We need to plan ahead to ensure we have sustainable water resources to supply our customers, and are currently putting together our Water Resources Management Plan for 2025-2075. As part of this process we’re open to suggestions of ways to improve our supply demand balance and invite the market to come forward with new suggestions.
Background
For our next Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP24) we are looking to plan ahead our requirements for meeting the demand for water for the period from 2025 to 2075. Our initial modelling suggests that supply-demand deficits of 50-150Ml/d could occur at various points during this period without any interventions.
Our options appraisal process for WRMP24 will therefore need to reflect the size of this deficit, and therefore the combination of options that might be required for mitigation. The options currently being reviewed cover a range of categories, as seen in Figure 1. We’re open to any new ideas that would help us increase available supply or reduce demand.
What are we looking for
We welcome any potentially viable third-party solutions to assist with our future supply-demand balance deficits. Such solutions will be appraised within our existing screening process to see if they should be investigated further. Please note at this stage we are not looking for suppliers proposing technology/service options for the ideas in figure 1. We are seeking new ideas or resources that we may not be aware of.
Initially suggestions will be reviewed against our coarse screening criteria; Table 1 summarises the criteria being used, where we answer six overarching questions with a yes or no, with the more suitable options accruing more yes answers.
Table 1: coarse screening criteria for WRMP24
| Coarse criteria | Considerations | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Yield and resilience | Is this option likely to provide an increase in supply or decrease in demand? | Yes/No |
| Will this option increase resilience, and is it flexible for future supply-demand balance changes? | Yes/No | |
| Promotability | Is this option likely to be promotable to customers and Customer Challenge Group’s? | Yes/No |
| Feasibility | Would this option use technology and engineering techniques that are reliable and well known? | Yes/No |
| Is this option hydrologically feasible, and unlikely to cause any future damage to raw water quality? | Yes/No | |
| Environment | Is this option unlikely to cause significant impacts upon a landscape or areas used for recreation? | Yes/No |
| Could this option provide a net gain to biodiversity and not increase Invasive non-native species proliferation? | ||
| Is this option unlikely to have a significant impact upon the natural environment, reducing the availability of ecosystem services? | ||
| Is this option unlikely to conflict with Strategic Environmental Assessments, Habiat Regulations Assessments or the Water Framework Directive? |
How to get involved
Please email marketplace@wessexwater.co.uk by the 1st October with an expression of interest. Answers to the questions in the back of our Bid Assessment Framework (BAF – page 23) with any supporting information should then be submitted by the 15th October.
As per our BAF we will check that you have stated you meet the legal minimum requirements for health and safety, environmental and sustainability policy, finance and insurance and modern slavery. Note that should any suggestions be taken forward these requirements will be checked in more detail with any required evidence being requested by our procurement teams. For now a statement from yourselves is all we require.
We will then review options against our coarse screening criteria, and those that pass will then being reviewed against fine screening criteria.
Further discussions may be required for our fine screening stage. We will let entrants know at each stage if they have made it through the process.
We will endeavour to complete the coarse screening by the 19th November, although this is dependent on the number of submissions received.
We will provide an update at the end of our review process on the general theme of submissions received and any that have been taken forward.