Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/863631
The Works: alternative water When an unplanned burst main caused a retail park in Crayford, Kent to lose water supply, several water-dependent businesses found themselves cut off from water, including the local Nando's restaurant and Parcel Force vehicle maintenance depot. Due to the scale and expected duration of the event, tankers were mainly engaged in other duties. Thames's operations team decided to deploy Always in Supply (AiS) units to Mark Jenner, Head of operations systems, tHames Water "This is really changing the mindset for us and shown us a new way of working," says Mark Jenner, Head of Operations Systems at Thames Water. "Culturally, when alternative water is needed we've always used bottled water and tankers. But when we use bottled water, we have got a third party involved: they have got to go and transport the product for us. This way, it's all in our control, we have our own resources working on the situation. "The customer receives better service – they are none the wiser inside their house with the taps still running - and it buys us more time, so we don't have to put pressure on our teams to cut corners when they are doing the civils work of relining a mains, for example. "Our carbon footprint is lower as well, because in most cases, we can fill the tanks from the main before we shut it down, so we are not driving round the countryside with big lorries full of bottled water." four locations in the retail park; AEWT tanks were filled once a day from tankers on a milk round basis. Systems were maintained by staff with Arlington support. Without the system, the businesses might have faced a week or more without water; with AiS, they were back in supply in a few hours. The units kept going until the network was fully restored 14 days later, and none of the connected businesses claimed for losses. • CASE STUDY: Business continuity in Kent The AiS system in action in a business park in Crayford, Kent Businesses in the retail park were able to operate normally The AiS pumps and tanks are a modular toolkit that can be used in many combinations 24 | SEPTEMBER 2017 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk ● The ability to pump water into customers' taps during an outage means that the incident need not count as a supply interruption from a regulatory point of view ● Since the tanks can be filled from mains water before the shut, the water supplied is cheaper than bottled water ● It also results in a lower carbon footprint for the water company, and reduced waste ● Customers experience no disruption so repair work need not be rushed • BENEFITS • LAST WORD