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The Bioresources Bid Assessment Framework
The Bioresources Bid Assessment Framework (BAF) is a new route into Yorkshire Water for third party providers offering solutions to help us meet our bioresources needs.
We’re interested to hear from third parties where they can help us more efficiently and effectively deliver bioresources services.
To make it easier for companies to understand how they can work with us, we publish a Bioresources Market Information spreadsheet annually. The spreadsheet contains information about our sewage sludge production sites and is intended to facilitate conversations with third parties to explore market opportunities. We recommend that potential bidders view this spreadsheet, which is available on our Bioresources webpage.
The following sections of this webpage highlight our goals for bioresources, which we hope makes it simpler for potential bidders to understand how they might collaborate with us to deliver bioresources services.
This page also describes how bidders may offer these solutions, how their bids will be received and managed, and what to expect from us as a bid progresses.
As advocates of markets, we are currently reviewing our approach and the content shared with the market. If you have feedback, or there is additional information that you believe would enable third parties to better support us, please let us know by writing to
Our ambitions for bioresources
Our ambition for bioresources is to achieve upper quartile performance within the water industry centring on providing our high-quality service as efficiently as possible in the context of a growing population and to be resilient towards extreme weather events. Our plan includes maximising both the quality and quantity of biogas for renewable energy and grid injection at our sites as well as embracing the sludge treatment competitive market as part of an industry-wide effort to drive efficiency, boost resilience and deliver further innovation within the water sector. Our Bioresources Plan for 2020 to 2025 also includes offering more opportunities for third-party companies to enhance how we transport, treat and recycle sludge. We plan to achieve this by working with others to improve performance, harness innovation and ultimately increase resilience and efficiency.
Our key areas of focus are our two performance commitments - increasing our renewable energy generation from biogas and producing quality agricultural products which allows us to achieve 100% biosolids accreditation. We are also focused on our efficiency and utilising the market for bioresource services to drive down our £/TDS (tonne dry solid) costs, providing our customers with value for money. Potential bidders should consider how their solutions can be developed to support these company targets.
Our bioresources needs
For the sake of clarity and transparency, the Bioresources BAF outlines the specific requirements that any prospective bid should be designed to address or satisfy. We want potential bidders to be aware of our requirements up front, including those related to quality, reliability, cost, and environmental factors, so as to establish the context in which any bid will be evaluated.
We manage 14 Sludge Treatment Centres (STCs), mainly located around the M62/ M1 corridors, taking partially treated sewage to generate renewable energy and produce quality biosolids products that can be used in agriculture.
In 2021/22 we produced [143,100] dry tonnes of sewage sludge, which was treated and recycled. We currently aim to use all our sludge to produce renewable energy through a treatment process known as anaerobic digestion (AD) which produces biogas. The resultant biogas is currently combusted through Combined Heated Power (CHP) engines at our STCs to provide renewable heat and power to support our operational requirements and help keep costs down for our customers.
We are also engaged in a process to develop biogas upgrading and export facilities at some of our larger STCs, which will allow the biogas to be used as a renewable transport fuel.
We’re interested in solutions where they can provide more efficient or effective ways to achieve our company objectives and targets. This may include:
- Short term sludge treatment capacity
- Long term sludge treatment solutions
- Beneficial biogas usage
- Beneficial biosolids recycling
Where you come in
By providing the above information on our business needs, we aim to encourage third parties to present us with potential solutions to both short and long-term bioresources challenges.
For all third party bids we receive through the Bioresources BAF, we will first look to assess if the bid provides a feasible option, which will primarily focus on whether the bid is technically deliverable and meets our Bioresources needs.
Once we have determined a bid is feasible, we will evaluate whether it should be considered ‘in-period’ or through our ‘Price Review’ process. In simple terms, bids that demonstrate that they either meet an unfulfilled need or have the potential to be more cost-effective or beneficial than our current activities will be considered ‘in-period’. All other feasible bids will be assessed through the ‘Price Review’ process.
The process we will use for assessing the bids is described in our Bid Assessment Framework, below, to ensure transparency and provide confidence that we will take a consistent and fair approach in assessing third party bids relative to our own in-house supply and demand options.
We have also set out our thoughts on what common requests or requirements you may expect to receive from us after submitting a bid. We recognise that there will be a range of bid types of varying terms and complexities, so this guidance should be considered indicative.
Making a bid
For third parties that believe they have an efficient solution which could contribute to our company goals for Bioresources, you can get in touch with us by submitting a bid.
To get started, we’ll need some basic information from you about the solution proposed which you should submit via Bidding Form to watermarkets@yorkshirewater.co.uk (see Document Library below). In completing a bid submission form, we ask bidders to provide as much information as is available to them. We understand that bidders will not necessarily have all the information requested and we will base our evaluation on the information that is available. If a solution looks as though it may be feasible and an alternative/improved option, we will work with the bidder to collect further information, where practical.
Detail of the procurement process following submission of a bid is provided in our Bid Assessment Framework, above.
Please do not submit proposals outside the scope of the Bioresources BAF as they will not be reviewed or passed elsewhere.
Document Library
Bioresources Bid Submission Form
Useful Links
Bioresources Market Information
Problem with the way your bid has been handled?