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CONFERENCE NEWS Water sector challenged to build a culture of innovation • WWT's Water Industry Technology Innovation Conference saw delegates discuss how the sector can embed a culture that is receptive to new solutions James Brockett and Robin Hackett report from Birmingham A cultural change is needed in the water industry if innovation is to become 'business as usual' and give the maximum benefits to the customer, delegates heard at the WWT Water Indus- try Technology Innovation conference. Innovation is one of Ofwat's four priority areas for water com- panies to address in their PR19 plans, and is a pillar that sup- ports the other three priorities of customer service, affordability and resilience. But while there is plenty of innovative activity – technological and otherwise – going on the sector, water compa- nies have work to do if they are to develop a truly innovative culture that can harness this effectively, speakers agreed. Sarah McMath, managing director of strategic planning and investment at Thames Water, said that research and development had been behind some of the utility's key improvements since privatisa- tion, with technological solu- tions developed including GAC layers in sand filters, sewer blockage alarms, advanced energy recovery, alternative coagulants and smart meters. But while R&D would continue to play a key role, she said that to deliver AMP7 priorities, inno- vation would need to be "embedded in everything we do", with staff and delivery part- ners equipped and empowered to embrace new ideas and solutions. "A culture of innovation is not simply about creating the processes and systems that ena- ble innovation to happen," McMath said. "it requires us to change our behaviours both organisationally and as individ- uals. As an industry, we have shied away from risk. We have a duty to spend our customers' money prudently and so we have traditionally made safe bets; o"en investing in low risk, incremental improvements that deliver a guaranteed outcome. In doing so, we have sometimes missed the opportunity to truly push the boundaries." She added that the water industry has a "great track record" of developing and dem- onstrating new solutions, but found it much more challenging to move these solutions to "business as usual". She gave two examples of recently announced Thames investments that showed greater ambition: a new test rig for test- ing trunk main technologies that can help with pipe condition assessment, and plans to develop indirect potable re-use of waste- water at Deephams Sewage Treat- ment Works. Carl Pheasey, Ofwat's director of strategy and policy, called on water companies to step up on innovation, telling delegates that creative thinking is needed across a wide variety of areas, including technology and data. "There's lots going on in this space," he said. "We're already continuing to progress thinking about innovation and we now really want to see the industry step up and demonstrate that it's solving some of the cultural Ofwat's Carl Pheasey addresses the conference wwtonline.co.uk | JANUARY 2019 WET NEWS 5 "There is a problem I believe in the UK industry around fragmentation – there are a lot of organisations doing similar things. We need to come together around common themes, and this is what a platform for innovation could give us" Steve Kaye, chief executive, UKWIR "There is an analogy between creating an innovation culture and creating a health and safety culture. To make it a reality, you need senior management buy-in, with everyone from the CEO to the guy in the postroom understanding that it is part of their everyday work" Jeremy Heath, innovation manager, SES Water problems on innovation." Pheasey said there can be a tendency for those outside the sector to see innovation almost exclusively in terms of cutting leakage but that it is important to implement the concept when trying to address other key issues, including driving down per capita consumption (PCC). As such, he said there is a need to combine "hard engi- neering and technological solu- tions with innovative demand management and customer behaviour-type innovations and solutions". He continued: "Since 2000, demand for water in the South East has remained fairly flat even though population has increased quite substantially. It's clear that it flows in part from a combination of efforts to reduce demand, technological innovation in terms of house- hold appliances, and also efforts to increase metering penetra- tion in the region. "The lesson is that, over the long-term, hard engineering solu- tions won't be sufficient if you want to make in-roads into the problems that there is now a lot of political focus on. A combination of gaining a better understanding of consumer behaviour and tech- nological innovation, such as bet- ter ways of detecting and fixing leaky mains, is going to be required." The 2018 WWT Water Industry Technology Innovation con- ference was held on 27 November in Birmingham and sponsored by Hitachi, Novotek and Xylem

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