Veolia Environmental Services will compete against “Osiris”, a consortium made up of the waste arm of United Utilities, construction firm Costain and equity investors John Laing Investments. Biffa has been dropped from the list of contenders.
We will now meet with the remaining bidders and continue our discussions to achieve the best solution for Leicestershire
Cllr Tony Kershaw, cabinet member for waste, Leicestershire county council
The successful bidder for the contract will have to deal with up to 180,000 tonnes a year of residual waste by 2040, with the Osiris bid focused on developing a mechanical treatment facility to produce refuse-derived fuel that would then be heated in a gasification facility to produce energy, whereas the Veolia offering involves building an energy from waste incinerator.
Both bids are based on development of a facility at a council-owned site in Bardon, to the North West of Leicester, while both bids offer the potential to produce heat as well as electricity.
Commenting on the latest step in the council's procurement process, the cabinet member for waste, Tony Kershaw, said: “This is not the end of the process. We will now meet with the remaining bidders and continue our discussions to achieve the best solution for Leicestershire.”
Procurement
Leicestershire originally began the procurement of the contract in November 2008, after receiving £87 million in PFI credits from Defra with an outline business case centred around developing an energy-from-waste facility in the county (see letsrecycle.com story).
It originally announced an eight bidder shortlist in January 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story), before cutting this down to just three in July 2009.
With today's announcement, the council now aims to invite final tenders from the two remaining bidders later this year before, assuming planning consent and construction run to schedule, having the facility open by April 2015.
While Leicestershire county council has already achieved a 52% recycling rate, the council has said that the facility is needed to deal with the remaining residual waste as it aims to save money on landfill tax in the future.
The announcement represents a boon for the Osiris partnership, after it emerged last week that the consortium had failed to make the final shortlist for the Bradford and Calderdale waste PFI (see letsrecycle.com story).
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