Anglian Water launches market test for £100M water treatment plant

The East of England utility company Anglian Water has published a Prior Information Notice (PIN) seeking a suitably experienced and capable provider to Design Build Finance and Operate (DBFO) the Middlegate Water Treatment Works.

If the market response is favourable, this will be the first time Anglian Water will have proposed using the DBFO contract model to deliver a new infrastructure asset.

Anglian Water will be holding a virtual market engagement event on 7 July, and has invited firms with experience delivering PFI/PPP projects or experience of construction of water treatment works in accordance with the UK water industry standards to take part.

The Middlegate Water Treatment Works project is expected to cost around £100m once operation and maintenance costs are factored in, and will process up to 30 megalitres per day to provide “resilience” for drinking water supplies in the East of England region served by the company.

DBFO contracts involve a contractor, typically as a consortium, raising private finance to build and maintain the asset over a long-term period, with the water company paying an annual service fee to cover the costs once the asset is operational for a 25 or 30 year period.

In April, Welsh Water launched its own market engagement exercise looking at adopting a similar DBFO approach for its Cwm Taf water supply scheme serving Cardiff, Newport and several smaller towns located within the Merthyr Valley in south Wales.

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