Southern Water is set to trial new technology that uses underground fibreoptic cables as sensors which could help to locate leaks faster.

Lightsonic uses Openreach’s fibre network to analyse changes in light travelling through fibreoptic cables that points to vibrations caused by leaking pipes located nearby. Machine-learning helps distinguish the signals from traffic, roadworks and other background noise, and estimates the location where the water is escaping. The resulting data allows engineers to investigate and repair leaks more quickly.

In a separate water industry trial, the tech prevented the loss of more than four million litres of water per day across just 650 km of the UK's water network.

Southern Water hope the trial, which starts in November in water-scarce Hampshire, will demonstrate how the tech could offer another tool in the company’s water-saving efforts, strengthening drought resilience by easing pressure on reservoirs and reducing the need for abstraction from sensitive water sources like the River Test.

Wayne Novelli, Southern Water’s leakage and network strategy manager said:

"We've reduced leakage across our network for three consecutive years and continue to invest in innovative techniques and technologies to find and fix leaks even more effectively," said

"We've been impressed by the leakage reduction metrics and proven success of Lightsonic's technology and are looking forward to working with the team to trial a new way of detecting and tackling them."

Since the start of the year, Southern Water teams have found and fixed almost 15,000 leaks across its region, including 5,000 in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, using a range of approaches from acoustic network sensors to large mains upgrades to leak detection dogs who are helping sniff out leaks on hard-to-access rural trunk mains.

Lightsonic is a UK-based company using existing fibre infrastructure and DFOS technology to continuously monitor water networks at scale, enabling utilities to detect leaks earlier and over larger areas of their network

Lightsonic’s technology promises a faster response time to leaks and the ability to categorise the most severe to help teams prioritise repairs. The technology also reduces operational costs by enabling technicians to find more leaks in fewer hours.

Tommy Langnes, CEO of Lightsonic said:

“Aging infrastructure, leaking networks and mounting climate pressure are converging, causing major water stress.

“By utilising existing fibreoptic infrastructure, we have a solution that can be quickly and effectively scaled across the UK to help utility companies get a handle on leaks, secure supply and generate savings that can be reinvested to upgrade our aging network. The industry needs a quick and comprehensive response and that is what we offer.”

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