News from clients

Europe’s leading fat, oil and grease (FOG) summit will bring together the hospitality sector and the water industry to develop collaborative and sustainable solutions to keep sewer networks clear.
 
The European FOG Summit 2022 will have a strong focus on foodservice and commercial kitchens, to further explore how FOG can be removed at source before it enters the wastewater system. Developing a circular process and accelerating the transition of FOG from a waste to a valuable resource, such as biofuel, will be another key discussion point.
 
Taking place at Titanic Hotel, Stanley Dock, Liverpool, UK, on 18 & 19 October 2022, event partners will be Southern Water and United Utilities. Confirmed speakers already include Jennie Smith, director of building maintenance, Mitchell & Butlers, David Sheen, chief executive, UK Hospitality, Andrew Crook, president, National Federation of Fish Fryers and Julian Edwards, Foodservice Consultants Society International.
 
Also joining the conversation will be experts in grease management, environmental protection and the circular economy, as well as researchers, industry groups, solution providers and local government representatives.
 
European FOG Summit managing director Laura Su said: “We are so pleased to be holding the European FOG Summit 2022 in the UK city of Liverpool and are delighted to welcome on board our new partners and venue hosts, United Utilities.
 
“Together with our existing partners Southern Water, we aim to provide a platform for experts to collaborate, take ideas forward and develop tangible solutions to the ongoing challenge of tackling fatbergs and sewer blockages.
 
“Our 2021 event in Brighton, UK, was a huge success and welcomed more than 165 delegates covering the whole FOG lifecycle. For 2022, the summit is now an independent event, and we have made some changes to provide an even bigger and better collaborative platform for the European FOG community.”
 
Stephen Williams, network protection manager, Southern Water, said: “I’m so pleased that we will be part of another European FOG Summit. I don’t know of any other industry event that brings together such a broad range of FOG, sustainability and environmental experts to work towards a shared goal.
 
“As a utility company, we want to spread the message far and wide that we are keen to work collaboratively with food service establishments and the hospitality sector and ask them directly about their understanding of FOG and grease management systems. This approach will help us manage FOG at source, prevent blockages, floods and pollution and, most importantly, protect the environment and our communities.”
 
Steven Wong, stakeholder manager, United Utilities, said: “Sewer blockages are the single biggest cause of pollution incidents but the job of eliminating them is complex. As result, the water industry has stepped up its efforts to work with customers, including the hospitality sector, to reduce the risk of blockages occurring.
 
“Partnering with the European FOG Summit 2022, will enable us to support water companies with their pollution and environmental goals by building on their relationships with the hospitality sector and creating a sustainable future for FOG management.”
 
The European FOG Summit 2022 networking events will take place on 18 October 2022, followed by an interactive conference on 19 October at Titanic Hotel, Stanley Dock, Liverpool, UK.
More details at www.fogsummit.co.uk

 Anglian Water has become the first utility to adopt new cloud-based technology to detect rising main sewer bursts.
 
In a world-first, the UK utility is implementing early-warning system BurstDetect from technology company Ovarro, as part of its drive to eliminate serious pollution events in its region by 2025.
 
Through a dashboard, BurstDetect provides an overview of system status together with current and historical burst alerts. If data suggests a potential burst, an alert is sent to control rooms for early response.
 
Such early action can prevent the escape of sewage and resulting environmental damage, ensuring companies fulfil their environmental obligations and avoid fines, regulatory penalties and prosecutions, and long-term reputational damage. 
George Heywood, analytics innovation lead for Ovarro, said: “We are proud that Anglian Water has become the first utility to implement BurstDetect as part of its pollution prevention strategy.
 
“The technology was developed in collaboration with UK water companies, in direct response to the sector’s challenge to cut pollutions in a sustainable and cost-effective way.
 
“Rising main sewers pose a unique challenge to water companies. The pumped wastewater they convey can have a catastrophic ecological impact in the event of a burst, causing major disruption to customers, resulting in expensive tankering and clean-up operations and serious reputational damage - such events are just not acceptable in the eyes of customers and regulators.
 
“By being the first utility to invest in BurstDetect, Anglian Water is leading the way, proving its commitment to cutting pollutions by embracing innovation.”
 
Claire Moore, head of water recycyling networks at Anglian Water, said:  “With ‘zero sewage pollution’ as one of our 12 ambitious business goals, we have committed to eliminating serious pollutions by 2025, and to reducing the number of less significant incidents by at least 45 per cent. 
 
