The water retail market could see its first new entrant since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Encompass Water Limited, part of the UPA Energy Group has applied for a water supply and sewerage licence through Ofwat.
The Cheshire-based company applied for a licence with authorisations for water retail, sewerage retail and restricted retail authorisation. This would enable Encompass to provide services to eligible premises in the market in England and Wales as well as sewerage retail services within England.
The company has more than 25 years experience trading in water and energy markets and currently provides bill validation services for existing customers, which it said includes a “large degree of overlap with the functions of a water retailer”.
Encompass has both small water user customers that it believes it can offer improved levels of service to by dealing directly with water wholesalers. For its larger users and multi-site estate customers it has developed a self-supply partnership model and will offer interfacing through in-house software that can be adapted to interface with market operator MOSL’s systems.
It would become the 20th company in England and Wales to hold such a licence.
The application is under consultation by Ofwat, which is inviting representations until the end of this month.