Scottish Water has appointedRSE as the strategic partner who will deliver Ceramic Membrane plants as part of its Ceramic Membrane Capital Investment Programme – the Programme has an estimated value of £800 million (excluding VAT).

The contract will require compliance with the mandatory use of Scottish Water's specialist frameworks including Infrastructure, Kits, Civils Materials and Hires. Scottish Water's intention is that all capital investment projects will be delivered using the utility’s Building Information Modelling (BIM) standards.

The water company first went out to tender with the contract in November 2024 with an estimated value of between £500 million to £800 million.

Scottish Water was looking for a range of supplier capabilities in order to deliver the programme, including MEICA, civil construction and ceramic membrane product suppliers.

The tender stipulated that the appointed partner would be required to have capabilities in all these areas or be able to demonstrate how they would acquire the skillsets. The supplier was already required to have pan Scotland capability to deliver this programme. Scottish Water’s expectation was that the supplier would act as both Principal Contractor and Principal Designer in the delivery of theprogramme.

Phase 1 of the Programme will consist of the construction, commissioning and hand-over of Turriff Ceramic Membrane Water Treatment Works.

For Phase 2 onwards, Scottish Water said thatif the partner appointed in the Ceramic Membrane Programme procurement was successful in their bid in Scottish Water’s SR27 Supply Chain Procurement, then it was expected that the framework commitments from a design, delivery and commercial perspective would then transfer into the SR27 supply chain.

This may include (but not limited to) a Primary Designer, responsible in part for design activity; an Integrator, responsible for programme management and delivery of enterprise objectives; and a procured supplier ecosystem which will form based on programme / project needs.

If the water company chooses to deliver Phase 2 through the supply chain for SR27, the successful tenderer may be required to transpose the requirements and commitments of the framework into an NEC Alliance agreement as part of the SR27 supply chain.

Inverness-based firm RSE was the only company who tendered for the work.