NI Water has awarded a contract valued at £58 million to Cookstown based company, GO Power. NI Water is the largest consumer of electricity in Northern Ireland and the new contract covers the company’s entire metered electricity requirements for the next two years.
Through the contract 30% of NI Water’s electricity will come from renewable sources, bringing the company closer to the NI Assembly’s target of 40% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
Ronan Larkin Director of Finance and Regulation with NI Water, commented:
“This is one of NI Water’s largest contracts in terms of annual revenue expenditure. We are confident the terms of the contract will provide excellent value for money for NI Water while meeting our own environmental target of 40% renewable by 2021.
“It is often a surprise to people that NI Water is the largest consumer of electricity. However, with over 26,700km of water mains and 15,250km of sewers and thousands of assets to maintain, electricity is an essential component of our provision of water and wastewater services throughout Northern Ireland.”
Welcoming the contract award, Regional Development Minister, Danny Kennedy said:
“This is good news for both the local economy and the environment. I want to congratulate local company GO Power for winning this significant contract. This contract will further deliver NI Water’s policy of being an environmentally friendly and responsible organisation.”
The contract terms allow NI Water to use a portfolio approach to buying its electricity, buying different percentages of its load on different dates. This is an unusual practice within Northern Ireland, though common among UK water companies. The main benefit is allowing NI Water to keep its electricity costs within budget by taking advantage of low prices or by avoiding high prices.
The contract is just one of over 300 goods and services contracts overseen by NI Water’s Operational Procurement team with a total annual spend of approximately £100m. Approximately 55% of these goods and services contracts are awarded to local Northern Ireland based companies, with 100 % of contracts on our capital works schemes allocated to local construction companies. bringing a welcome boost to local employment in this sector.
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