Purpose

West Sussex is served, on a geographical
basis, by four water wholesalers and two wastewater providers.
While the county council has no choice regarding the wholesalers,
it can access a retail market for commercial/industrial supplies
providing an intermediary service which includes invoice validation
and aggregation plus ancillary services that allow the council to
identify leaks and potential efficiencies with smart metering,
building-by-building profiling, and exception reporting.
 
The current provider was procured when the
market first opened in 2018 and has demonstrated the value of this
contract, which expires on 30 September 2023.  A new
procurement process will test a retail market that has matured over
the last 5 years.
 
Upon conclusion of the procurement process the
Assistant Director (Environment and Public) will be asked to award
the contract for Water and Wastewater Ancillary Services.

Decision

The Director of Place Services has awardd a
contract for the provision of water, wastewater and ancillary
services to Business Stream for the County Council’s current
assets across the estate, for an initial period of 3 years from 1
October 2023, with a further optional 1-year extension to 30
September 2027, at a value of £5.4m.