Severn Trent has launched a new trial to save water by incentivising businesses and other large users to reduce demand during the summer months.

This trial is the first of its kind in the water industry, where different approaches will be tested in parallel to investigate which deliver the most water saving. Under the new scheme, water retailers who deal directly with business customers, from small independents to the largest national chains, will be paid 25p for every litre they save.

Another approach includes plans to give retailers advance notice when demand is forecast to be extremely high. Adopting a similar approach to ‘Triads’ used by the electricity market, businesses will be offered incentive payments to reduce consumption during peak hours.

Retailers will be given 48 hours’ notice of a ‘high peak’ period, where incentive payments will be available.

Shane Anderson, Director for Strategy and Regulation at Severn Trent, said: “We all know that climate change and a growing population is putting increasing pressure on water companies to keep up with demand.

“It’s a challenge that’ll be brought into sharper focus this summer, as less people travel abroad for their holiday. We expect more families to stay in the UK for the break, which will have an impact.

“That’s why we’re really excited to launch this new water efficiency trial with retailers. By incentivising them to use less water during times of peak demand, we hope it’ll help us to protect this most precious resource.”

Shane added: “Encouraging businesses and other large others to be more water efficient in this way could bring huge environmental benefits too. This approach could help us to reduce our carbon footprint, by trying to change behaviours instead.”

The trials launch in May, running over four months, all with the shared aim of getting businesses and other large users to become more water efficient.

Our Institute of Water Midlands Area held their first virtual regional Innovation Awards last month and would like to congratulate winner ‘Seek a Leak‘ from Calum Tait (Severn Trent).

Our elite judging panel from across the region;
Caroline Cooper – Director of Asset Management & Regulation – South Staffs Water
John Brewington – Innovation Trials Practice Lead – Severn Trent Water
Lesley Parker – Innovation Engagement Lead – Severn Trent Water
Manbir Thandi Associate, Insurance, Co-Head of Water and Utilities – DWF Law LLP
Nick Hollaway – Customer Research & Insight Manager – South Staffs Water

Judges comments: “A brilliantly simple idea that is developing rapidly under Calum’s management to become an essential tool for our industry. That little ball of putty will make a massive impact on leakage and customer satisfaction at super low cost.”

Calum added; “There have been many great innovations in the Midlands region this year, and it was a wonderful surprise when Seek-a-Leak was announced the winner. I have been immensely privileged to be involved with such a groundbreaking project so early in my career, and I am delighted that others share my passion and enthusiasm for Seek-a-Leak and our industry wide leakage challenge.

I would like to thank the Institute of Water for providing such a great platform to showcase innovation in the industry, and all the innumerable colleagues who have collaborated with me on this project and made winning this award possible.”

Thanks again to all of our #MidlandsArea entries.

On Wednesday 28^th August 2019, emergency water supplier, Water Direct hosted the official opening of its newest depot in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, following a £1 million investment.

Water Direct has invested in the 1,231m² (13,250ft²) Mansfield site which is designed to augment its offering across the Midlands and North of England.

The addition of this central location creates a further base of operations for the company allowing even greater ability to respond to increasing client demands nationwide.

The launch day saw invited guests and stakeholders, including colleagues from a number of the country’s water utility companies, enjoy a tour of the site and demonstration of the company’s equipment and services. The group was treated to a champagne lunch and official ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the Water Direct team.

Oliver Silcock, Head of Operations at Water Direct, hosted a ‘show-and-tell’ which highlighted some of the company’s unique solutions, including its state-of-the-art, dedicated drinking water tankers. Guests were shown the unique features of the vehicles which enable bulk water deliveries nationwide and feature unique pumping equipment designed to facilitate safe network injections. A technique that Water Direct has pioneered over many years as an innovative means to provide surrogate supply during an interruption on both a planned and emergency basis.

Oliver explained how the vehicles are equipped with specialist pumps that inject water directly into the mains network at a pre-defined pressure and flow rate. Once programmed with the desired parameters, the system will read the pressure and flow rates and automatically adjust accordingly.

Guests were also given the chance to explore other solutions first-hand such as static drinking water tanks, and the deployment of Arlington boxes and bottled water as emergency measures.

Water Direct Senior Contract Manager Rob Allan talked in detail with the assembled guests about the company’s wholesaler contract services, including emergency support through the Nationwide Bottled Water Bank and innovative ideas developed in partnership with water wholesaler partners such as doorstep deliveries to vulnerable customers and ‘emergency pod’ deployments. These ‘pop-up’ stations are delivered to site as part of larger scale bottled water deployments and serve as visible bottled water handout stations, helping on-site staff to manage bottled water collection points and safely manage traffic and pedestrians.

Rob also explained in detail how Water Direct is committed to helping water companies towards their challenging targets to reduce leakage and supply interruption time, alongside improving customer experience going into the industry’s AMP7 investment program.

Con Canny, Network Manager at Affinity Water who was in attendance, said “Water Direct’s innovation demonstration and tour were most informative, it is reassuring for us to know that we are working with such a capable company.”

Rhys Addison, Alternative Supplies Technician at Severn Trent Water added “I was glad to be part of the opening of Water Direct’s brand new depot in Mansfield. It was an amazing opportunity to see what the future of Water Direct looks like and seeing how their innovative ideas have come to life.”

Alongside emergency work, with its excellent access routes the Mansfield base will further improve Water Direct’s ability to assist water companies with ongoing programs of general maintenance to the network and new equipment installation as well as serving other sectors such as construction and events which also form part of the company’s key markets.

Jonathan West, Managing Director at Water Direct said, “While the site has been operational since May, we really wanted to celebrate the official opening with further chance to show demonstrate our capability.”

“This official opening day follows a program of partner engagement sessions across our key locations which have proven to be very successful. We’re more than happy to host our customers and partners to talk about how we strengthen our relationships and find innovative ways to work together.”

 

Some of the registration and renewal fees of the Professional Registrations that we administrate will increase from the 1st January 2019.

These fees are decided by the Professional Bodies and not the Institute of Water.

The fees for 2019 are:

Environment Registration Fees by the Society for the Environment

• For Chartered Environmentalists (CEnv), the new registration fee will be £86 and the annual renewal fee will be £43.
• For Registered Environmental Technician (REnvTech), the new registration fee will be £40 and the annual renewal fee will be £20.

Engineering Registration Fees by the Engineering Council

• For Chartered Engineer (CEng), the new registration fee will be £51.90 and the annual renewal fee will be £39.90.
• For Incorporated Engineer (IEng), the new registration fee will be £43.80 and the annual renewal fee will be £33.80.

• For Engineering Technician (EngTech), the new registration fee will be £17.90 and the annual renewal fee will be £19.40.

Registration and renewal fees by the Science Council for all science registrations will remain unchanged for 2019.

You’ll also be pleased to hear that there will be no increase in Institute of Water Membership fees.