Southern Water is trialling smart technology using Artificial Intelligence to protect the environment against overflows during heavy rainfall.
Heavy rain events mean drains and Southern Water's sewers and wastewater treatment system sometimes struggle to cope.
In the worst cases, flooding from sewers may occur, in less severe instances a mixture of wastewater and surface water can overflow from the storage wells at the water company’s waste pumping stations. The storm overflows are permitted by the Environment Agency under these circumstances and are required to prevent flooding.
Southern Water is now looking at ways of minimising these overflows by using smart technology to provide advance warning and reduce the chances of overflows by pumping out the wells to give as much headroom as possible.
The water company is taking part in trials of the StormHarvester system which can reduce the chance of overflows by as much as 80%.
Using artificial intelligence, StormHarvester's short to medium term rainfall prediction system allows waste networks to take advantage of every litre of capacity in the system. Action is taken well before it starts raining, enabling the network to adequately prepare for extra run-off and so prevent flooding.
The StormHarvester control centre receives location-specific rainfall predictions from the Met Office or satellite images. The controller receives the alerts and predictions of rainfall amounts, and also knows the safe operating levels of tanks, wells and chambers. It then automatically starts pumps, and opens and closes valves.
Paul Kent, Wastewater Strategy Manager at Southern Water said that suitable sites are now being selected ahead of the rainier weather in the autumn.
“SAS (Surplus Activated Sludge) is a bit weird and 
Owen Mace has taken over as Director of the British Plastics Federation (BPF) Plastic Pipes Group on the retirement of Caroline Ayres. He was previously Standards and Technical Manager for the group.
PureTec Separations, the Ledbury-based water treatment engineering firm, has appointed Dan Norman as its new Sales Manager – Water Process Systems, supporting the company’s continued growth in the UK and international markets.
bNovate has launched BactoCloud, a secure cloud-based platform that connects and manages its BactoSense instruments, enabling real-time monitoring and optimization of microbial water quality.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.
Find out more about the remarkable career opportunities on offer at WSP - scroll down to watch the inspirational video.