Yorkshire Water Sees ‘Game-Changing' Results In Smart Networks Pilot

As part of the UK’s most advanced smart water network pilot, Yorkshire Water has installed almost 2000 customer meters, leading to a reduction in leakage of more than 90,000 litres per day.

The pilot is testing the latest customer metering solutions running on IoT (Internet of Things) networks, such as LoRaWan, NB-IoT and Flexnet.

Early results have proved promising, with the water company identifying that 32% of all leakage in one area can be traced back to just 1% of properties, suggesting that leaks on private supply pipes could make up a significant amount of all leakage.

Working closely with properties in the area, Yorkshire Water has already been able to reduce leakage by 92,160 litres a day.

Martyn Hattersley, head of leakage operations at Yorkshire Water, said: “We’re always looking to take advantage of new technologies to assist us in continuing to reduce the amount of water lost through leaks.

“The smart network pilot we’re currently running has seen some game-changing results. Insights from the pilot area will help inform our future digital strategy and will allow us to use data to further target our leakage efforts, and ultimately save water from being wasted.”

Yorkshire Water is looking to reduce leakage by a further 15 per cent by 2025, reducing waste and saving customers money on their bills.

Yorkshire Water’s multi-stakeholder collaboration includes Itron, Connexin, Sensus, Arqiva, HWM, ATi, Inflowmatix, Syrinix, Invenio, Ovarro (formerly Primayer & Servelec Technologies), Temetra, Technolog, Gutermann, Elster (Honeywell), BT, Stantec and Xylem

For more information on Yorkshire Water’s innovation projects, visit https://www.yorkshirewater.com/about-us/what-we-do/innovation/.