IN Brief:
- Hargreaves Services will provide three foul-water treatment facilities for the Sizewell C construction programme.
- Its contract includes design, procurement, manufacture, installation, testing and commissioning.
- Delivery is expected over two years from early 2027, contributing to the company’s 2027 and 2028 financial years.
Hargreaves Services has been selected to deliver three foul water treatment facilities supporting construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk, under an engineering contract expected to run for two years from early 2027.
The award from Sizewell C Limited covers design, procurement, manufacture, installation, testing and commissioning of the facilities. The contract value and individual plant capacities remain unconfirmed; plant design will determine the integration requirements for the construction estate. Hargreaves expects the work to contribute revenue in the financial years ending 31 May 2027 and 31 May 2028.
Unlike the power station’s permanent generating equipment, these facilities serve the construction programme itself. Foul water arises principally from toilets and other sanitary facilities serving a substantial workforce and its welfare accommodation. Its collection and treatment require a defined route through site infrastructure, distinct from arrangements for rainfall runoff, excavation water or process effluent.
The distinction is important at a project where several types of water may arise from different activities. Drainage from hardstanding and excavations has different characteristics from sanitary wastewater, and a treatment facility intended for one stream cannot automatically be assumed to manage another. Hargreaves’ confirmed scope is specifically three foul water treatment facilities, rather than a contract for every drainage and water management system at Sizewell C.
The facilities will need to connect with the site’s arrangements for collecting wastewater and handling treated output. Their design must reflect the flow and quality characteristics established for the construction activities they support. The process technology has not been identified, so no particular biological treatment method, membrane arrangement or discharge performance can yet be attributed to the contract.
Manufacture and installation are included in the same award as the engineering design. That creates a defined package under which equipment must be made suitable for the specified operating duty, integrated with its associated infrastructure and tested before handover. The arrangements for civil foundations, utility connections and maintenance access will depend on the final plant configuration and the interfaces agreed with the wider construction programme.
Those interfaces matter because the project will continue to change as major work packages progress. Wastewater collection points, workforce locations and the timing of new site accommodation can alter the loads placed on temporary or construction support facilities. Establishing the plants’ required operating envelopes is therefore a necessary part of detailed design, although the actual design assumptions have not been published.
Delivery beginning in early 2027 does not mean all three facilities will start operating together at that point. The two-year programme spans several engineering activities, with installation and handover sequencing to be determined during delivery. Commissioning will establish whether installed equipment operates in accordance with the eventual specified requirements.
Sizewell C is a nationally significant nuclear construction project involving extensive civil engineering, transport, logistics and supporting infrastructure as well as the future generating station. Water treatment is one of the supporting services needed to sustain construction activity while the permanent works proceed. Failure to coordinate such services with the wider programme can constrain the use of accommodation and work areas even where major structural works are otherwise ready.
Hargreaves expects the engineering award to contribute revenues during its 2027 and 2028 financial years. Those expectations relate to the company’s wider forecasts rather than a disclosed contract price. Work on the three facilities is expected to begin in early 2027 and continue for approximately two years.
The contract also provides a useful distinction between workload visibility and additional financial guidance. Its board said the award helps underpin existing expectations rather than announcing an increase in its forecasts. The market consensus figures cited were £292.1m in revenue and £17.9m in underlying profit before tax for the year ending May 2027, and £305.2m and £18.6m respectively for May 2028.
Those estimates concern the whole group and cannot be used to calculate the commercial value of these treatment facilities. The company operates in environmental, infrastructure and property related activities, with the Sizewell C package extending its engineering workload across two reporting periods.
The treatment facilities will be required during the Sizewell C construction programme, with Hargreaves responsible for integrating the plant, testing the installations and handing over functioning systems. The contractual programme is expected to begin in early 2027 and extend across roughly two years.
