United Utilities has awarded a contract worth in excess of £2 million to Schneider Electric for the provision of variable speed drives within a two-year period. The contract was won following a demanding competitive tender and carries a two year extension with a further one year option as part of utility company’s five year AMP4 expenditure programme. This latest success with United Utilities follows immediately from a similar contract that Schneider Electric has held for the past three years. The contract was ratified at a signing ceremony held at the United Utilities headquarters in Warrington on 11 April 2006. The signatories were Nick Websdell, AX4 Procurement Manager at United Utilities and Mike Winterbottom, Schneider Electric’s Director for Energy and Infrastructure Systems and Solutions. Under the terms of the contract, Schneider Electric will supply Altivar variable speed drives from Telemecanique, a brand of Schneider Electric. The units have ratings up to 500kW and will be used in all United Utilities’ installations, including pumping stations, water treatment works and waste-water treatment facilities. Unusually, the contract also covers surveying electrical installations for harmful harmonics. These will identify sources of harmonic distortion in the supply network and, on the basis of the findings, Schneider Electric will provide equipment to improve power quality to ensure compliance with the UK Government’s EA Engineering Recommendation G5/4.
Commenting on the new contract, John Williamson, technical manager of United Utilities, said, “We put a lot of focus on the technical requirements for this contract and dedicated a substantial amount of time to investigating efficiency. We also assessed the overall expenditure of how much the speed drives would cost to run over a 15-year period. After an intricate and competitive review, we found that Schneider Electric’s offer fitted the bill perfectly.”