Sheffield City Council has launched a preliminary market engagement in Sheffield, UK, to invite potential partners to work with the Council to develop proposals for a zonal-scale heat network under the UK’s Advanced Zoning Programme, with responses to be discussed at an online engagement session before a formal procurement for a Development Partner is launched. 

The area which will be the subject of the procurement (and which the Development Partner will be invited to deliver development proposals in respect of) is wider and has an estimated annual heat demand of up to 1300 GWh. If successful, the parties would enter an agreement for development services only (known as the Development Agreement Only model) under which the Development Partner would put forward proposals for a zonal-scale heat network in the area. 

These proposals would need to meet minimum criteria and would be subject to review and approval by Sheffield City Council. Delivery of such a network in the area would be on a non-exclusive basis (subject to any future regulation). The preliminary market engagement related to this project will take the form of an online market engagement session, which will be held on MS Teams at 09:00 – 10:00 on Tuesday, 3 March 2026.