With a record level of investment in AMP8, Blair Ogilvie from wastewater technology specialists HUBER Technology UK takes a look at two key areas where the water companies will be making a significant spend on maintaining and reinforcing asset health and resilience in AMP8.

Blair Ogilvie: HUBER Technology is a very familiar name in the UK water sector – we’ve been supplying inlet storm screens for the last 25 years with over 1400 installations in place across the UK water and wastewater companies. Unsurprisingly, many people are of course already aware of HUBER’s considerable experience and expertise in screens and grit handling equipment – our installed base puts us pretty much in the position of market leader in this area.

During AMP8, we're working with the UK water companies and the supply chain partners involved in delivering their AMP8 programmes.

One area where we’re seeing an uptick in interest in one of our Safe Access Solutions (SAS) – namely, our TT7 submarine pressure tight doors. In particular, this relates to two specific areas where the water companies are set to carry out significant programmes of work – stormwater storage tanks and service reservoirs.

We’ve already got an installed asset base at a number of potable water plants where our products meet the separate requirements of both the Water Regulations Approval Scheme and the Drinking Water Inspectorate’s tight regulatory controls, the most important being the requirements of Regulation 31 of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016.

To date the majority of SAS solutions we’ve put into UK water companies are primarily at potable water production sites. However,  we’'re now seeing an increase in enquiries about their use in the wastewater side of the sector, particularly for new construction projects coming down the line in AMP8.

During my career at HUBER I’ve had practical hands-on experience about what the water companies are looking for in terms of safe access solutions and we’re definitely seeing our TT7 presssure-tight doors entering the list of possible options for future schemes currently being scoped out.

The benefits of these doors lend themselves to the requirements of the construction of  both service reservoirs and stormwater storage tanks alike.

Our doors are now being specified in at the pre-construction stage of the concrete sections used for stormwater storage tanks which the water companies are now installing at wastewater treatment works.

The storage tanks are part of a range of measures being put in place for the following reasons:

• upgrading existing storm tank capacity at sewage works to prevent the system from overloading in the event of extreme weather events.
• to build more storage tanks within the sewer network to hold peaks of rainwater

While many of the water companies’ overflows already have a big tank in place, we’re seeing an increasing number of projects coming on stream to expand the size of an existing tank or build a new tank where space is available.

This added storage capacity is currently playing a key role in the sector’s efforts to tackle stormwater discharges. It enables the utilities to mitigate the impacts by holding more water back and prevent it from overwhelming the system, entering rivers and other surface waters through sewer overflows and overwhelming the network. It can then be be released slowly in a controlled way back into the sewer network after the bad weather has passed through and it is safe to do so.

The versatility of the doors means they can be installed at a number of locations – ranging from access doors which can be fitted in pre-cast concrete panels during the construction phase of service reservoirs and storage tanks, the installation of one or more interconnecting doors between chambers to enable routine maintenance and cleaning via a safe access walkway.

Worldwide, we now have an installed base of around 10,000 doors in place at a wide range of municipal and industrial water and wastewater installations. They are tried and tested and installed in countries as far afield as Chile, Middle East and Singapore and used by organisations ranging from the US army to a whole town in Scandinavia.

In the UK, recent projects where our TT7 submarine pressure-tight doors have been installed in the UK include:

• Springwell Service Reservoir (Northumbrian Water)
• Embsay WTW (Yorkshire Water)
• Harton Service Reservoir (Yorkshire Water)

Notably, Yorkshire Water has adopted walk in access services as standard practice on all its new service reservoirs.

The key feature of the pressure-tight door is of course that it is 100% watertight – with zero per cent risk of leakage irrespective of water level pressure level. In the standard TT7 door, this is watertight up to 10 metres for a minimum of 30 years but likely past 50 years.

To sum up, we’re very aware of the challenges the water companies are facing in AMP8 and beyond. And we are definitely seeing an uptick in interest in our pressure-tight TT7 doors in a number of applications – including storm water storage tanks, wastewater pumping stations, reservoirs and biogas digesters.

Contact Blair at :  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  Mobile +44 (0) 7540 667095

For more information visit Pressure-tight doors made from stainless steel | HUBER Technology