British Telecom has applied to Ofwat for a self-supply water and sewerage licence.

The communications services company applied to the water sector regulator for a water supply licence and a sewerage licence, with a retail authorisation limited to self-supply on 16 October 2018.

If granted, this will enable BT to provide retail services to itself and associated persons and as a self-supply licensee, BT will:

• Pay wholesale prices – the price that retailers pay to the water companies
• Not pay retail margin added by suppliers in the open water market
• Become a market participant including membership of MOSL with voting rights and the ability to directly influence the market
• Be able to supply water services to multiple sites

According to BT, self-supply provides an opportunity to build on works already undertaken and develop its partnership with Waterscan whilst driving cost and consumption control, particularly through a single electronic bill.

Clarity of data is key to monitoring BT’s performance – the telecoms giant foresees this as “a huge benefit from moving to self-supply.” Taking control of data will help BT to provide more accurate reporting of consumption and spend which will improve identification of high consumption sites particularly on unmanned telephone exchanges and sites with a mobile workforce.

Waterscan will provide BT with operational and technical support -the partnership will take the form of a contractual agreement between the parties and has been submitted as part of the application process.

Deadline to make representations or objections to Ofwat about the application is 28 November 2018.