South West Water has opened a £30 million joint research and innovation centre with the University of Exeter dedicated to sustainably managing water for resilience.
The water company pumped £21 million into CREWW, while a grant of £10.5 million came from Research England.
South West’s region experienced drought conditions during the past two years, which saw reservoir levels drop to their lowest ever and required a 14-month hosepipe ban in some parts.
The Centre for resilience, environment, water and waste (CREWW) will research how to future-proof water systems to cope with the effects of the changing climate, especially droughts and flooding.
The centre has already begun work to analyse and deal with microplastics in the water cycle, and how to alleviate groundwater filtration into sewers to reduce the use of storm overflows.
Susan Davy, chief executive officer of South West’s parent company Pennon, said: “Seeing the progress already made, I am very clear that if there is a collaboration that can fix even one of the global water challenges we face, it’s this one. I believe, to make a real difference in the world, investments cannot just be about places, and facilities such as this, it’s about the people who make it happen – this is where I know CREWW will lead the way.”
The CREWW centre features specialist laboratories and equipment including a microbiology lab where the teams can analyse microplastics in the water company’s operations and understand how the wider ecosystem is impacted by these pollutants.
Lisa Roberts, president and vice-chancellor at the University of Exeter, added the centre will enable collaboration on water supply issues, co-create engineering, nature, economic and behaviour-based solutions for the region and beyond.
In a trading update, Pennon stated its wastewater flows “significantly” increased over the past six months due to 50% more rainfall than average across its region. The company said this has impacted its performance on wastewater pollution incidents and the use of storm overflows. Despite this, it anticipates maintaining its current environmental performance assessment 2-star status for the year with an ambition to achieve the top 4-star status in 2025.
It has bought four renewable energy generation sites and set to work on construction at one, in Dunfermline, which should generate 39GWh and store 60MWh when connected to the grid later this year.
The trading update as stated that Pennon anticipates the first phase of its acquisition of SES Water to complete this summer.