WET News

APRIL 2014 WET NEWS 3 T hames Water is seeking in- vestment backers in a bid to fund its controversial super-sewer in London. The water company, which is setting up a new company that will own the Thames Tideway Tunnel, is expected to formally advertise for international back- ers in May. The process is being led by investment bank UBS, and is understood that investors will be repaid with interest from increased water bills paid by Thames' customers. Thames is owned by a myr- iad of international investors from Australia, China, Abu Dhabi and even BT's pension fund Hermes. Some of these could be tempted to invest in the 15-mile sewer, which will run west to east across the capital. "We are creating a separate business, a special-purpose vehicle, to deliver the tunnel, but at the same time our cus- tomers will be paying for that A sset International is pro- viding a bespoke pipe- line system to the £220M upgrade at Thames Water's Crossness sewerage treatment works in south-east London. Thames Water, in consultation with Laing O'Rourke and Imtech Process joint venture Tamesis, chose Weholite, the high densi- Investment backers sought to nd Tideway Tunnel • Thames Water sets up new company that will own London's 'super sewer' Weholite selected for Crossness ty polyethylene (HDPE) pipe, to help reduce pollution and over- flow as part of a sewer improve- ment at the treatment works. More than 4,000m of Weho- lite HDPE pipe is being used in the project, with variations in diameters ranging from 700mm up to 2,600mm internal diame- ter. The upgraded pipeline sys- tem is designed to reduce the number of overflows and their environmental impact from the sewers and treatment systems serving London, and to limit pollution from the sewers and treatment systems connected to Beckton and Crossness STWs. Sulzer Pumps Wastewater UK Ltd 5th Floor Astral Towers Crawley West Sussex Tel: 01293 558169 Sulzerinnovation@sulzer.com www.sulzer.com Explore the full range of premium efficiency wastewater products. From the ABS submersible sewage pump XFP offering world-class energy savings to the world's most compact and energy efficient direct driven ABS HST20 High Speed Turbocompressor. Revolutionary energy saving in all key applications. Explore our World Sulzer Advert concepts V4_Layout 1 06/03/2014 16:55 Page 2 WET News is registered at Stationers' Hall. Origination by Faversham House Group, and PH Media, Roche, Cornwall. Printed by Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6AE. Copyright 2014. Faversham House. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the publishers. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of material published in WET News. However, Faversham House will not be liable for any inaccuracies. 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The scheme has so far run into problems over concerns about the environmental impact of digging a new tunnel. Prelim- inary work on the tunnel, which Thames Water has insisted is needed to provide additional capacity to London's ageing sewer network, is due to start in 2015 a˜er it gets permission from the planning authorities. The Development Consent Application has been consid- ered by the Planning Inspector- ate and, subject to consent being granted, construction on the project is due to start in 2016. A decision on planning is expected in December. If approaved the project will involve 24 construction sites. Thames Water is one of the 16 water utilities required to submit new or improved busi- ness plans to Ofwat. Thames submitted plans in December last year to increase water bills by 11% for its 14 million custom- ers between 2015 and 2020 to fund the sewer. The £2.3B Thames Tideway Tunnel will help tackle the prob- lem of overflows from the capi- tal's Victorian sewers and will protect the tidal River Thames from increasing pollution for at least the next 100 years. Mike Gerrard, Thames Tide- way Tunnel managing director, said: "We are building for 22nd Century London to create a cleaner, healthier River Thames. The Thames Tideway Tunnel is needed to tackle the tens of mil- lions of tonnes of raw sewage which discharge into the tidal River Thames every year. "The river needs cleaning up and it needs to be cleaned up now." "And, as well as producing benefits in itself, the industry is currently worth about £15 billion a year to the UK economy and supports directly or indirectly more than 120,000 jobs" Pamela Taylor, chief executive, Water UK You WHAT? "AMP6 is getting exciting" Malcolm Horne, asset creation general manager, Severn Trent Water NEED To KNoW Professor Chris Binnie, who led a study group recommend- ing that the tunnel be built, believes the tunnel should be scrapped Eight joint ventures have been shortlisted for the three contracts – East, Central and West – that are worth £1.6B in total Up to 9,000 jobs are expected to be created by the scheme Construction on the project is due to start in 2015 The Planning Inspectorate completed its examination into the project last month The pipeline will reduce the number of overflows at the site "Our process aimed to encour- age high quality, customer- focused plans. South West and Affinity's plans really stood out" Sonia Brown, chief regulation officer, Ofwat "It all sounds great. A bed of roses? It's not, actually. We're at the very start of our journey" Keith Wishart, head of technology and innovation, eight 2 O 2 WET NEWS APRIL 2014 S outh West Water (SWW) and Affinity Water have been awarded enhanced status in the 2014 Price Review, Ofwat has confirmed. While the two companies' price determi- nations will be fast-tracked, the other 16 water utilities will have to submit new or improved evi- dence as part of their business plans. These companies will have the opportunity to request an earlier June dra† determination on prices by submitting new evi- dence to Ofwat by the beginning of May 2014. Dra† determina- tions for all other companies will be issued in August 2014. Last month, Ofwat pre-quali- fied SWW and Affinity for 'enhanced' status based on the high quality of their business plans, inviting them to accept its guidance on risk and reward, including the cost of capital, and committed to a limited number of changes to improve their plans. Ofwat said it was satisfied that these changes will deliver