Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 2ND - 8TH FEBRUARY 2018 | 13 This week £50m deal to drive Yorkshire innovation Stantec appointed as the water company's sole strategic planning partner in seven-year contract Yorkshire Water is looking to drive innovation as part of its strategic plan with the appoint- ment of Stantec (which acquired MWH in 2016) as its sole strate- gic planning partner (SPP) in a deal worth £50 million. The seven-year contract comes as the water firm looks to prepare supply chain arrange- ments and contracts for the AMP7 period (2020-25). It will involve driving innovation in the approach to resolving risk, exploiting new technology, partnership working and use of markets. Yorkshire Water said a commercial model arrange- ment will "incentivise the delivery of results" and will lead to "exceptional service" for customers. Both innova- tion and great customer service are key requirements from Ofwat in its final methodology for PR19, along with affordable bills and resilience in the round. Nevil Muncaster, Yorkshire Water's director of asset management, said: "The appointment of Stantec demon- strates the first of a series of exciting changes that we are making to ensure that we excel in AMP7 and beyond." Yorkshire Water's partnering arrangements through- out AMP7 involve an investment of around £1.5 billion. The company said supply chain partners will need to "demonstrate the highest standards of process safety and innovation". It has deployed a "Six Capitals Model" philo sophy in which supply chain partners will be asked to think beyond traditional construction and engineering. The contract with Stantec will run until March 2025, with the potential to be extended by five years. KP ELECTRICITY DNO upgrades grid to prepare network Northern Powergrid has launched an £83 million smart grid programme to future-proof its network in preparation for the rapid growth of low-carbon technologies. The distribution network operator (DNO) says the Smart Grid Enablers project could save consumers up to £500 million by 2031 – depending on the uptake of technologies such as electric vehicles, heat pumps and renew- able generation – by reducing requirements for traditional grid reinforcements. The programme will last until the end of the current RIIO ED-1 price control in 2023 and will underpin the company's transi- tion into a distribution system operator (DSO). The firm says it will be the most radical change to its network since the 1970s, trans- forming its ability to monitor, control and communicate with more than 8,000 substations. ENERGY Storage research gets £42m funding Developing a new generation of lighter and safer electric vehicle (EV) batteries is one of the first four projects to be awarded funding from the government- backed Faraday Institution. The institution, which is supported from the govern- ment's industrial strategy, has announced £42 million worth of funding to find solutions to fix some of the challenges sur- rounding battery technology, which limit the range of EVs. The University of Oxford will lead a consortium to find ways to overcome the barriers preventing the more widespread uptake of solid-state batteries in electric vehicles. Another project, led by the University of Cambridge, will look at extend- ing battery life. Imperial College London will lead a consortium on battery system modelling and the University of Birmingham will lead a project focused on recycling and reusing batteries. WATER UU to install largest Nereda plant Europe's largest Nereda process plant will be built at United Utili- ties' wastewater treatment works in Blackburn as part of a £100 million infrastructure upgrade. UU has awarded a contract to construction partner LiMA and work has already started on the plant, which will be Europe's largest population equivalent purpose-built Nereda technol- ogy solution, with a volume of 72,000m 3 . It is expected to be fully operational in 2021. Nereda technology is an "innovative treatment process" using granular biomass. Yorkshire Water: plans 'exciting changes' Stock watch 200 150 100 50 0 UTILITYWISE SHARE PRICE, THREE MONTH Mar 17 Jul 17 Nov 17 Jan 18 UTILITYWISE SHARE PRICE, ONE YEAR The trading of shares in energy consultancy Utilitywise was temporarily suspended on Monday aer the company revealed it would be unable to publish its full-year results by the end of January as required by stock market rules. The firm said the delay was the result of new accounting arrangements and did not reflect its financial situation. The company's share price has been driing downwards since the beginning of 2017. 80 70 60 50 40 30 3 Nov 17 Nov 15 Dec 12 Jan 26 Jan Finance & Investment 1 Dec 29 Dec pence pence

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