Thames Water has awarded a wide-ranging  contract for supply, export, data and metering services for electricity to Haven Power which could run for up to 15 years and be worth between £1.2 billion to £2.2 billion.

The water company has been seeking to establish a partnership to exploit the value of its total portfolio and investment in good practice – Thames appointed Purenergy Ltd to assist with the project.

The water company is setting up a long term single framework agreement for the following possible services.

• Supply of electricity
• Export services
• Demand management and added value services
• Provision of Metering and Data Services

Thames Water’s current power requirements are:

i. Half Hourly electricity  - 419 sites,1,070 GWh

ii. Non Half Hourly - 3221 sites, 80 GWh

In terms of renewable energy, Thames has a capacity for self generation of 288 GWh at approximately 75 sites, with standby/reserve generation of approximately 40 MW capacity.

In the financial year ended 31 March 2014 power accounted for a total spend of £51.8 million by Thames on operating expenditure for water resources, raw water distribution, water treatment and treated water distribution, and £58.5 million on sewerage collection and treatment, sludge treatment and sludge disposal.

Ipswich-headquartered Haven Power, which is owned by Drax, one of the UK's largest generation groups, was one of 10 companies in the bidding for the work.