the best outcomes for customers. Ofwat will announce its dra† determination on limits on Earlier this month I had the good fortune to hear eight2O's Keith Wishart, Anglian Water's Steve Kaye and Severn Trent Water's Malcolm Horne's thoughts on Delivering Innovation through Alliances and Partnerships in AMP6. The three, who were speaking at IWEX, were inevitably asked about how contractors and suppliers in the lower ranks can get their innovations in front of the water companies. Anglian and eight2O seem quite proactive on the subject with schemes in place that are designed for the supply chain to get its message across. However, the response from Severn Trent was for these suppliers to speak to its Tier 1 partners. It was disappointing to hear this, especially as one of the gripes I o†en hear is that getting access to the Tier 1s is as difficult as trying to get in with the water companies. Visibility The one thing the industry has worked hard on as we move towards the start of AMP6 is getting visibility and collabora- tion among the utilities, • South West Water and Affinity's price determinations are to be fast-tracked, while 16 water firms have to submit new or improved evidence to the regulator www.michael-smith-engineers.co.uk Our new 12-Volt Lithium Ion Battery Powered Drum Pump Motor is the ultimate in portability and convenience for drum and barrel emptying. RECHARGEABLE DRUM PUMP ● ● ● Cordless design, maximum performance with fade-free power 240V or 110V or 12V charger unit Pumps for up to 50 minutes between charges Transfer fluids anywhere, no power socket needed! COMMENT "...getting access to Tier 1s is as difficult as get- ting in with the water firms" contractors and suppliers. that needs to be from the water companies all the way down to the Tier 3s. May I suggest that Severn Trent Water takes a leaf out of Anglian and eight2O's book and gets proactive on hearing the supply chain's innovations. Business plans Congratulations to South West Water and Affinity Water on having been granted 'enhanced' status by Ofwat. It must have come as a shock to the other 16 water companies to have missed out on their business plans being fast-tracked. Now that these companies have to submit new or improved plans, I hope the transitional investment designed to smooth out the cyclical impact of the five-yearly AMP cycle is not affected. Abstraction reform The water companies have expressed serious concerns over government proposals to reform the current abstraction licensing system, according to Water UK. Defra's consultation on the subject closed at the end of March, and Water UK says there are three main areas of concern. These include the proposed options appearing to be more complex than the current system; and there being no assessment of how the proposals would impact the amount of water available to meet demand in dry years. Two very important points, especially the latter. With our weather patterns seemingly going from one extreme to the other, it's guaranteed that a drought will appear sooner rather than later. The water companies have plans in place in preparation for the next drought to avoid hosepipe bans etc. And they can only plan for predicted population growth. There's one chance to get this reform right. for more information contact maureen.gaines@fav-house.com SWW and Affinity enjoy 'enhanced' status in PR14 prices covering 2015 to 2020 for SWW and Affinity at the end of April. Sonia Brown, Ofwat's chief regulation officer, said: "Our process aimed to encourage high quality, customer-focused plans. South West and Affinity's plans really stood out. Both the company and their customers will benefit from being enhanced. There is still a way to go before we set final prices in December. Affinity's chief executive officer Richard Bienfait said: "This decision means we can start early to implement these plans, which include a stretch- ing target to reduce leakage over the next five years and abstract- ing less water from underground sources, to leave more water in the environment." SWW chief executive Chris Loughlin said: "It's encouraging to be rated by our regulator as having a high quality business plan. It was shaped by people and organisations across the South-west and we are very grateful for the feedback we received during our biggest ever consultation." "Our process aimed to encourage high quality, customer- focused plans" Sonia Brown, Ofwat's chief regulation officer NEED TO KNOW More than £20B is expected to be spent on water and wastewater infrastructure in AMP6 Ofwat will set final prices in December Ofwat will set final prices in December News+ APRIL 100 United Utilities is celebrat- ing the centenary of sewage treatment at Davyhulme. In 1914, two Manchester Corporation employees based at Davyhulme invented a new process – activated sludge. It har- nessed the power of micro-organisms and meant that waste from millions of people could be treated in a relatively small space. • "It is important to convey that engi- neers find the solutions to our most vexing global issues" Cindy Wallis-Lage, president, Black & Veatch's water business "In order to achieve this we are working with archaeologists along every significant part of the pipeline's route to ensure that the past is protected" Davin Eversett, a Wessex Water project manager Britain has a drain spotter, according to the Daily Express. The newspa- per reports that Calvin Payne, dubbed Sherlock of the Sewers, has taken six years to chronicle all the drains in his home city of Sheffield. In its half-year results to December 31, 2013, Galliford Try reports that its construc- tion division has secured 100% of projected revenue for the current financial year with 65% secured for 2015. £700K UU has pledged £700,000 over two years to kick-start 11 new partnerships to improve the health of river basins. 100% 65% IN A NUTSHELL "In this AMP period, we're going to deliver over £25M of benefit, which is quite significant" Steve Kaye, head of innovation, Anglian Water £13M Southern Water's £13M revamped Ashford Waste- water Treatment Works features 16 upgraded filter beds as well as new screens to remove non- biodegradable items. £25M+ 6 years SHARE YOUR OPINION... Give differing perspectives at yoursaywn@fav-house.com

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