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24 | 12TH - 18TH JUNE 2015 | UTILITY WEEK Operations & Assets Event T aking place alongside Utility Week Live at the NEC in April 2015, British Water staged the latest in a highly successful series of Innovation Exchange events. The events are designed to match the UK's best technologies with new and emerg- ing applications at the water companies. This time, it was the turn of Thames Water, and its three alliances: the non-infrastruc- ture alliance, eight2O; the infrastructure alli- ance, TW, Agility & KCD; and the Deephams project alliance, AMK. Prior to the event, the Thames Water alli- ances were asked by British Water to select topic areas where it was thought innovation could provide benefits. British Water then went out to the supply chain, both members and non-members, to see which companies had innovations that could potentially sat- isfy the specified criteria. The selected companies were invited to deliver presentations in three workshops, one for each Thames Water alliance, with timings facilitated by nominated representatives. "Each supplier has ten minutes to stand up, introduce themselves, introduce their innovation and explain the benefits that can be delivered," explained Paul Mullord, UK director at British Water, as he introduced the event. "The client uses a traffic light sys- tem to declare interest: a green, amber or red response is given depending on the poten- tial of the technology being presented. Total honesty is requested at all times." Of course, once a supplier has success- fully engaged with one water company, it becomes much easier to talk to others. "The concept works really well," said Mullord. "We know this because the first 18 Innovation Exchanges have delivered nearly 630 ten-minute presentations in 65 separate workshops, and the indications are very positive. The last Innovation Exchange with Severn Trent saw 80 per cent of the 49 sup- pliers given a green response, with 10 per cent receiving amber, and 10 per cent red." So, what were the three Thames Water alliances looking for from the latest British Water Innovation Exchange? Steed Wedzell is a freelance journalist Innovate to accumulate British Water's Innovation Exchange meetings seek to marry cutting-edge suppliers with water companies. Steed Wedzell saw the process in action with Thames Water at Utility Week Live. Keith Wishart, head of innovation for eight2O, Thames Water's capital delivery alliance for AMP6, said successful innova- tion had to centre on what he described as "no-build solutions". "In the two years since eight2O was established we've been looking for oppor- tunities to outperform the programme, and we've done that through a series of effi- ciency levers that effectively represent col- lections of ideas," he explained. "Some of the ideas we've been looking at include off- site construction techniques – examining how much we can assemble before arriving on site. This embraces concepts such as modular build and the use of standardised products." The eight2O alliance has also looked at how it can apply lean techniques across the programme, in the same way that the manufacturing industry has done to great effect. Other ideas include on-site process technology and how expensive and less sustainable dosing techniques can be avoided, as well as a number of thoughts on networking and monitoring water and wastewater processes. "We are also scrutinising data analytics and getting a much better understanding of our assets and their performance, and what we can do to drive outperformance," said Wishart. "For example, ways of better predicting a sewage and pollution event before it actually occurs, and taking pre- ventative steps to avoid it happening." This is an interesting example because eight2O is a totex organisation. In effect, this means it is not there simply to deliver capital objectives, but is driven by opera- tional savings and customer outcomes. "In the past couple of years we've already driven a significant level of sav- ing into the programme," stated Wishart. "Overall we're looking to take around £400 million off our total budget within the capi- tal programme. At the moment, we have quite a healthy pipeline of ideas that's driv- ing very close to that figure, but it doesn't cover everything. The Innovation Exchange is about the things we don't yet know. As a result, we sent British Water a list of what we call our innovation challenges." According to Wishart, examples from the list include trenchless technology – eight2O needs to complete around 800km of mains rehabilitation and renewal, as well as laying new mains during the AMP period. "At present, we're planning on doing around 40 per cent of that using trenchless technologies, but we're keen on learning what can be done to drive that closer to 60 or 70 per cent," he revealed. Innovation solutions for eight2O Among the innovations presented to the non-infrastructure alliance included those pertaining to trenchless technology, namely ways to save time and reduce customer impact, while others centred on minimising interruptions to water supply – reducing both capital expenditure and the impact on customers. There was some focus on large water process plants and ways to minimise the impact of works at five major water treatment works in London. Other innovations of note focused on minimising over-chlorination and ways of delivering more efficient chlorination and de-chlorin- ation, with the goal of standardising best practice. Among those making presentations were Amazon Filters, Nivus, Hydro International, Mod- ern Water Monitoring, My Private Ark, Evoqua Water Technologies, Andritz, Gurney Environ- mental and Hach Lange Capital delivery alliance: eight2O