Scottish Water and CENSIS join Strathclyde University for water technology project

Scottish Water has joined in an academic partnership with the University of Strathclyde and CENSIS, the Scottish Innovation Centre for Sensors and Imaging Systems, aiming to develop new data analysis software that can help water utilities to monitor their assets.

The new software will help utilities identify signals given out by the assets, which can be indicators for potential breakdown events.

Unlike the present solutions that alert when breakdown occurs, the proposed software intends to monitor data across multiple water infrastructure assets and meters, in order to detect signals beforehand for necessary maintenance operations ahead.

Scottish Water plans to use the innovation to deliver efficient service to its customers, be more proactive in maintenance and to ensure that its facilities and equipment are following the performance specifications of the suppliers.

Scottish Water north team manager for water operations Robert White said: "Prevention is always better than cure, and this piece of technology is going to act as an early warning system for potentially tens of thousands of our assets across the country.

"Planned repairs are normally significantly cheaper than replacements of the equivalent machine.

"We operate and monitor a large number of diverse water and wastewater assets across Scotland, a considerable number of which are in remote locations, underlining the scale of our operation and the challenges we face in maintaining all of these assets.

"This software has the potential to make proactive maintenance a much easier task.

"We will be in a position to schedule maintenance for when and where it is really needed, which will minimise asset downtime.

"We can then plan our resources more effectively.

"At the same time, we’ll be able to monitor the performance of all our assets to ensure each operates to their specifications."

CENSIS will offer funds of £50,000 for the project, which will also explore scope for commercialisation of the software.

CENSIS chief executive Ian Reid said: "With potential widespread application, this could save a lot of time and money that would normally be spent on repairing machinery."

Strathclyde group senior researcher Dr Alison Cleary said: "The initiative could have a much wider application than monitoring water pumps.

"It could be used by other utilities to monitor the data produced by generators and a variety of other types of devices.

"The software could be used by almost any business that uses a large number of machines that require maintenance."