Public Sector Solar PV Procurement: the RM6314 Framework Explained

What RM6314 is

RM6314 is titled the Demand Management and Renewables framework. It is a national route for public bodies buying solar, and its agreement page now sits on the GCA agreements site, to which the old Crown Commercial Service address redirects. It is a framework, not a supplier: it lists pre-approved suppliers and the terms under which a public body can award a contract to one of them, under the call-off terms set out in the agreement documents.

The lots that matter for solar

The framework has nine lots. Two of them are solar PV, and the split is by project value, not by technology or building type:

Lot	Scope	Project value	Suppliers listed
1.1	Solar photovoltaic	£0 to £1m	13
1.2	Solar photovoltaic	£1m and above	12

The remaining lots cover battery energy storage (2.1 and 2.2), heat pumps (3.1 and 3.2), heat network design (4.1), heat network design and build (4.2) and carbon net zero consultancy (5). A school or hospital trust that wants PV and a battery on the same roof can therefore look at Lot 1 and Lot 2 on the same agreement. Supplier counts are those shown on the agreement page when read on 20 October 2026 and can change.

How the £1m split maps to roofs

Project value is the whole contract value, not the kWp. As a very rough planning aid, our cost guide works from per-kWp ranges, so a rooftop array of a few hundred kWp on a school or leisure centre will usually fall in Lot 1.1, while a multi-building estate programme or a large ground-mount is the Lot 1.2 case. Do not treat that as a rule: the lot is decided by the procurement value you have estimated, including any connection and structural works the contract covers.

Who can use it, and how

The agreement is for central government and the wider public sector. A body that is not already a named customer registers as an additional client with the agreement owner, which the agreement page describes as carrying no joining fee or commitment, and completes an additional client user agreement form before running its procurement. That sequence belongs early on the programme: do the registration while the feasibility study and the roof structural survey are still under way.

The date that matters: 23 March 2027

RM6314 started on 24 March 2023 and ends on 23 March 2027. The agreement page states there is no option to extend, and it names no successor agreement. For a council or trust planning a 2027 installation, that is the main programme risk: a call-off has to be awarded under the framework terms before it ends, and a project that slips past the date needs a different route, either a successor framework once one is announced (the GCA site has an upcoming-agreements search) or an open tender under the procurement rules that apply to the body.

What this means for the technical specification

A framework call-off still needs a specification the suppliers can price like for like. That is the part a public body can prepare itself: the roof area and structure, the half-hourly demand profile, the preferred module and inverter performance requirements, the grid connection constraints, the planning route (see planning permission for commercial rooftop solar PV) and the O&M and monitoring terms. A thin specification pushes every bidder to price in the unknowns. Our page on solar PV for public sector and education buildings covers the sector-specific points, such as safeguarding on occupied sites and phasing works around term time.

If you are putting together a specification and want a technical review of the roof and load assumptions first, you can send the site details; we reply by email. We are an independent guide, not a framework supplier, and nothing here is procurement advice: confirm the rules that apply to your organisation with your procurement team.

Sources

• Demand Management and Renewables framework RM6314, agreement page on gca.gov.uk (lots, dates, who can use it), read 20 October 2026.