Thames Water is the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, supplying around 2.6 billion litres of drinking water to 9 million customers every day.
THE CHALLENGE
Seeking to achieve a 20.5% reduction in leakage across London and the Thames Valley region to meet regulatory targets, Thames Water selected Ovarro’s LeakNavigator to deliver a three-year leakage reduction contract. Shane Gloster, Senior Strategy & Transformation Manager at Thames Water said: “Water is a precious resource, which is why we’re focused on driving leakage down and committed to meeting ambitious leakage targets.”
THE SOLUTION
Beginning in January 2023, the project has seen 3,450 Ovarro sensors installed across 110 district metered areas (DMAs) within the water network. LeakNavigator comprises advanced acoustic dataloggers, cutting-edge cloud-based software, and Ovarro’s expertise. With all elements combined, the service can accurately identify points of interest (POIs) on behalf of water companies, alerting field technicians directly, so they can head straight to site with high confidence that a leak will be found, thereby reducing the need for in-house data analysis.
Once the loggers are in operation, Ovarro’s teams undertake ongoing data analysis, sending POIs directly to water company field technicians via a mobile app. The captured data, which also supports maintenance targeting, is processed, and presented to customers in a dashboard. The package also includes a complete maintenance service, keeping the fleet of loggers up and running at all times. Within four working days of Thames Water’s initial DMAs coming online, the first leaks were passed to the field teams.
RESULTS
Just 20 weeks into the project, 788 leaks had already been raised and categorised. A total of 5.78 megalitres of water per day has been saved in the areas served by LeakNavigator.
Volume reduction remains key to Ovarro’s performance and is monitored in partnership with Thames Water. All leaks are active until they are repaired, maintaining control of the outputs from each technician and the methodology used for the detection activity. Ovarro’s global leakage solutions director Tony Gwynne said: “LeakNavigator takes complete ownership of the data analysis and leak detection process, working in collaboration with water companies and their partners, with results-driven accountability.”
– Shane Gloster, Senior Strategy & Transformation Manager, Thames WaterA key pillar of our recently launched Leakage Transformation Programme sets out to improve our ability to find and fix the right leaks, faster. We’re utilising data and implementing new tools to make informed decisions, prioritise leaks and reduce repair times.
