Thames Water has gone out to tender with a contract for an industry-specific software package to meet requirements under the Open Water programme ahead of the opening of the competitive market for non-household water and sewerage retail services in April 2017.

Open Water is currently coordinating the development of the market rules, framework and systems required for the non-household retail market which include a requirement for a new Industry Data Exchange product to enable managed interaction with the Market Operator.

Thames Water said it is committed to deliver capability in accordance with Open Water time frames – and that its current system architecture does not meet the Purchasers Market Operator (MO) interaction objectives.

According to the water company, failure to deliver on these commitments may result in financial penalty and reputational impact and investment in an IDEX is therefore considered “a mandatory enabler to deliver a compliant and efficient solution.”

Interested suppliers are being asked to consider their response for 2 possible scope options — Wholesale only, and Retail and Wholesale.

The Programme expects to deliver capability increase in a series of phases. At a high-level, the Programme envisions at least 3 phases:

1. April 2016 — Completed installation, verification and commissioning of a New System to demonstrate ‘Northbound’ or external technical interaction with the MO.
2. Oct 2016 — Completed production installation, verification and commissioning of a New System demonstrating full operational capability of all defined Market Architecture Plan (MAP) processes, functional, non-functional and business requirements. From Oct 2016 to April 2017 the New System will operate as live, but operate in parallel or shadow operations.
3. April 2017 — full go live and market opening.

Any agreement awarded will be for an initial duration of 3 years, with options to extend annually up to a maximum overall term of 5 years. Initial estimated contract value is up to £2 million.

Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is 9^th October – click here to access the tender documentation.