Opening up of water market is opportunity for farmers
From April, all non-domestic customers in England will be able to switch water retailer.
Following a similar successful market opening in Scotland in 2008, the new market will be the largest retail water market in the world.
The market will operate in much the same way as other utilities, where a range of retailers compete for customers by offering them the best deal. They buy wholesale services, the physical supply of water and removal of sewage from the regional wholesaler. These services are then sold to the customer and include retail services such as meter reading, billing and customer services. The management of water quality, security of supply and pipework infrastructure remain the same.
For our region, Severn Trent will continue to be the major wholesaler for water supply and sewerage services. Former Severn Trent customers will all be automatically switched to the new retailer Water Plus. Many customers may not realise that there is the option to switch retailer to secure the best deal available for them. Currently there are 21 licensed water retailers to choose from and the water regulator estimates that this will rise to as many as 40.
We believe that it is better for customers to have the choice rather than accepting the default retailer. For competition to develop in England it is imperative that customers do switch supplier to place cost pressure on the previous monopoly regional suppliers. It would also mean customers would be losing out on the financial saving of switching.
We recommend that switching is the first step for a farm followed by water tariff analyses and then benchmark water consumption to assess the potential for usage savings. From this, a plan can be made to implement the savings opportunities. For a farm these may be a leakage assessment, rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation or re-use of cooling water, and so on.
Reducing water consumption is going to provide the largest initial financial savings (20 per cent on average); do this now and then benefit further by switching again in future years to deliver further potential competitive price savings of 20 per cent. This has been our experience of the Scottish market and we expect the English market to be very similar.
If you know which retailer you want to use then the switching process is straightforward. The information that a retailer will ask you for will all be on your most recent water bill.
Alternatively, an experienced consultancy will do the tendering for you and manage the ongoing delivery of water saving.
Darren Myers, Water Procurement Manager, Briar Associates (darren.myers@briarassociates.co.uk)
