Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 26TH APRIL - 2ND MAY 2019 | 23 Operations & Assets reportedly down by £10 million per year. Some other notable exam- ples of business improvements include: • The installation of a • bre- optic "nervous system" for the company's live sewers, which allows proactive management and pre-emptive repair work. • #Pumped – a hackathon that took place in 2016 and had competing teams working with open data to create predictive models of pump deterioration to aid proactive maintenance. The campaign has resulted in an 80 per cent reduction in incidents at pumping stations, a £4 million decrease in ongoing cost over the next • ve years and a 15 to 20 per cent increase in pump eˆ ciency. • The adoption of ice-pigging, whereby an ice-water slurry is used to clean water mains. Northumbrian Water says the technique has reduced the time needed to clean a 2km section of pipes from three weeks to hours. • The invention of Armstrong Baskets for clearing sewers, Porcupines for preventing block- ages and a rainwater harvesting system on roofs to supply their cleaning jetters – all by a single employee. • The establishment of the Run2 Innovation initiative, a co- operative forum that facilitates sharing of insights into new technology and services with contractors. • The creation of an external panel featuring experts from companies such as Apple, Amazon and IBN as part of Transformation and Innovation Award Category sponsor: Microso Award winner: Northumbrian Water Group • Project Title: Northumbrian Water Group: A Culture in Which Innovation Is Everyone's Job • Annual Company Turnover: £805.5™million • Employees: 3,163 • Customers: 4.5 million Entry criteria: • Quality of entry (clear, evidence based) • Clear goals set for innovation projects that were met or exceeded • Evidence of innovation being embedded into the wider business • Measurable bene• ts for the business and/or customers and other stakeholders • Evidence of going beyond business as usual The Utility Week Awards are held in association with Capgemini, CGI and Microso£ What the judges said… Judges described the Transformation and Innovation Award as a hard- fought category. They praised Northumbrian Water for its flagship Innovation Festival, which made headlines and embedded innovation throughout the business. Northumbrian Water on Awards night, with guest host Sue Perkins (left) and Utility Week acting editor Suzanne Heneghan (right) Ice-pigging is a new technique for cleaning sewers The 2019 Utility Week Awards will be opening soon. Sponsorship opportunities are available – contact Utility Week business development manager Ben Hammond on benhammond@ fav-house.com or 01342 332116 for more information. Other shortlisted companies in this category were: • Anglian Water for The Innovation Shop Window in Newmarket • Business Stream in partnership with Capgemini for their Robotic Process Automation • Electricity North West • SP Energy Networks for Future Networks • UK Power Networks for FutureSmart • UK Power Networks for its Training in Virtual Reality • United Utilities for Systems Thinking Northumbrian Water's PR19 business plan. NWG Festival The NWG Innovation Festival, returning for its third year in 2019, is thought to be the world's • rst event of its kind. Doubling in size in 2018, the festival drew in 510 organisations and nearly 2,000 attendees. The festival combines a series of activities including design sprints, tackling major social and environmental issues, and data hackathons. A£ er hosting six sprints in 2017, the number increased with the broadened scope of the festi- val, jumping to 14 the next year. Outside the North East, the company held a "Day of Inno- vation" in September for its Essex & Suª olk Water team and stakeholders. The festival initiative has proven an eª ective breeding ground for new ideas, with 34 projects started in the wake of the inaugural event in 2017.

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