“Working with the supply chain to develop innovation and adopt new solutions will revolutionise our ability to meet these goals. Implementing BurstDetect will enable us to respond rapidly should a rising main burst occur, and take proactive action to prevent pollution and protect the environment.”
 
BurstDetect uses unique algorithms to detect bursts using existing data from wastewater pumping stations. The technology can be applied to nearly all pumping stations – even those with just basic pump status monitoring – and requires no additional hardware, with the aim of achieving 100% coverage in networks being monitored.
 
The system accepts data at a range of monitoring frequencies with algorithms being applied to understand and characterise ‘normal’ pumping station behaviour.  This training and testing approach to machine learning is becoming increasingly important to water companies, giving them more actionable insight than ever before, utilising data that may not have been fully harnessed otherwise. 
 
While this is Anglian Water’s first purchase of a wastewater management solution from Ovarro, the two organisations have worked in partnership to reduce leakage for many years, with the utility installing Ovarro acoustic loggers across its network of water mains.
 
This collaboration led to the development of game-changing remote leak detection device Enigma3hyQ and cloud-based analytics platform LeakVision, which saw Anglian Water and Ovarro win the award for Alliancing and Partnership Initiative of the Year at the Water Industry Achievement Awards 2021.
 
For more information: Ovarro.com/BurstDetect

Finnish multi-utility Alva is the first in Scandinavia to fully implement Ovarro's PIONEER asset investment planning software across its water and sewer networks. The implementation comes after a six-month trial for Alva’s water distribution network generated capital expenditure cost savings of 10%.
 
Alva serves the city of Jyväskylä and its surrounding area in central Finland, where it produces, sells and distributes electricity, heat and water to the local population and industry. 
 
PIONEER is a web-based decision support platform that can optimise asset management planning and operational strategies, supporting utilities in reducing costs and improving services for customers. Utilities can decide how and when to survey, refurbish or replace assets at minimum overall cost, across a single asset group or an entire company network. The same software can be used to plan day-to-day operational activities effectively.
 
As part of the new agreement with Ovarro, the scope of assets covered by PIONEER will be extended to cover the whole of Alva’s water mains network, plus their foul and surface water sewers. As a result, the platform will be able to forecast events such as water main bursts, interruptions to supply and leakage, as well as sewer blockages, collapses, pollution events and internal flooding. These forecasts can then be used by PIONEER to target interventions at the most cost-beneficial locations.
 
George Heywood, analytics innovation lead for Ovarro, said: “Alva is a visionary company and we’re proud they have chosen to fully embed PIONEER to support their schedule and programme of works, across both water and wastewater.
 
“With this extended asset scope, Alva will see even greater savings, as the PIONEER optimiser will co-ordinate work on assets laid in the same trench, reducing the number of excavations needed.”
 
Tero Ponkkala, project manager and development engineer for Alva, said: “The aim of the PIONEER trial was to assess whether our data is adequate and whether our capability and maturity as an organisation is sufficient for introducing this new approach. We also had an important requirement for the tool to improve Alva’s long-term, risk-based investment planning.
 
“The Ovarro team established a convincing proof of concept on our water distribution networks, with clear cost-saving benefits. This is why we have moved forward to implement the technology not only on our water network but also across our sewer networks.”
 
Alva was also Ovarro’s first customer to benefit from the simplified functionality of the PIONEER Express interface, which makes it easier for non-specialists to use the technology’s powerful planning capability.
 
PIONEER has been in use in the UK for over 10 years, with five water companies making use of the platform. The software can be used for all utility asset types including potable water and heat distribution mains, sewers and electrical cabling, as well as point assets such as pumping stations, treatment works and transformers.

The UK government has left water companies in England in no doubt that they need to do more to protect the environment from pollution. George Heywood, analytics innovation lead for Ovarro, says that when it comes to rising main bursts, better analysis of existing data can quickly mitigate pollution risk .
 
Environment minister Rebecca Pow has said Ofwat must ensure the water industry is doing more to protect the environment and that water quality was “an absolute priority”.
 
A government strategic policy statement, published on 2 February 2022, sets out its priorities for the regulator over the next five years and calls for measures to “reduce harm from storm overflows, improve monitoring and reporting of pollution incidents making this more transparent, to tackle run-off from agriculture, and protect the health of our rivers and seas”.
 
The statement came days after the prosecution of a UK water company in January 2022, following a pollution incident back in 2017. The company was fined £233,000 for the incident, which saw wastewater discharged from a rising main into a watercourse over four days.
 
Rising mains
 
Rising main sewers - pressurised pipes that pump wastewater from a pumping station towards a treatment works - are high risk, critical assets, but with many in the UK ageing and becoming more vulnerable to bursts, historic programmes of proactive maintenance and investment may no longer be enough to keep up with the rate of deterioration.
 
