Northumbrian Water has reduced leakage by 25% in parts of Newcastle and Dagenham where it has been trialling the use of digital twins to manage demand.
The prediction model used existing data from the company’s network together with pressure sensors to identify where leaks occur in two of the highest leakage areas in Northumbrian’s network.
Together with Morrison Water Services, Northumbrian has been operating the system since March to simulate water flow including factors such as leakage and customer demand to assess where a problem is located.
Jim Howey, head of water networks for Northumbrian, said: “By using this exciting new technology, we can look proactively at leakage – stopping the churn of finding and fixing without knowing the root cause.
“The digital twin is helping us to understand our networks better, and has been built based on data we already have along with pressure sensors in pipes,” he said.
The idea came from Northumbrian’s Innovation Festival last year where a series of hacks, dashes and sprints were dedicated to bringing innovation to leakage. The company has a target of 11% reduction by 2025 in its PR19 plans as well as 18.5% reduction for the Essex and Suffolk region.
For the first year of the asset management period (AMP7) the company missed its target and reported a 1% increase in leakage rates in 2020-21 although they rates remain below the sector average.