Energy will be generated from sustainable, affordable biomass. Haven Power, the specialist electricity supplier to UK businesses and part of Drax Group plc, has signed a deal with Thames Water to supply their electricity requirements in a deal worth more than £500m over five years. There is an option for two further five-year renewals which could increase the overall value of the contract to more than £1.5bn over 15 years.
Haven Power is the UK’s largest independent electricity supplier to businesses and sources its power from the Drax power plant in Selby, Yorkshire, which, as a result of its world leading biomass transformation, is now the UK’s single largest supplier of renewable energy. The deal will enable Thames Water, which already sources about 20% of its electricity through self-generated renewables such as solar, wind, hydro and biogas, to meet all of its electricity needs from renewables.
Drax Group Chief Executive, Dorothy Thompson, said:
“I’m delighted that Drax and Haven will play such an important part in helping to deliver Thames ‘renewable objectives. As the UK looks to decarbonise in an affordable and pragmatic way, it is pioneering companies like Thames that are leading the way.”
Thames Water energy manager Angus Berry said:
“Our energy and carbon strategy centres around reducing costs for customers and minimising our impact on the environment. This deal with Haven puts downward pressure on bills and means we will now be using 100% renewable electricity. We look forward to growing our relationship with Haven to exploit further opportunities to minimise energy costs and emissions, as well as continuing to work towards our ambitious target of self-generating 30% of our own electricity by 2020.”
Drax is undergoing a major transformation programme to convert its 4GW power station – which supplies around 8% of the UK’s power – from coal to sustainable biomass. Two out of six units have now been converted and plans are advanced to modify a third unit to high-biomass later this year. The estimated 12 million tonnes of carbon saved once three units are fully converted is equivalent to taking 10% of the UK’s total vehicle fleet off the roads and makes Drax the single largest decarbonisation project currently underway in Europe.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
About Thames Water
Thames Water, which serves London and the Thames Valley, is Britain’s biggest water and sewerage company.
Top-quality drinking water: We supply more than a tonne a week of water on average to each of our 9m drinking water customers. That’s 2,600m litres a day.
Recycling water back to the environment: We also recycle safely back to the environment 15m people’s wastewater. That’s 4,200m litres of sewage a day – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Our region: Our service area stretches from eastern fringes of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire in the west, through to the western edges of Essex and Kent in the east.
For more information please visit https://www.thameswater.co.uk/
About Drax Group plc
Drax’s principal activities are electricity production, electricity sales to business customers, and processing sustainable biomass for use in electricity production. With carbon abatement central to the business strategy, the Group is transforming itself into a predominantly biomass-fuelled power provider through burning sustainable biomass in place of coal and providing the UK with cost effective, low carbon, and reliable renewable power.
The Group owns and operates the largest power station in the UK, typically responsible for supplying some 7-8% of the UK’s electricity. Upstream the Group has a presence in the US focused on developing wood pellet plants for the self-supply of some of its sustainable biomass requirements. At the other end of the supply chain, the Group’s retail arm, Haven Power, serves the electricity needs of a growing number of business customers.
For more information please contact:
Stuart White, Thames Water
+44 (0) 203 577 4364. Or [email protected]
Andrew Brown, Drax
+44 (0) 7721513777 or [email protected]
