Sustainability

Regional Bioresources Treatment

Can you help?

Wessex Water and Severn Trent Water require additional treatment capacity to process forecast growth in sewage sludge volumes.We are keen to identify parties who would be interested in working with us to deliver the best regional solution(s) for our customers and the environment.


Background

Wessex Water and Severn Trent Water both require additional bioresources treatment capacity to accommodate forecast growth, to fully optimise the value of sludge, and to deliver a high-quality final product.

As part of our investment planning process, we are keen to explore any market opportunities to ensure we are delivering best value for our customers and the environment.

This Marketplace Challenge is intended as an initial enquiry to identify interested parties for further detailed discussion should potentially viable options be identified.

To allow expressions of interest, a high-level summary of the capacity requirements and challenges faced is articulated below.


What are we looking for?

Collectively there is a need for a minimum of c. 10,000 t DS / year treatment capacity in the geographical vicinity of the Wessex Water / Severn Trent boundary (i.e., the M4/M5 corridors). Depending on the proposal, the capacity could be up to 25,000 t DS / year.

In addition to the need for additional treatment capacity, further challenges faced by the Bioresources sector are:

We are looking for expressions of interest from companies who can provide solutions to the challenges above to aid constructive conversations.

Further information on the Bioresources market and water company needs can be found at:


How will we review submissions?

Because of the potentially wide-ranging nature of the submissions we could receive in this area, it’s hard to implement a quantitative evaluation criteria that will be applicable across all submissions. Therefore, an objective qualitative approach will be used, with the following areas considered when reviewing submissions:


How to get involved?

We hosted a webinar on the 29th June, 9:15 – 10:00am. The recording of the webinar, which includes the Q&A session, is available to view below on you tube. Please also see a copy of the slide deck for you to access. 

We are also very happy to answer any queries you may have in order to consider responding.  Please send queries to regionalbioresources@wessexwater.co.uk by 1st July . We will respond to them all here (unless there are questions that wouldn’t be appropriate to share answers to that may relate to specific IP of an organisation).

We then ask for interested parties to submit their proposals by 29th July (11.59pm) – please email them to regionalbioresources@wessexwater.co.uk.

While hosted by Wessex Water, the above is a joint email address that will notify both Wessex Water and Severn Trent Water of any submissions.

Submissions should include, where available:

  • Summary of the solution proposed
  • High-level overview of capabilities
  • Benefits offered
  • Requirements for use
  • Case studies of any UK/worldwide installations
  • Your expertise in this area 

We look forward to hearing from you!

We will review all the submissions and see if there are any we would like to discuss and explore further, and feed back to companies accordingly.

This will include whether we wish to continue conversations, or if not, feedback on the reasons for not taking the proposal any further.

We will aim to come back to all parties with initial feedback within 2 months, but if these timescales change due to the number of submissions received, we will let parties know within 2 weeks of the submission deadline.

Important points

Taking part in this Marketplace challenge does not guarantee a contract. This is the first step in what will be a process that we cannot fully scope at this point as we are unsure of the market interest. 

The intention is not for market participants to invest significant time and resource into these proposals – it is aiming to be a high-level review on both sides to avoid significant abortive work and has been designed with this in mind. 

Submissions are also high level to avoid significant intellectual property being shared at this stage. 

A tender may be required to progress proposals of interest further, and Wessex Water and Severn Trent Water reserve the right to stop the project at any time. 

Please note that all information will be shared between both Wessex Water and Severn Trent for this challenge.

Thank you very much and we look forward to hearing from you!