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Energy tenders sound more complicated than they are. For a strata manager looking at their first tender, or trying to evaluate whether the last one was run well, the process breaks down into four clear steps. Knowing what each one involves makes it much easier to spot a good tender from a poor one, and to keep the project moving.
This article walks through the four steps from start to recommendation, what is required from the committee at each stage, and what good looks like.
Step 1: Send the site list and recent bills
The first step is the simplest, but it sets the tone for everything that follows.
A complete site list confirms exactly which buildings, meters and accounts are in scope. For a multi-site portfolio, this matters enormously. A retailer cannot price what they cannot see, and a missing site is a site that quietly stays on the wrong tariff.
Recent bills (one per active plan or meter) tell the tender team the current tariff, account number, network charges and demand profile basics. This is the information retailers need to quote accurately, and missing it is the most common cause of inflated savings claims that do not survive contact with reality.
What good looks like. The tender team confirms the scope back to you in writing, flags missing information immediately, and treats the site list as a living document that will evolve with new buildings and exits over the life of the contract.
Step 2: Sign a Letter of Authority
The Letter of Authority (LOA) is a single document that gives the tender team permission to request 12 months of historical usage data from your current retailer, on your behalf.
It is a request-only document. It does not switch your retailer, move your accounts, or lock you into anything. Its only role is to unlock the historical data retailers need to price accurately. Without it, every quote in the tender is an estimate.
For multi-site strata managers, a portfolio-level LOA covers every site at once, which saves weeks of paperwork.
What good looks like. The LOA is one page, in plain English, with the entity, scope and revocation rights clearly stated. The tender team handles all the data collection from there.
Step 3: Analysis and recommendation
This is where the tender team earns its keep.
Once historical usage arrives, the data is cleansed (errors and missing intervals are common), modelled, and used to build a tender pack. The pack goes to the market, retailers price every site like-for-like, and the responses come back for analysis.
A good analysis goes well beyond comparing headline c/kWh rates. It looks at network tariff structures, demand charges, time-of-use exposure, contract length, exit terms, retention clauses, and any pass-through risks. It models savings against a realistic baseline, not against a default tariff that flatters the result.
The output is a procurement report that summarises the recommendation in plain language, with the underlying numbers available to the committee. For most strata portfolios the cycle from LOA to recommendation is four to six weeks.
What good looks like. A recommendation that explains both what to do and why, in language a committee can read in 10 minutes, with the underlying data available for those who want to dig further.
Step 4: Post-tender management
A tender is not over when the contract is signed. For a strata portfolio, that is when the work begins.
Sites are added and removed as the portfolio changes, contracts approach renewal, bills contain errors, committees ask questions, and new buildings need to be onboarded. Without a structured plan in place, the savings negotiated in the tender erode quietly across the months that follow.
Good post-tender management includes a rolling renewal register, monthly bill validation, a single point of contact for committee queries, and proactive recommendations on efficiency upgrades and emerging programs as they become relevant.
What good looks like. A relationship that continues for the life of the contract, not a project that ends at signing.
How Strata Energy Services helps
Strata Energy Services has run energy tenders for portfolios from 5 buildings to more than over 1,000, and we manage every step from the site list to ongoing post-tender care. We are independent of any retailer, which means the recommendation is based on what is best for your portfolio, all retailers pay the same commission, so it is based on the best outcome.
If you would like to talk through how a tender would work for your portfolio, or simply have your last tender peer-reviewed, visit strataenergyservices.com.au.
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