SES Water is the first UK water company to roll out intelligent technology across its entire water distribution network, helping to cut its leakage by 15 per cent during the next three years.

The self-learning network highlights issues in near real-time so action can be taken more quickly to make sure customers continue to receive an uninterrupted supply of safe, high quality drinking water, and paves the way for the company to more than halve its leakage by 2045.

Depending on the size of the leak, the ground-breaking technology will enable SES Water to inform its customers of an issue before they are aware of it themselves.

Data received from sensors in the network every minute directly informs SES Water’s operational teams and speeds up their response time to reduce leaks and bursts and reduce the amount of supply interruptions for its customers.

The combination of ground-breaking technologies is also better for the environment, with fewer risks of pollution incidents, less unnecessary site visits and lower carbon emissions by targeting where field teams look for leaks.

As well as being the first of its kind in the water industry, the project is the result of close collaboration between partners Vodafone, Royal HaskoningDHV and Technolog - each providing their expertise and knowledge to help roll out the combination of technologies.

Vodafone supports the system with its Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) service, which is optimised to provide efficient communication, long battery life and lower costs. Technolog is a supplier of the network sensors to help measure flow, pressure, transients and water temperature. Royal HaskoningDHV is providing its AI-powered Aquasuite® technology enabling SES Water to analyse the data being collected and make near real-time operational decisions.

SES Water Head of Asset Strategy, Daniel Woodworth, said:

“This is a game changing milestone, not just for us and our customers, but for the water industry as a whole.

“We already have one of the lowest levels of leakage in the country, but we want and need to do more and our intelligent network will significantly improve the way we manage leaks and help reduce the total amount of water lost each day.

“The technology will herald improved customer service as we are able to know about issues such as bursts before the customer does, allowing us to respond to and resolve problems rapidly and provide a more reliable, consistent and resilient water supply across the network.

“Not only will it minimise interruptions to supply for our customers but it will also help us reduce the amount of water we take from the natural environment.”

Nick Gliddon, Business Director, Vodafone UK, commented:

“SES Water is showing how IoT can be used to achieve meaningful results, quickly. The technology solution we’ve worked on together has the flexibility to fit to their network and will help reduce impact on the environment – something we help all of our customers to achieve.”

Technolog Business Development Director, Luke Thornton, added:

“Rolling out a fully smart network is testament to SES Water’s commitment and determination to improve its network intelligence and reduce leaks and events. Overall this will enhance the experience received by its customers and deliver its outcome delivery incentives.

“We have supported SES Water with the supply of multi parameter Cello 4S data loggers and Regulo pressure control devices for many years and look forward to continuing this collaboration through AMP7, AMP8 and beyond.”

The water company supplies water across a 322 square miles (835 sq km) supply area to over 735,000 people in east Surrey, and parts of West Sussex, west Kent and south London. Groundwater supplies provide 85 per cent of its water, with 15 per cent being extracted from one reservoir at Bough Beech near Edenbridge.