The Derby plant in May 2018
Derby City and Derbyshire County Council are considered retendering Interserve’s PPP energy-from-waste (EfW) contract.
The two local authorities have published a prior information notice for the contract, which Interserve signed nearly 10 years ago. The contract was valued at £950m in August 2014.
The Derby plant is the last of Interserve’s troublesome EfW contracts to be handed over, after it completed three earlier this year, at Port Talbot, Dunbar and Rotherham. Interserve announced in 2016 that it would exit the EfW sector after struggling with delays and mounting costs.
Derby and Derbyshire councils signed the contract with Resource Recovery Solutions (Derbyshire) Ltd (RRS) – a partnership between Shanks Waste Management and Interserve – in December 2009.
The contract involves management, operation and maintenance of nine recycling centres, management of transfer stations, transportation of residual waste and its treatment and disposal, plus construction, operation and maintenance of the Sinfin Lane EfW facility.
A statement from the councils said: “The objective of the retendering procedure, if that route is open to and adopted by the councils, would be to establish and pay to RRS the highest compliant tender price (as defined in the contract) and for the councils to appoint a new contractor to deliver the services under a new contract.
“The potential retendering follows the issue of a notice, served on the funders of the contract, on 10.4.2019 inviting them to step into the project. If the funders decide against taking action, then the councils may bring their contract with RRS to an end and will then have an option to retender the contract.”
The local authorities said their decision would depend in part on whether there is a “liquid market” for PPP contacts.
The retendered contract would run until March 2042.
