, but it answers the questions that decide whether a bid is worth preparing. Reading it carefully, before downloading hundreds of pages of documents, saves bid teams a great deal of time. Here are the twelve things worth checking first, in the order they usually appear.
1. Who is buying, and for whom
Note the buyer's full name, and whether it is buying for itself or for others: a central purchasing body, a joint procurement by several municipalities, or an agency running a tender for a project financed by a development bank. The buyer decides the platform, the language and often the unwritten expectations. A transmission operator with its own qualification system behaves very differently from a small municipality buying its first battery.
2. What exactly is being bought
Read the short description and the CPV codes together. "Modernisation of substation X" can mean a turnkey design-and-build contract, supply of switchgear only, or a protection and control retrofit. Look for the words that define the scope: design, supply, installation, testing, commissioning, maintenance.
3. Lots
Large tenders are often split into lots, for example by region, by voltage level, or by equipment type. Check whether you may bid for one lot, several or all, and whether there is a limit on how many lots one bidder can win. Lots are often the easiest way in for a regional contractor.
4. Estimated value and duration
The estimated value tells you whether the job fits your capacity, and it drives the size of guarantees and turnover requirements. For framework agreements, look at the maximum value and the length: a four-year framework for cable laying may be worth far more than any single project you normally bid for.
5. The procedure
In an open procedure anyone can submit a full tender by the deadline. In a restricted or negotiated procedure you first submit a request to participate with your qualification documents, and only shortlisted companies are invited to tender. Some procedures also include negotiation rounds or a competitive dialogue. The procedure decides how much work is needed now, and how much later.
6. All the deadlines
There is usually more than one date:
- the deadline for questions (clarification requests),
- the date of a site visit or bidders' meeting, sometimes mandatory,
- the deadline for requests to participate, in two-stage procedures,
- the deadline for tenders, with a time and a time zone,
- how long the tender must stay valid (for example 120 days), which affects your supplier quotes and your price risk.
Put all of them in your calendar on the same day you open the notice.
7. Who may take part
Look for grounds for exclusion, required registrations (in some countries a professional register or a national licence for electrical works) and whether joint ventures and subcontracting are allowed. Development bank tenders also list eligibility rules for countries and firms.
8. Selection criteria
These are the minimum requirements to be considered at all, and they are a common reason bids fail. Typical examples in grid work:
- minimum annual turnover (under EU rules, public authorities normally may not ask for more than twice the estimated contract value unless they justify it; utilities have to respect this cap only if they choose to use those rules),
- a number of reference projects of similar type, voltage level and size within the last few years,
- certifications such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001,
- named key staff with qualifications and experience,
- type test reports for equipment, from accredited laboratories.
If you fall short on one criterion, check whether you may rely on another company's capacity, which EU rules allow. You must show that its resources will really be available, usually with a written commitment, and for experience and qualifications that company must carry out the part of the work concerned. The buyer checks that company against the same criteria and exclusion grounds and can require you to replace it if it falls short. If you rely on its financial standing, the buyer can require joint liability, and in works, services and installation work it can reserve critical tasks for you.
9. Award criteria and weightings
How will the winner be chosen: lowest price, lowest life-cycle cost, or a mix of price and quality? Where quality counts, note the sub-criteria and their weights. A split of 60% price and 40% quality, with points for delivery time or for the transformer's losses over its life, tells you exactly where to invest your effort.
10. Guarantees and insurance
Check for a bid guarantee (bid bond), a performance guarantee (often 5-10% of the contract value), advance payment guarantees and warranty guarantees, plus insurance requirements. Guarantees take time to arrange with your bank and use up credit lines, so start early.
11. Commercial terms that change the price
The notice or its summary often reveals payment terms, price adjustment (fixed price or indexed to metal prices), delay penalties (liquidated damages) and their caps, and the warranty period. A fixed price for three years of copper cable supply is a very different risk from an indexed price.
12. How and where to submit
Almost all EU tenders are submitted electronically on the platform named in the notice. Register early, test the upload, and check file size limits and whether the platform or the buyer requires an electronic signature, and which kind. Platforms close exactly on time; a tender that is still uploading at the deadline is usually rejected.
After the twelve checks
If nothing on this list is a deal-breaker, download the full documents and move to a structured bid or no-bid decision. If something is unclear, ask a question through the platform before the question deadline: the answer is shared with all bidders and can change the documents for everyone.
This checklist is general guidance. The tender documents, and the law that applies to them, always prevail.