Leakage
RPS delivers leakage detection, analysis and management strategies to reduce time to repair, customer impact and cost.
Water
Helping South East Water Meet Leakage Reduction Targets
RPS was awarded a framework partnership with South East Water in May 2023 to assist in reducing water lost to leakage and improve the overall efficiency of its water networks.
Key details
RPS has proven its expertise in leakage detection and water advisory services from decades of working in various disciplines with a multitude of clients. We further demonstrate our expertise in our article on: ‘Delivering a pioneering routemap for Leakage to 2050’.
Project Name:
NEC 4 Framework Agreement
Client:
South East Water
Location:
South East England: Hampshire, Basingstoke, Kent & Sussex
Services provided:
- Active Leakage Control
- Associated Services
- WaterNet
The client
South East Water (SEW) supplies drinking water to 2.3 million people across the South East of England living in parts of Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Through a network of 9,000 miles of pipe, it delivers 544 million litres of water every day to its customers.
To supply today’s customers, it draws water from more than 250 boreholes, six rivers and six reservoirs. This water is treated at one of its 88 treatment works.
To maintain such a vast and vital service in its current Business Plan, SEW is proposing to invest £1.8 billion in its infrastructure over five years from 2025 to develop new resources, extend and upgrade treatment works and lay new water mains.
Phil Jones, Head of Leakage Operations at South East Water said: “RPS is a critical partner in South East Water’s leakage strategy and provides us with active leakage control resources and specific expertise built up over many years in the industry.
“Its field teams are embedded within the operational teams here at South East Water, across all our regions, and not only offer us leakage detection services but support us in many other ways. This includes metering activity, mains network flushing, leakage targeting and reporting (using RPS WaterNet – a spatial asset management and analysis tool), non-household metering, customer-side leakage and pressure logging. Each of these is a strategically important element of South East Water’s leakage reduction programme.
“As we approach a new and challenging asset management plan cycle, we look forward to continuing our close and productive partnership, which I am sure will help us meet our targets.”
The challenge
The objective of the partnership between RPS & SEW is to deliver Leakage Detection and Associated Services to meet SEW leakage reduction targets. This comes after the industry has faced a period of challenging environmental difficulties such as drought and freeze, that have made leakage reduction efforts more challenging. SEW has set the target to reduce the amount of water lost to leakages by 15% for both it’s networks and customer homes between the years 2020-2025.
These ambitions have also been prompted by a performance report from Ofwat that found most UK Water companies had underperformed in their leakage efforts. The UK aims to halve its leakage by 2050, which was highlighted by the National Infrastructure Commission’s ‘Preparing for a Drier Future’ document which depicts why water supply and usage should change to ensure the UK is more resilient to drought.
Another challenge was data and verifying what is in a client’s network, to identify whether it’s allocated water or whether it is in fact a leakage. Organising and managing this information was one of the key goals whilst achieving leakage detection targets. With a dedicated team of experts and specialists behind them, RPS can deliver services and provide expertise to reach these ambitious targets.
Our role
Contract Management
RPS covers a large area that we are responsible for monitoring. It is split up into four sections and the areas we cover are around Hampshire, Basingstoke, Kent, and Sussex. We have a project optimization team - they range from skilled technicians to logging technicians. They are responsible for providing services such as Pressure Flow and Flow Logging with a customer side leakage team as well. This structured approach helps us stay organised, aligned, and proactive in managing the project effectively.
Leakage Detection
RPS has a detailed and comprehensive suite of high-quality services that allows it to pinpoint leaks. Leakage detection encompasses various methods tailored to swiftly identify and address water loss within distribution networks. Traditional approaches involve meticulous surveying, utilising listening stakes, ground mics, and leak noise correlators to pinpoint potential leakages and more innovative approaches involve step testing and noise logging. This multifaceted approach ensures proactive management of leakage, enabling swift response and minimising water loss within distribution systems.
Per Capital Consumption
Per Capita Consumption (PCC) deals with areas experiencing persistent issues with water consumption. These areas consistently show high levels of water usage despite efforts to mitigate leakage. RPS teams, working closely with data analysts and the Data Collection Workforce (DCW) are assigned to investigate and address these issues, involving tasks such as verifying customer counts, inspecting boundary valves, and identifying potential breaches or anomalies.
Utilising technology
Prior to WaterNet, it has been a predominantly manual process for the client, as it draws data and insights from different sectors and compiles it together. RPS has a variety of roles dedicated to ensuring an efficient workflow process for this. This is where RPS’ Smart Metering module comes into effect. WaterNet will allow us to help our clients to be able to precisely identify where they need to focus their efforts on. Being more water resilient and proactive is also a challenge as the weather gets dryer and water becomes sparser during the summer months.
With the introduction of WaterNet, a spatial asset management reporting and analysis tool, which efficiently collates corporate data from selected sources and turns it into integrated asset management information, RPS has been able to allow the client to pinpoint its data. Once WaterNet is fully implemented, the client will see a myriad of benefits and efficiencies throughout its day-to-day managing of water networks. For example, if there is an area that cannot be inspected, WaterNet will be able to showcase the data and insights in that particular area.
The impact
RPS has the capabilities and expertise to support and deliver South East Water’s leakage reduction ambitions over the rest of AMP7 and into AMP8 for the ongoing periods of this strategic partnership.
With decades of experience, RPS can achieve incredible outcomes. Utilising our expertise, we analyse complex data and provide pragmatic solutions for local communities, combining science, technology, and hands-on experience to optimise water system performance.
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