Water Resources Market Information

In line with Ofwat’s Water Resources Market Information guidance, alongside our final Water Resources Management Plan 2019 (WRMP19), we published data tables for each of our Water Resource Zones (see downloadable content below).

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. Each spreadsheet contains key market information as well as the WRZ’s water resources position as detailed in our final WRMP19.

Northumbrian Water has two Water Resource Zones, namely Kielder and Berwick.

Essex & Suffolk Water has four Water Resource Zones, namely Essex, Blyth, Hartismere and Northern Central.

Both WRMP19s forecast that we had a supply surplus across the full planning period in all of our WRZs.

We have updated the WRMP19 Market Information final plan supply and demand tables so that 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 WRMP19 data has been replaced with outturn data for the same years.

We have just submitted our Northumbrian Water and Essex & Suffolk Water revised draft Water Resources Management Plan 2024 (WRMP24) to Defra.  A summary of our WRMP24 Best Value Plans is provided below.

Northumbrian Water 

We are forecasting a final plan (1 in 500 year drought) supply surplus in our Kielder and Berwick & Fowberry WRZs which requires a significant demand management programme including:

• 50% leakage reduction by 2050;
• Replacement of all existing customer water meters with smart meters 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, our supply demand forecasts are significantly different to our WRMP19 forecasts because of:

• Sustainability reductions applied to our abstraction licences;
• New Non-household demand; and
• Climate Change.

We are forecasting a final plan (1 in 200 year drought) supply surplus between 2025 and 2040 which requires a significant demand management programme including:

• 40% leakage reduction by 2050;
• Replacement of all existing meters with smart meters 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 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 2026).

We will provide 1 in 500 year drought resilience From 2040.  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. This is a new concept to provide 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