Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | MAY 2021 | 35 Operational Excellence A participant with a regulatory expertise put this in context: "Regulators know this is a tricky balance, of course. The trick is to nd ways to incentivise collaboration with- out undermining the incentive for e• ciency and performance – so customers get the best of both worlds. "For example, the innovation competi- tions that Ofwat is running at the moment help to support that, by explicitly ring- fencing money for innovation on the condi- tion that this is shared with the sector – for example, any research data has to be open. Companies have to bid for this money, mostly for projects in partnership with oth- ers. This means that expenditure on innova- tive projects doesn't hit any company when it comes to regulatory benchmarking, and so there is no longer a disincentive to share the innovation." The e ort outweighs the rewards Others in the discussion felt that the compe- tition versus collaboration was something of a red herring and the fact that informa- tion did not get shared was more to do with geography. "It's hard sharing data – and requires huge e… ort and resource that can be very hard for companies to commit to," was a comment from one participant, which drew agreement from many present. There was a feeling for some that being open with data didn't always pay in other ways as well. "Sometimes it's hard to quan- tify the bene t of open data, but the risk can outstrip the reward," said one participant, citing as an example of the backlash received by one water company when it had been open about its struggle with tackling pollu- tion incidents. A shortage of people with data analytics skills was also holding back e… orts in some organisations, while others were looking to boost these skill sets: "We've seen a huge increase in demand for data scientists. We've grown our data science and product teams in response to this but we need to look beyond this to understand how we increase our data capabilities across our organisations," com- mented one participant. Sharing consumptiondata Asked in which area water companies could bene t most from sharing data, it was agreed that consumption data would be a good place to start. Customer engagement and smart metering have not traditionally been areas that water companies have worked together in. But pressure to preserve water means it's vital for water companies to have as much information at their disposal about water consumption, both to plan and to help change consumer behaviours. Measuring the cost per capita consump- tion is one of the performance commitments in the PR19 programme. The average con- sumption across the country – at 141 litres per day per person per day – compares unfavourably to similar countries such as Germany (121 litres) and the UK government has set an aspirational target for the sector of 130™litres per person per day. Metering is the strongest tool in the box for reducing consumption, with metered customers using 33 litres less per day on average, according to reports. But measuring water consumption per capita is notoriously di• cult in areas where metering is entirely voluntary for households. One method being explored by one water company to change behaviour was looking at energy usage and linking that to water con- sumption – as one of the biggest consumers of energy is heating up hot water." We are assessing potential energy savings when we do smart home visits for new smart mater customers but there's absolutely potential to link water and energy consumption and car- bon emissions at a more systematic level," explained one participant. Ofwat has come up with guidance as part of the PR19 programme but has acknowl- edged in it that "there are a number of areas which would bene t from future independ- ent research to determine good practice". Rina Ladva, head of manufacturing, energy, utilities & life sciences at Microsoœ UK, and her colleague Steve Chawner, direc- tor utilities at Microsoœ , agreed this would be a good area for the sector to collaborate in. Microsoœ has itself pledged to be water positive by 2030, meaning that it will replen- ish more water than it uses. Denise Chevin, intelligence editor in association with

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