Eight firms ‘long-listed’ for 482m West London deal

The West London Waste Authority has announced a long-list of companies which are in the running for a contract covering the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, and Richmond upon Thames.

The contract, which involves treating up to 300,000 tonnes of residual waste per year generated by a population of 1.4 million people, was first advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union in May 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).

It covers all aspects of treatment including any necessary transport, the operation of transfer stations, and contracts for outputs such as compost, refuse-derived fuel and recyclate.

The current ‘affordability limit’ of the contract is 482 million, although this is likely to increase to nearer to 750 million over the life-time of the contract due to factors such as inflation. However, the West London Waste Authority is keen to keep costs down as much as possible.

The eight ‘long-listed’ bidders are:

• Cory Environmental Ltd;
• Covanta Energy Ltd;
• E.ON Energy from Waste AG;
• FCC/Waste Recycling Group Ltd;
• SITA UK Ltd;
• Veolia ES Aurora Ltd;
• Viridor Waste Management Ltd;
• Wheelabrator Technologies Incorporated

Bids were invited from single entity companies, consortia, or joint ventures. The WLWA has offered the three waste transfer stations within its direct control as part of the procurement but also welcomed proposals involving sites within bidders control or which they intend to acquire.

The companies will now be invited to develop outline solutions as the next stage in the competitive dialogue process that is being employed.

At present, residual waste from West London is taken from the transfer by rail to landfill sites operated by FCC/Waste Recycling Group. The contract has been in place since 2007 and has the option to be extended up to the start of the new residual waste treatment contract.

While many of the companies on the list specialise in energy-from-waste incineration, the WLWA said that it was interested in any proposals they feel are the most economically advantageous technology to meet WLWAs output specification. But, the authority is stipulating that the technology must be proven in operation on a municipal scale.

The next stage of the tender process will narrow bidders to three or four that will present detailed solutions in the first part of 2012.

Two final bidders will submit final tenders in Autumn 2012, and the preferred bidder will be selected in Spring 2013.

Jim Brennan, director of West London Waste, told letsrecycle.com: “We have been very pleased with the response from the market and think we will find a really good partner among the bidders. This will enable us to agree a very good contract.”