Following on from the success of Northumbrian Water’s fifth Innovation Festival, head of innovation Angela MacOscar identifies ten standout innovation trends for the water sector in 2022.
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Smart water networks
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Considered among the world’s best protected deltas, the Netherlands is a global leader in water industry innovation. Experts driving the pioneering sector’s circular economy and sustainable solutions shared their insight.
Analysis
Philippe Sébérac, director of technological and scientific expertise at Veolia, explains how the firm and its project partners have updated their early warning system for identifying and quantifying Covid-19 in wastewater to cope with new variants, and discusses a broader rollout.
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Everflow CEO Josh Gill discusses the need for the water industry to focus on advances in machine learning, open data and AI as well as what the sector can learn from innovation in finance.
Interviews
The latest round-up of utility industry innovation includes a customer experience digital twin from Northumbrian Water, plans for a ‘hydrogen town’ in the Humber region and an update on London’s ‘super sewer’.
News
To mark the launch of the water sector’s innovation centre of excellence, Spring, on 20 December, client programme director Shaunna Berendsen discusses the importance of customer buy-in to innovation and the need to make utilities ‘cool’.
Interviews
The latest raft of utility industry innovation includes a new apprenticeship collaboration for Utility Warehouse, a claimed ‘world first’ for National Grid and Hitachi Energy, and plans for a new hydrogen hub in Southampton.
News
Harry Armstrong, Ofwat’s director of regulatory policy, reflects on creativity and collaboration from the first 12 months of the regulator’s Innovation Fund.
Analysis
United Utilities’ head of innovation, Kieran Brocklebank, reflects on a quarter of a century at the company, canine collaboration, and the need to focus on customer comms.
Interviews
After more than 30 years in the utilities sector, UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) CEO Steve Kaye reflects on the optimum conditions for innovation and the importance of shifting mindsets from new to renew.
Interviews
Utility Week Innovate WWT’s upcoming Water Industry Innovation Conference seeks to foster collaborative problem solving, learning and proactive thinking in the face of global challenges.
Market insight
Thames Water’s head of data science Jethro Yates caught up with Utility Week Innovate off the back of wins at the UK IT Industry Awards for both data science and digital transformation projects of the year.
Interviews
Experts from the water sector share their thoughts on how and where innovation can boost post-COP progress and discuss whether or not the industry is already ahead of the conference’s collaborative curve.
Analysis