Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 16TH - 22ND MARCH 2018 | 23 Operations & Assets Supply disruptions Over the first weekend of the month, Thames Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Affinity Water issued a joint statement advising customers they were experiencing "exceptionally high" demand for water due to multiple bursts on networks and an increase in the number of leaks at customer properties. The companies asked their customers with water to use "as little as possible" while they got things back to normal. Southern Water On 7 March, Southern Water released an infographic (see below) that explained the company had seen 142 per cent more bursts than the previous week, and customers had reported 40 per cent more leaks. The company said it had more than tripled the number of front line staff it had assigned to cope with the crisis. A spokesperson for the company said: "We'd like to say 'thank you' to all our customers and employees who have been working together to get the taps back on. We have been working round the clock since the thaw to find and fix burst pipes on the network. We understand the problems that this interruption has caused our customers and we sincerely apologise for the disruption. All our customers across the region who experienced disruption to their water supply have been reconnected." The company said it would automatically compensate affected domestic customers. Those who were without water for less than 12 hours will receive £25, those without water for more than 12 hours will receive £50, and those without water for more than 24 hours will receive £75. It will also donate a £2,000 STEM-focused community grant to each school affected by the interruption and will offer the schools a class with the company's engineers and scientists. Thames Water Thames Water battled to re-establish supply to about 20,000 homes – and several schools – in the capital, when disruption problems were most severe. Chief executive Steve Robertson said: "We are in no doubt about how distressing and inconvenient this is for everyone affected." Although supply was still interrupted, he said the team worked "flat out around the clock to get things back to normal [with] 131 repair gangs and 144 special- ist network technicians working on our network resolving the remaining problems and moving water around to where it was needed". The company says it "ramped up" production of water from its treat- ment works – 25 per cent above normal – to match the surge in demand, putting an extra 500 million litres a day into supply. A burst main flooded Tooting in south London on the morning of 7 March, but Thames said its engineers reached the scene "very quickly" and stopped the flooding. The company has been criticised by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who described the water shortages earlier in the week as "unacceptable". He said some residents in the capital had been le without water for four days. Khan wrote a letter to Robertson, saying he expects "generous compensation" to be issued to those affected. Affinity Water An Affinity Water spokesperson, said: "We are very sorry to all those who experienced low water pressure or an interruption to their supply over the past few days and we would like to thank them for their patience. "Like most water companies across the UK, following the recent freeze and rapid thaw, we have experienced high levels of water demand due to bursts on our network and leaks in and on customer properties. "This rapid change in demand had a significant effect on our treated water storage, however we had anticipated this and we ensured we had operational resources on standby to deal with it." South East Water South East Water apologised for the disruption caused and said it had restored water to more than 40,000 properties across the South East and will be writing to customers with details about the compensation it will pay. Severn Trent Customers of Severn Trent across the Midlands were affected by the "huge increase in bursts caused by the sudden thaw aer the Beast from the East". Jaguar Land Rover and Cadbury were forced to cease production because of supply disruptions. A spokesperson for Jaguar Land Rover told Utility Week the situation had been "played out larger in the national media" but confirmed opera- tions went down around 3-4pm on Monday 5 March and were back up at 8am the next day. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Mondelez International, which runs the Birmingham Cadbury plant, said Severn Trent maintained clear communications over the restoration of supplies. The company said its supply of chocolate had not been affected because some production had continued overnight and it had sufficient product in stock. Severn Trent says it will pay compensation of £30 to any domestic customers who were without water for more than 12 continuous hours, or for more than 15 hours of intermittent supply. Sarah Bentley, chief customer officer, said: "We're incredibly sorry for the disruption which was caused by a huge number of bursts that put intense pressure on our water network. "Our teams have faced an unprecedented number of leaks since the cold weather began. While we had extra teams in place working round the clock and have hundreds of people out and about fixing bursts, we know that some customers were without water, and I really can't apologise enough for that."

• Cover