Ofwat is setting tough new targets on leakage in the upcoming 2019 Price Review – and the water industry regulator is clearly expecting water companies to use technology to help.

Roger Ironmonger M.D of leading water network monitoring and leakage technology providers Primayer Ltd takes a look at the challenge and explores one of the technologies Ofwat has flagged up as part of the toolkit.

Roger Ironmonger: With Ofwat’s current consultation for the 2019 Price Review, the water companies and other interested stakeholders will have spent some time assessing what it means for them in practical terms.

The water regulator has set out what it expects to see in the utilities’ Business Plans for the AMP7 2020- 2025 investment programme – and tackling leakage is a key area where Ofwat is expecting them to significantly raise their game.

Ofwat has itself been tasked by the Government “to promote ambitious action to reduce leakage and per capita consumption.”

The regulator has now moved to propose tough new targets at the upcoming Price Review and is calling on the water companies to set stretching leakage performance commitment levels to achieve ambitious leakage reductions at regional or whole company level.

Specifically, they will need to justify their proposals against options which include achieving minimum reductions or justify why not at least a 15% reduction by 2025.

Innovation and technology seen as key routes for water firms to achieve leakage commitments

So how is the regulator expecting them to deliver on their commitments?  Not surprisingly, innovation and technology are both flagged up as key routes to achieving this in Ofwat’s consultation paper.

The regulator says it considers that there is “significant potential to innovate in leakage reduction” and that the water companies should consider how to innovate in reducing leakage – for example, by including an enhanced reward in their Outcome Delivery Incentive to incentivise a major improvement in leakage performance.

Interestingly, Ofwat has flagged up one technology approach in particular, saying:

“Innovation could make it easier and faster to identify and fix leakages, including, for example, through acoustic or vibration detection sensors to identify and locate leaks.”

Implementing smart solutions with sophisticated location tools is best way to tackle leakage

In my opinion, the regulator has singled out one of the key routes the water companies will need to embrace to tackle the problem. At Primayer we have over 20 years’ experience in working with water utilities, consultants and contractors in the UK and overseas.

We also have a dedicated focus on developing and manufacturing intelligent technologies for the effective monitoring of water networks and for reducing the loss of potable water.

The problem of finding water leakage in hidden underground pipes needs a new way of thinking. There is now a growing acknowledgement in the sector that implementing smart solutions with ever more sophisticated detection tools is the best way to tackle the issue.

At Primayer, this is reflected in the increasing number of water utilities we are either already working with or who are coming to us to discuss how our advanced technologies can help.

Remote water leakage technology a key tool

In particular, there is a lot of interest in our recently developed technology for remote water leakage location, the Enigma3m.To give just a couple of examples, last year 10 devices were installed in less than two hours on sites located in the city of Lyon in France.  

In the UK, the Enigma3m is being used on South Staff’s network and has already pinpointed some major leaks, which when fixed, recorded a large reduction in the night lines water consumption.

“I believe this is the biggest step forward for leakage management we've seen in well over a decade. It's a potential game changer, as I am doing some work on background leakage and problem DMAs - many of the areas with high background leakage also tend to be the most costly to manage or have high leakage above policy min. What we have is something that for me is going to change the economics of leakage management – but needs to be deployed where the most gains can be had. A blanket approach probably won't do it.” says Glen P. Mountfort Leakage Strategy South Staffs Water

The Enigma3m correlating noise loggers utilise 3G / GPRS communications to provide remote location of leaks in water distribution networks. Deployed in underground chambers and requires no costly above ground technology, the loggers have a number of key benefits, including:

• Correlation processing for accurate leak positions
• Daily transmission for improved efficiency and reduced leak run time
• Simple installation – no above ground radio repeaters required
• Data available at any location via PrimeWeb on a web browser
• Leak listening for confirmation of leak noise
• Logger GPS location stored
• Embedded roaming SIM for optimum network communication

Looking to the future

Ofwat’s demanding leakage reduction requirements for the upcoming 2019 Price Review will undoubtedly be a key driver for both the water companies and wider supply chain alike to come up with innovative technology solutions and approaches.

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