Water Supply and Sewerage Services in Scotland

From 1 April 2008, all 130,000 business customers (including not only commercial businesses but also organisations such as schools and local authorities) can choose their water and sewerage supplier.

Now that the market has opened up to competition, business customers can choose who supplies their water and sewerage services and select the best offers to suit their own requirements. This will be similar to the energy sector where a range of suppliers provide services without actually producing the energy themselves.

Scottish Water still owns and operates the network of water and sewerage pipes but now acts as the wholesaler, selling water and sewerage services to suppliers. The suppliers, such as Ondeo Industrial Solutions, supply retail services, such as billing, meter reading, handling of customer enquiries and other value added services.

Although they may offer different customer packages, all suppliers must also offer a standard ‘default’ level of service and tariff which acts as a safety net to protect customers. The default tariff is no more than the maximum charge that customers would have paid to Scottish Water if competition had not been introduced.

Ondeo Industrial Solutions received on May 7th a water services licence and a sewerage services licence and is currently undergoing the quality assurance testing that is required from each new supplier that enter the market.

Ondeo Industrial Solutions intends to start serving customers early this summer, so watch this space as we start adding new services and offerings that will be available to Scottish business customers.