Bidstats Southern Water has gone out to tender with a contract for a Private Wire Solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) worth an estimated £100 million.
The water company is looking to put a framework panel of private wire solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) providers in place to work in partnership with the utility to explore and develop onsite and offsite third party funded solar renewables. Energy costs are one of Southern Water’s largest opex costs – the business is believed to have more than 6000 acres of land which it would like to utilise in order to reduce its opex costs and meet carbon and renewable targets.
The scope includes:
- partnering to undertake desktop assessments of private wire solar PPA opportunities to supply SW sites and optimise the commercial returns for SW (including SW renewable targets);
- conducting all feasibility work in order to progress solar opportunities and securing 3rd party funding;
- ground mount, roof mount and floating solar arrays are all in scope;
- exploring opportunities to utilise 3rd party land near SW sites for private wire solar PPA, where SW land is not appropriate, is within the scope of this tender;
- conducting feasibility work regarding utilising battery storage and other associated services to complement the solar array;
- securing funding for any battery developments and other associated services;
- building and maintaining the solar arrays and associated services for the lifetime of the developments
The water company is looking to appoint up to four participants to the framework agreement.