PSDS Phase 5 Prep — What FE Sustainability Leads Should Do Now to Be Ready
Forward-looking PSDS Phase 5 preparation guide for FE colleges — scoping, baseline work, and pre-feasibility tasks to be bid-ready when the 2026-27 window opens.
Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme Phase 5 is currently expected to open in the 2026-27 financial year, with HM Treasury settlement signalling that core PSDS funding continues through to at least 2028. Exact dates, capital allocation, and scoring criteria are not yet published — but the FE corporations that will be funded in Phase 5 are the ones doing preparation work in 2026, not the ones reacting when the window opens.
This guide walks through what FE Sustainability Leads should be doing now to be in the strongest position when PSDS Phase 5 launches.
Why prep now matters
PSDS rounds typically open with a fixed bid window of 8-12 weeks. Inside that window you cannot:
- Commission a structural survey from cold (book lead times are 6-10 weeks)
- Get a G99 DNO response (4-8 week response time — see G99 timeline)
- Pull 12 months of half-hourly demand data and clean it
- Get a Finance & Resources Committee sign-off if the next sitting falls outside the window
- Procure an MCS-certified installer through CCS RM6011 from a standing start
Phase 4 funded 47% of bids; the 53% that lost out were disproportionately the ones whose evidence pack was still being assembled when submissions closed. Phase 5 prep is therefore about front-loading the evidence, not the bid drafting.
What’s likely to change in Phase 5
We don’t know the exact criteria yet, but the direction of travel from Phases 1-4 is consistent enough to plan against:
- Carbon cost-effectiveness will tighten. Phase 4 funded bids averaging £200-£400 per tonne CO2e. Phase 5 will likely cap at £400-£500/t.
- Heat decarbonisation weighting will increase. Solar-only bids scored lower than solar+heat-pump bundled bids in Phase 4. Phase 5 is expected to widen that gap.
- Skills/curriculum integration will weigh more. Particularly relevant to FE because the sector is uniquely placed to deliver this — see T-Level green skills curriculum.
- EAUC Scorecard tier may become a soft scoring factor. Not yet confirmed, but DESNZ has signalled it wants to reward demonstrable institutional commitment.
- Multi-organisation pooled bids may be enabled. FE Group/Corp structures could submit pooled bids covering multiple legal entities.
Plan against tightening criteria, not loosening ones.
The 6-month Phase 5 prep workstream
Months 1-2: Baseline and scoping
- Pull 12 months of half-hourly demand for every meter point. If you don’t have this, request it from the supplier or MOP today — back-data delivery can take 30-60 days
- Build a Scope 3 emissions baseline covering procurement, food, fleet and student travel
- Audit the EAUC Scorecard status and identify which Scorecard tier the corporation is plausibly able to claim
- Pull current EPC certificate status for every building over 250 m² — many FE estates have stale or missing EPCs
Months 3-4: Pre-feasibility
- Walk every campus with an MCS-certified installer for indicative system sizing
- Commission structural surveys on the strongest 60% of candidate roofs (the ones that will definitely be in the bid)
- Submit early G99 pre-applications to the DNO for the largest sites — even if exact capacity is still being modelled
- For bundled bids, scope air-source heat pump and district heat network opportunities in parallel
- Brief Director of Finance on the likely capital ask and match-funding profile
Months 5-6: Bid-readiness rehearsal
- Draft the bid narrative using the PSDS Phase 4 bid checklist (32 items) as the framework — assume Phase 5 will be tighter, not looser
- Get an internal “shadow score” of the draft from a Phase 4 reviewer if you can access one (often via your AoC regional network)
- Schedule F&R Committee sittings in the window where Phase 5 is expected to open — typically Q1 of the financial year for an autumn launch
- Confirm match funding strategy: Salix Decarbonisation Loan for the residual capital is the most common Phase 4 pattern and is expected to continue in Phase 5
What to do right now if you have less than 6 months
If Phase 5 launches earlier than expected (Q4 2026 rather than Q1 2027), the work compresses. Prioritise in this order:
| Priority | Task | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Half-hourly demand pull | 30-60 day lead time, gates everything else |
| 2 | Structural surveys on top 3 sites | 6-10 week lead time |
| 3 | G99 pre-application on largest site | 4-8 week DNO response time |
| 4 | F&R Committee briefing paper | Sets up the governance sign-off |
| 5 | Installer pre-engagement via CCS RM6011 | Avoids OJEU procurement inside the window |
Items 6-32 from the bid checklist can be assembled inside an 8-week bid window. Items 1-5 cannot.
Where Phase 5 fits in the wider Climate Action Plan
PSDS rounds shouldn’t drive your decarbonisation strategy — your strategy should drive which PSDS rounds you bid into. The corporations that get funded most consistently treat PSDS Phase 4 and Phase 5 as funded segments of an already-planned trajectory, not as opportunistic capital grabs. That means having a current and credible AoC Climate Action Plan (see writing your first AoC Climate Action Plan) with each PSDS-fundable project plotted as a named delivery milestone with a year and a CO2e contribution. Bids referenced against a published plan score consistently higher than orphan bids.
For FE Group structures, treat Phase 5 as the moment to test whether pooled bidding across the group is enabled. If it is, the legal and finance scoping for that needs to happen in months 1-2 above — not when the round opens.
What strong Phase 5 bids will probably look like
Based on the trajectory from Phases 1-4, the bids likely to score highest in Phase 5 will share five characteristics. First, they will be bundled — solar paired with air-source heat pump retrofit, battery storage, or district heat network connection — because Salix’s scoring increasingly weights heat decarbonisation alongside electricity. Second, they will be multi-site within a single corporation, demonstrating procurement and delivery efficiency at scale. Third, they will explicitly plug into curriculum — T-Level work placements, apprenticeship cohorts, live-data API access for engineering students. Fourth, they will reference a published and dated Climate Action Plan rather than an aspirational one. Fifth, they will arrive with a named delivery lead and a credible Gantt that demonstrates the corporation can spend the capital inside the funding window.
The corporations that build that profile in 2026 are the ones that will be funded in 2027.
Related guides
- PSDS Phase 4 for FE colleges — current scheme baseline
- PSDS Phase 4 bid checklist — 32-item evidence requirement
- Salix Decarbonisation Loan for colleges — match funding for Phase 5 residual
- Salix vs PSDS Phase 4 — which route? — strategic positioning
- Multi-site portfolio solar for FE groups — pooled bidding scoping