Thames Water is inviting interested suppliers to register to attend a market engagement briefing event in October to find out more about the current proposals to deliver several reservoirs as part of the Strategic Resource Options (SROs) programme, including the Southeast Strategic Reservoir Option (SESRO).
The event, which is being managed by Ofwat on behalf of the Regulators' Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) and held in collaboration with Anglian Water, may be subject to capacity constraints. The market engagement is open to any organisation that wishes to respond.
The objectives of the engagement half day are:
- To introduce the SRO Programme, including SESRO and other reservoir schemes being developed by other water companies.
- To explain the project's needs case, scope and key components / assets.
- To introduce key considerations related to the commercial model and delivery strategies under consideration.
- To provide an opportunity for interested parties to ask questions.
- To identify parties who would be interested in engaging with Thames further after the event.
Thames Water's proposed £1.88 billion SESRO reservoir for a new raw water storage reservoir in Oxfordshire is one of 18 strategic solutions with a total potential value of up to c.£14 billion currently being explored within the RAPID programme.
A range of reservoir sizes have been considered through the regional planning process overseen by Water Resources South East (WRSE). Thames Water says in its revised draft Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) published on 31 August 2023 it considers that a 150 Mm3 option presents the best value solution.
The reservoir is needed to be operational by 2040 - currently the estimated construction time is around eight years.
At Gate two in the RAPID process, total capex for SESRO was estimated at £1.88 billion, based on the 150Mm3 option. Thames Water does not believe that costs will escalate significantly beyond the current estimate.
SESRO partners Affinity Water and Thames Water have proposed a date for gate three of January 2025, alongside a forward programme of gate four in April 2026, proposed planning application submitted in Autumn 2026, solution construction ready in 2029, and solution operational in 2040. Southern Water is joining as a co-sponsor of the SESRO project from gate three onwards. The partner arrangements will be finalised and implemented as part of the water companies’ respective PR24 submissions.
The construction of SESRO is not dependent on any other RAPID solution or other company options. However, it is linked to other RAPID solutions which will need to be considered in the final scheme design.
The SRO solutions in the RAPID gated programme that are linked to SESRO are:
- The Severn to Thames Transfer (STT)
- The Thames to Southern Transfer (T2ST)
- The Thames to Affinity Transfer (T2AT)
Thames Water will also separately be requesting that interested parties complete its Request for Information (RFI) after the event, to provide more detailed feedback on its emerging delivery proposals for SESRO.
Thames says it intends to use the event to introduce the project to the market and encourage interested partners to engage with it further as the project develops, including via selective bilateral discussions to be held after the event, in order to explore RFI responses in greater depth.
The estimated date of publication of a formal contract notice for SESRO is March 2027. The water company says it may use any responses to inform any potential future SESRO procurement processes, and to inform future regulatory submissions.
Details of the final venue in Central London and timings will be confirmed shortly and official calendar invites will be sent out once registration has closed. At this stage, due to space constraints, Thames Water is asking each company to send no more than one representative.
The Market Engagement Briefing Event will take place in central London (venue tbc) on the morning of 20 October 2023 (timing to be confirmed).
Click here to access the Periodic Indicative Notice for the market engagement briefing event.
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