Machine-learning technology trialled on part of Wessex Water’s sewerage network has identified early forming sewer blockages in real-time with a 92% accuracy rate, whilst also enabling an operational shift to condition-based maintenance approach.
The potential of artificial technology (AI) to transform sewer network management has been demonstrated during a three-month trial of StormHarvester’s Intelligent Sewer Suite with Wessex Water in the city of Bath.
The technology quickly demonstrated its value, with over 60 early blockage formations detected in real-time and control room alerts reduced by a massive 97 per cent.
The Wessex pilot revealed that StormHarvester technology has the capability for:
- High blockage prediction accuracy – 92% of alerts were relevant and required and not a single blockage resulting in a pollution incident was missed
- Few false positives – 8% of alerts were false positives
- Long-range blockage prediction - early blockage formations identified up to eight weeks before they would have resulted in service failures
- Condition-based maintenance - the three-month trial has enabled a shift in approach.
- Control room alarm rationalisation - a 97% reduction in control room alerts was achieved versus business as usual
Managing sewer blockages represents a significant operational challenge for water and wastewater utilities.
As well as problems arising from the blockages themselves, heavy rainfall events often trigger hundreds of alarms simply because of high levels within the sewer network caused by rainfall runoff. The volume of these alarms during wet weather periods can be overwhelming for operational and maintenance teams.
The incumbent rules-based alarm system operating in the Wessex Water control room generated some 4,500 alarms during the trial period. StormHarvester’s Intelligent Sewer Suite of AI tools was able to mute alarms where the high sewer levels were predicted by the AI software due to rainfall, reducing the total to 138, of which 124 were genuine blockage formations or sensor faults.
This gave the utility’s operational and maintenance crews capacity to respond rapidly to each alarm, even during periods of heavy rainfall.
The initiative started in Spring 2020 when Wessex Water invited 16 technology companies from around the world to demonstrate the value of applying artificial intelligence to the wastewater network. As a finalist, Belfast-based StormHarvester was invited to run a three-month trial to carry out proof of concept.
Photo: Rainy day in Bath – hyperlocal rainfall was a major input into creating dynamic thresholds used to achieve the accurate forecasting
Jody Knight, asset technology manager at Wessex Water said:
“The StormHarvester team identified sewer blockages that using our normal working processes we may not have spotted until they had resulted in unwanted sewer overflow events.”
“One of the biggest problems we have serving our customers is not knowing where and when blockages will occur, or are likely to occur, in the wastewater network. During the three-month trial, StormHarvester identified at least two incidents that we are fairly confident would have resulted in Category 3 spillages, or worse, if it was not for the early blockage detection alerts received and the subsequent action taken by Wessex operational staff.”
Deployment of StormHarvester’s AI approach was shown to be 92% accurate, with no blockages missed.
Edmund Willatts, asset reliability engineer at Wessex Water, added:
“Condition-based sewer maintenance versus the scheduled cleaning regime will be key to making operational teams more productive and efficient going forward.”
According to Neil Macdonald, co-founder of StormHarvester, the technology proves that predictive maintenance is possible, with early blockage detection occurring from hours to weeks in advance. This represents a significant increase in the time available for operational crews to recover and repair assets.
“StormHarvester sees this as a real game-changer, with a clear route to achieving efficiencies for wastewater utilities, reducing wastewater pollution and both internal and curtilage flooding,” he added.
Based on the value brought by the StormHarvester alerts during the proof-of-concept trial, Wessex Water has maintained the solution running on the Bath wastewater catchment into 2021.
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