In line with Ofwat’s Water Resources Market Information guidance, alongside our final Water Resources Management Plan 2024 (WRMP24), we have updated our Market Information.
This enables third parties, who can either be other incumbents or independent third parties, to identify opportunities to provide new water resources; and identify and provide demand management and leakage services.
Northumbrian Water has two Water Resource Zones, namely Kielder and Berwick & Fowberry.
Our baseline WRMP24 forecasts a 1 in 500 supply deficit across the full planning period in our Kielder WRZ. In Berwick, there is a small supply surplus.
Essex & Suffolk Water has four Water Resource Zones, namely Essex, Blyth, Hartismere and Northern Central.
Our baseline WRMP24 forecasts supply deficits in our Essex, Blyth and Hartismere Water Resource Zones. The Northern Central Water Resource Zone has a small surplus until 2031/32 and a deficit thereafter.
A summary of our WRMP24 Best Value Plans is provided below.
Northumbrian Water
For Northumbrian Water our final best value plan includes the below demand management options. Once these have been applied a supply surplus is restored across the full planning period in the Kielder Water Resource Zone and consequently we did not need to identify and develop any new supply-side options.
- 55% leakage reduction by 2050;
- Replacement of all existing customer water meters with smart meters by 2035 and an enhanced optant meter strategy to encourage unmeasured customers to move to a smart meter; and
- Water efficiency programmes.
Essex & Suffolk Water
For Essex & Suffolk Water, we are forecasting supply demand deficits across all our Water Resource Zones because of:
- Sustainability reductions applied to our abstraction licences;
- New Non-household demand; and
- Climate Change.
For Essex & Suffolk Water our final best value plan has been developed to restore a supply surplus across the planning period, through a combination of both demand management options and supply-side options. Our preferred demand management options are:
- 40% leakage reduction by 2050;
- Replacement of all existing meters with smart meters by 2035 and a compulsory smart metering programme for all remaining unmeasured customers; and
- Water efficiency programmes.
Additionally, our Best Value Plan includes AMP8/9 supply schemes including:
- New strategic potable water pipelines connecting all three Suffolk water resource zones; and
- either a Water Reuse Scheme in Suffolk else a new winter storage reservoir in Suffolk (to be confirmed in 2027).
- A new water treatment works and borehole at Linford in Essex.
- Water treatement works upgrades including three new nitrate removal plants, a new UV treatment plant; and a raw water pumping station and clarifier treatment plant upgrade.
We will provide 1 in 500-year drought resilience in Essex from 2031/32 and in Suffolk from 2033/34 once demand savings have been made and new supply schemes are in supply. We may need to make further sustainability reductions to our abstraction licences in the 2040s (to be confirmed in 2026) which would need further Water Reuse schemes.
We welcome discussions with any party who could contribute towards these schemes.
Our WRMP24 Market Information data can also be viewed using Watersource, an online platform that we have jointly developed with Wheatley Solutions and Anglian Water Services, which provides access to key elements of the Market Information through a central ‘open’ cloud portal. Users can identify spatially those areas (Water Resource Zones) which have a supply surplus and those areas which have a supply deficit. The Watersource platform can be accessed at wheatleywatersource.co.uk
WRZ boundary files for importing into a Geographical Information System (GIS) can be requested by emailing waterresources@nwl.co.uk
Our Trading and Procurement Code can be downloaded from the link below. If you require further information or wish to discuss your proposal with us, please email waterresources@nwl.co.uk
If you have a water resource option that that could benefit other water users and sectors in the region, Water Resources East (WRE) have an open Call for Options, inviting option submissions to contribute to regional water resources planning at wre.org.uk/call-for-options.