WET News

JANUARY "I am eager and excited to be able to lead Portsmouth Water at a critical time in its development. Not only are we preparing for the most significant investment in the company's history – the Havant Thicket Winter Storage Reservoir – but we are also refining our plans for the delivery of all other aspects of the business plan" New Portsmouth Water CEO Bob Taylor 100 Costain engineer Callum Davis has become the 100th person to take up an apprenticeship with Tideway 69% Thames Water's pro• ts fell 69 per cent to £67.7 million for the six months to 30 September 2018 as the company su‰ ered through the Beast from the East followed by the summer heatwave "Our global network of innovators will bring huge value to the operations of both companies with their specialist skills and ability to think outside of the box" The Energy Innovation Centre's Matthieu Michel on its new partnerships with Anglian Water and Yorkshire Water "As the skills required evolve, we need to be able to provide attractive opportunities which encourage a diverse range of people to want to come and work for us all" United Utilities' Steve Fraser after the company joined forces with 27 organisations on the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership I nnovation is one of Ofwat's primary demands for PR19 and, given the challenges the water companies are now facing, it's impossible to imagine how they could succeed without it. It's hard to see how leakage can be cut by 15 per cent by 2025, for example, without embracing new methods, let alone meeting the 50 per cent target by 2050. At the recent WWT Water Industry Technology Innovation conference (see P5), there was extensive discussion around the need for the sector to embrace a culture of innovation going forward, making sure that, as Ofwat put it, "every process is geared towards innovation". For the Š rst time, the conference also featured mini 'innovation sprints', which saw delegates spending just over an hour exploring Š ve of the water sector's biggest challenges: leakage, customer service, water resource management, energy & sustainability, and developing e' ective innovation partnerships. I sat in on the leakage challenge, led by Northumbrian Water innovation facilitator Eddie Wrigley, where just over 40 delegates – including people from water companies, energy companies and universities as well as contractors and consultancies – were split into Š ve groups to brainstorm 'big ideas' that might deliver the industry's holy grail: zero leakage. One group, seeking to address issues with sta' and knowledge retention, felt the role of leakage technicians has been undervalued. Their big idea was to improve the proŠ le, skills and rewards associated with the position, potentially creating a more impressive job title and increasing pay. Another group identiŠ ed regulatory targets as the major issue, and suggested Ofwat's board could include people from water companies and the supply chain as well as customers to encourage collaboration and restore public conŠ dence. The cost of leakage technology was also under the spotlight, with one group proposing an industry-wide 'National Leakage Innovation Challenge', with £500 million in funding from Government and the water companies, to promote collaboration and reduce risk. Two groups looked at the issue of monitoring. One proposed developing an AI system to understand the entire network, but the idea voted most popular was a project to better understand water balance through 100 per cent monitoring in pilot areas, moving street by street, and making use of analytics and machine learning to detect anomalies. While the Š ve groups were very much working against the clock, they came up with credible suggestions that could be taken forward in 2019 – and with the participants having di' erent backgrounds, from both inside and outside the water sector, it provoked some interesting debates and a variety of ideas. Contractors have a growing role to play on that point. In our interview in this issue (P6-7), new Clancy Group CEO Matt Cannon has described how Clancy Docwra is embracing innovative new technologies and seeking to combine them with its decades of operational expertise, which could bring about improvements on leakage response times and supply interruptions. That approach appears to be way forward – as we head into a new era, contractors can thrive if they combine high-quality delivery with new ideas on how to drive the improvements and e¢ ciencies the water companies require to meet their targets. That requires the water companies to be open to outside help, of course, but the indications are that collaboration is likely to yield the best results. IN A NUTSHELL 2 WET NEWS JANUARY 2019 | wwtonline.co.uk £29M Scottish Water has completed one of its biggest ever investments in Argyll and Bute, with its new £29 million water treatment works in Oban now operational S evern Trent Water has made savings of £750,000 in the last year through the use of drones for more e¢ - cient asset inspections, it has been reported. The utility has partnered with commercial drone experts COPTRZ to deploy a ¤ eet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for use in its routine inspections of assets. Now in its second year, the approach is generating signiŠ cant cost and time savings and e¢ ciencies. By using their UAV ¤ eet for inspection work, Severn Trent has removed the need for sca' olding being put up. This allows them to save time and increases the safety for their sta' , due to them not needing to climb the sca' olding during T hames Water has been sending hundreds of engi- neers out every night to pinpoint leakage from the com- pany's 20,000-mile water pipe network. The company recruited an extra 600 sta' and installed thousands of high-tech loggers a¨ er severe weather hampered its drive to stop water escaping from its network this year. Teams of night-time leak detectors are patrolling the streets hunting for leaks to help meet long-term targets following the severe impact of the 'Beast from the East' and prolonged summer heatwave. Chief executive Steve Robertson explained that Thames Water was taking a ra¨ of measures to tackle leaks. He said: "We have hundreds of people every night out on the streets listening for leaks. You have to do it at night when it's quiet – that's how you Š nd them." As part of its £11.7 billion business plan for 2020-25, Thames Water has pledged to spend £2.1 billion on increasing resilience and reducing leakage by 15 per cent by 2025, with plans to halve it in the longer term. Around 1,500 leaks on average are being Š xed every week, a 10-year high for the company. Teams have an arsenal of high-tech acoustic loggers and electronic sensors to identify leak areas, and then use Severn Trent makes significant savings using drone inspections Thames Water sends out hundreds of night-time leakage detectors inspections. The amount of time taken for the actual inspection is also shortened with the drone doing all the work for them. Duncan Turner, Severn Trent's drone team lead, said: "It's been an incredibly exciting time to be involved with UAVs at Severn Trent. It feels like we are at the forefront of innovation which is unlocking new ways of working within the business using this cutting- edge robotics technology. With our customers at the heart of what we do, we can pass on the saving, making sure our customers' bills remain low." Formed in 2016, COPTRZ provides specialist services to the commercial UAV market to help businesses to access the listening sticks to pinpoint exactly where water is seeping out. Thames has also trialled satellite imagery, drones and dozens of other new innovations in the ongoing mission but Robertson said: "Nothing can beat the ear of an experienced leakage detection engineer." The company has developed new techniques to better predict freezing weather and potential damage in advance, while also trialling innovations to repair pipes from the inside. "Our ability to monitor and beneŠ ts of drone technology. The company is working with some of the largest utilities in the United Kingdom, including Thames Water as well as Severn Trent. Steve Coulson, founder and managing director at COPTRZ, added: "It's great to see more companies seeing the beneŠ t that drone technology can have for them and their business. Not only do they save money, but they also save time and improve safety. "This example is only one of many, and I'm sure in the future there will be a huge number of companies that decide to make the small immediate investment, to unlock the huge savings potential moving forward." predict the sort of impact we have from the 'Beast from the East' is much better now than it was earlier in the year," Robertson said. He admitted "lessons" were learned so that now the impact of a similar freeze would be "much less". Earlier this year, Robertson agreed to forgo bonuses for the next two years a¨ er the company paid £120 million in rebates to customers and penalties for missing targets to cut leaks. Returns to shareholders were also frozen until 2020 to prioritise investment. COMMENT Innovation needs collaboration to thrive Robin Hackett, deputy editor, WET News

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