Northumbrian Water has been awarded over £6 million worth of funding as part of the second round of Ofwat’s Water Breakthrough Challenge for projects which will help to reduce leakage and enable innovation across the utilities sector.

The funding from the innovation competition - led by water regulator Ofwat and delivered by Nesta Challenges in partnership with Arup and Isle Utilities - has been granted to two separate projects;

• The National Leakage Research and Test Centre (NLRTC) - £5.3 million
• Stream - £880,000.

The National Leakage Centre project will see the creation of a large-scale five kilometre-long buried water network and control room, which will be used to help accelerate the development of leakage detection and repair solutions.

Innovators and inventors will be able to use the site to test out their leakage solution ideas without interruption to customer supplies or risk to water quality. It will be possible to deliberately insert leaky sections of pipe to see how effective the repair solutions under test are, and any leaked water will be collected and recycled.

The second project, known as Stream, will see the development of a new open data-sharing platform for the water industry and beyond. The platform will eventually allow all of the UK water companies to share data with one another, other utilities companies, and the wider public.

New cross-sector data sets will provide innovators both within and beyond the sector to develop richer insights, make more informed decisions, and further improve services. It will also ensure that data is shared safely and in line with regulations.

Angela MacOscar, Head of Innovation at Northumbrian Water Group, said:

“I am incredibly proud that we have managed to secure funding for not one, but two of our projects.

“In the last round of the challenge, we won funding for customer-focussed projects – and whilst these projects will help our customers, they will also boost innovation and provide environmental benefits too.

“I particularly love these projects because they are real enablers that will speed up the development of innovative products and solutions in the water sector.”

Some of the ideas funded were developed during Northumbrian Water's Innovation Festival – which is returning in July 2022.

For the NLRTC, the full list of partners involved in the project includes WRc, HR Wallingford, Anglian Water, Dwr Cymru Cyf, Irish Water, Northern Ireland Water, Portsmouth Water, SES Water, Severn Trent, Southern Water, South East Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Wessex Water, Yorkshire Water, Sheffield Uni, Southampton Uni, British Water and Isle Utilities.

Bruce Tomlinson, Chief Executive Officer of HR Wallingford, an independent engineering and environmental hydraulics organisation, said:

“Reducing water leakage is an important challenge, and we’re excited to be able to offer technical advice to this consortium, and for our business park to be one of the three sites under consideration.

“We’ve got extensive experience in networks and pumping stations, and our business park, located in the heart of the country, has existing assets such as boreholes, storage tanks and existing pipes. We also very involved in innovating around pipe leakage in networks.”

For Stream, the partners involved are Anglian Water, Dwr Cymru, Scottish Water, SES Water, Severn Trent, Southern Water, South West Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Yorkshire Water, Aiimi, Costain, Open Data Institute (ODI) and Sia Partners.

Louise Burke, Managing Director at the ODI, said:

“The Open Data Institute (ODI) was pleased to provide advice on the infrastructure, standards and skills required for the sharing of open data in this project, as well as being one of the bid partners for Stream. We know the importance of a clean and efficient water supply and strongly believe in encouraging innovation to both solve problems and improve services to the public.“

“The ODI is a non-profit with a mission to work with companies and governments to build an open, trustworthy data ecosystem. We work with a range of organisations, governments, public bodies and civil society to create a world where data works for everyone.”