In October 2021, another water company launched a five-day emergency operation, deploying tankers and clean-up teams to limit customer impact, after a burst rising main flooded a residential area.
 
Given the mounting customer and stakeholder pressure and water companies’ own commitments to cut pollutions, it is unsurprising they are working with the supply chain to develop innovative solutions. One example from Ovarro is BurstDetect, a cloud-based early warning system that was developed in collaboration with UK utilities, in direct response to the urgent challenge to reduce pollutions.
 
The tool detects rising main bursts with potential to cause pollution incidents. Through a dashboard, it provides an overview of pumping station status and both ongoing and historical events. If data suggests a potential burst, an alert is sent to control rooms often within an hour of occurrence
 
This ensures users can make swift, informed decisions and quickly allocate resources to reduce environmental impact. Such early action can prevent the escape of sewage and resulting environmental damage, ensuring companies fulfil their environmental obligations and avoid fines, regulatory penalties and prosecutions and long-term reputational damage. 
 
Training and testing approach
 
BurstDetect can be applied to nearly all pumping stations – even those with just basic pump status monitoring – and requires no additional hardware, with the aim of achieving 100% coverage in networks being monitored. The system accepts data at a range of monitoring frequencies with algorithms being applied to understand and characterise ‘normal’ pumping station behaviour.
 
This “training and testing” approach to machine learning is becoming increasingly important to water companies, giving them more actionable insight than ever before, utilising data that may not have been fully harnessed otherwise. 
 
With so much available water and wastewater network data, it is just not possible for humans to process and analyse the information themselves. By having the correct technology and processes in place, the stage will be set for utilities to rapidly increase their real-time and predictive capabilities, helping them regain customer and regulatory trust and ensure greater protection of precious watercourses.
 
For more details www.ovarro.com/burstdetect

British Water have produced a downloadable guide to help engineering and construction professionals applying the CIRIA sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) manual. To mark the launch of the How to Guide, the trade association hosted an author-led webinar proving an overview and insight into how the guidance can be practically applied.

“The How to Guide is intended to plug the gaps in the CIRIA SuDS manual to allow practitioners to use proprietary treatment systems with the simple index approach, and effectively design them into SuDS treatment trends,” said Daniel Jarman, group technology manager at Hydro International and one of the guide’s authors.

“The Guide itself provides a common basis for the evaluation and selection of subcomponents and brings manufactured treatment systems onto a level playing field with those already presented in the [CIRIA] SuDS manual.”

SuDS can deliver a wide range of environmental benefits and the manual from CIRIA - construction industry research & information association - is recognised as the most comprehensive SuDS guidance available in the UK. It focuses on providing cost-effective planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of SuDS and a revised version was published in November 2021.

British Water’s How to Guide provides:

• A comparison of the prevalent test protocols
• Design examples for manufactured SuDS
• Derivation of mitigation indices for proprietary systems
• Comparisons with field data
• Advice on applying mitigation indices to a range of products.

The How to Guide has been introduced alongside the British Water code of practice: Assessment of Manufactured Treatment Devices Designed to Treat Surface Water Runoff, which was launched in 2016. When used in combination, the documents are intended to help users arrive at a full set of pollution mitigation indexes. Both British Water documents have been reviewed by CIRIA.

Introducing the webinar was another of the British Water How to Guide’s authors Jessica Jefferys, product manager at Innovyze. Daniel Jarman then took participants through the aims, objectives, purpose and use of the guide and explored how proprietary stormwater treatment devices can be used with the simple index approach.  

After this, Jo Bradley from Stormwater Shepherds provided insight on the practical application of the Guide and how it can be used in relation to different types of sub-structures and proprietary devices. There was also and a panel Q&A with Jarman, Bradley and co-author David Smoker, technical director at ACO Water Management.

Participants praised the event for being thorough and instructive.

“It was a very enjoyable presentation with lots learned. The presenters came across very well and kept the topic interesting and informative,” commented James Sereda-Barsby, associate director of civil engineering at Pick Everard.

British Water’s How to Guide: Applying the CIRIA SuDS manual (c753) simple index approach to proprietary/manufacturers stormwater treatment devices is relevant for a wide range of professions and roles, from manufacturers to designers and local authorities or other approving bodies looking to understand and scrutinise the design and selection processes for SuDS.

To watch the webinar and download the guides, please visit: https://www.britishwater.co.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1595613&hhSearchTerms=%22SuDS+and+webinar%22