Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 4TH - 10TH OCTOBER 2019 | 25 Finance & Investment The water service in Northern Ireland is at a "tipping point" because its infrastructure is "bursting at the seams", accord- ing to Northern Ireland Water's chairman. Speaking at NI Water's annual report launch on 25 Sep- tember, Len O'Hagan said the company had never been in better shape operationally, but needed substantial investment WATER 'Invest now or Northern Ireland Water infrastructure will fail' to upgrade infrastructure. "We are facing a tipping point, we need to start making decisions now if we want to maintain water services that one would expect in a healthy, western European economy." The publicly owned utility has previously complained it is under- funded and unable to maintain and upgrade its system due to public spending constraints. Last year, Water UK chief executive Michael Roberts said there was a big gap between the money NI Water needed for vital new water mains and upgraded wastewater treatment plants, and the money it got from the government. For the period 2015-21, NI Water received £990 million, which was significantly under the £1.7 billion it required. United Utilities says it is ahead of targets Company commits to spending an extra £350m to improve performance in the coming period United Utilities (UU) announced on 25 September that it is con- tinuing to perform strongly, and it expects its revenues will be up year on year as it moves into the next five-year period. The company reported it expected that underlying profit would be higher for the six months to 30 September 2019 than it was in the same period last year. It said this reflects higher revenues and lower infrastructure renewal expenditure in the period. The company committed to investing an additional £350 million in the coming period as it described its performance as "in line with the group's expectations". Ahead of its interim results on 20 November, UU said it is delivering enhanced levels of service and resilience for customers as a result of its strategy of accelerating investment in the early years of the previous five-year period. It said it had seen strong performance with what it described as sustainable improvements in efficiency. The company said: "Our strong performance means that we are well placed to deliver against our targets for the current regulatory period with no material change to prior guidance on our overall level of regulatory outperformance." UU said it expected to see an increase in group net debt by around £250 million by the end of September 2019, and that this reflected prepayment in April of £100 million related to pension schemes. As one of only three companies awarded fast-track status by Ofwat for its PR19 dra› determinations, the company said it had confidence heading into the next regulatory period. RW WATER Scottish Water spends to stop floods Scottish Water has unveiled a £4.8 million investment to tackle flooding in the Bearsden and Drumchapel areas of Glasgow. The work begins on 14 Octo- ber and is expected to last until February 2021. It involves the upsizing of a local sewer and more than half a mile of pipework being installed to upgrade the existing sewer network and help reduce the risk of flooding for properties currently affected by internal or external flooding. The "fully integrated" flood- ing solution being constructed on this project has been developed in conjunction with Glasgow City Council and East Dunbartonshire Council. Scottish Water says it has come into being through the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership (MGSDP) – a collaborative partner- ship formed by organisations involved with the operation of the sewerage and drainage network within the metropolitan Glasgow area. The work will be carried out by Scottish Water's alliance part- ner amey Black & Veatch (aBV) and its specialist contractors. ELECTRICITY £5.5m UKPN trial deemed a success UK Power Networks (UKPN) says it has successfully trialled a device that frees up 95MW of additional network capacity – enough to power 45,000 homes. UKPN's £5.5 million LoadShare trial solved a "critical pinch point" on a power line between Bramford and Lawford on the Suffolk/Essex border by allowing more electricity gener- ated from renewable sources to feed into the system – without building costly and disruptive new electrical cabling and substations. The devices were installed on three steel overhead lines near Lawford running between large electrical substations. UKPN said the technology has already saved customers £8 million, and enabled enough renewable power to run 45,000 homes to safely connect to a previously constrained point in the local electricity network. UKPN now plans to deploy the technology in other areas. WATER Anglian to invest £1.7m in new main Anglian Water announced it would begin a £1.7 million project to install a new section of water main in Holbrook, Ipswich on 30 September. The work will see 2km of pipe laid in the area, and is expected to last for nine months, being completed in June 2020. The investment will help to improve the existing water network, ensuring a resilient water supply for the future in Holbrook, Shotley and Stutton. Enhanced service: investment was accelerated O'Hagan said Belfast, the country's largest economic region, required a billion-pound investment in drainage alone, but recommended further invest- ment of up to £2.5 billion for the city's water system to "remain fit for purpose". He called for the Depart- ment for Infrastructure and the Department of Finance to offer finance solutions. This week

• Cover