Teaming up for desal contracts

Water
Saturday 25/8/2007 Page: 84

Two world-leading water companies have formed a partnership to bid for major seawater desalination contracts in Australia. Spanish-based Acciona Agua will team with United Utilities Australia (UUA) to bid for the proposed Melbourne desalination project, the planned second seawater desalination plant for Perth and other largescale seawater desalination projects around Australia. The partnership provides a powerful combination of leading edge technology from Acciona Agua, a company with more than 30 years experience in seawater desalination globally, being teamed with the high-level operations skill and local water industry experience of UUA.

Acciona Agua has built or has under construction more than 70 desalination plants in Spain and internationally with a total capacity of more than 1.6 million megalitres per day (1.6 million tonnes). Earlier this year, Acciona Agua was selected as preferred bidder to build and operate the Carlsbad seawater desalination project in San Diego, California. At 204 ML/d capacity, this will be the largest desalination plant in the United States.

Also in the United States, Acciona Agua is currently carrying out the upgrade of the 109 ML/d Tampa Bay seawater desalination plant in Florida. The company is also building the first large-scale municipal desalination plant in the UK, the 150ML/d Thames Gateway Project. And at Torrevieja (Allicante) in Spain, Acciona Agua is building the largest desalination plant in Europe with a capacity of 240 megalitres per day.

Highlighting Acciona Agua's success on the world desalination stage, earlier this year the business was nominated Desalination Company of the Year, one of the Global Water Awards promoted by the publishers of Global Water Intelligence and Water Desalination Report in association With the International Desalination Association. The Award made special mention of Acciona Agua's belief in sustainability and its deep commitment to excellence in engineering as demonstrated by the its work on the Thames Gateway Project, Tampa Bay and the New Canal de Cartagena facility in Spain.

The Acciona Group is already involved in the Australian utilities and infrastructure sector through Acciona Energy, the world's leading developer, owner and operator of renewable power facilities. Acciona Energy has developed a portfolio of green power projects in Australia and is currently constructing a 192 megawatt wind farm in Victoria.

Acciona Energy's renewable energy portfolio will enable the Acciona Agua and UUA partnership to offer zero carbon electricity to Melbourne Water. United Utilities, through its wholly owned subsidiary, UUA, has been involved in Australia for more than 15 years. It owns and operates water and wastewater infrastructure through Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) contracts with public sector utilities in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Activity for local government includes the operation and management of wastewater networks and the treatment of effluent to a stage enabling its reuse in the irrigation of vineyards and other crops that generate economic growth.

For further information, contact:
Acciona Agua: elana.reyna.monasteria@acciona.es,
United Utilities Australia: Stan Boath (08) 8408 6528, stanboath@uua.com.au