Innovation as a Necessity An Introduction to TrunkMinder Service - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Innovation as a Necessity

An Introduction to TrunkMinder

“Service Delivery” Open Innovation Event 11th October, 2012

• Northumbrian Water Group

undoubtedly takes its performance seriously

• NW does so
• not just as regards OFWAT
• but as part of its broader community

pursuing best practice internally and externally

• It is also important to

acknowledge the “headaches”

• f operating a water system

simply on a day to day basis

• the bursts
• the OFWAT queries and consultations
• the local press and radio asking for

comments when things have gone awry

• But a broader picture that will

potentially transform the

• peration of utilities in the UK

and with innovation at its core

• The audience is already

familiar with how the water sector currently works

• OFWAT has itself acknowledged

the current CapEx bias

• Detailed OFWAT targets have

also undoubtedly dominated much of utility activity to date

• and all against a background,

until recently, of economic growth and debt-financed capital structuring

• But the context is changing and

potentially significantly

• Whilst important in the long-term

the change is not just about smart network management and data-led automisation which is some way down the road

• Instead the change is more

immediate

• TotEx in place of CapEx
• broader outcomes in place of detailed
• utputs
• utperformers keeping the benefits
• Unfortunately this is against a

backdrop of economic frailty not just in the short term but at least the medium term too

• The current backdrop is also
• ne
• where OFWAT has been

criticised earlier in the year over leakage, criticism that is likely to get passed on to you in the course of the AMP6 process

• where those who hope to

respond simply with a “well we’ll replace all the pipes then” are likely to get pretty short shrift

• As ever, the key issue will be

the financials

• but not in a “spend to improve

infrastructure” kind of way that has applied before

• instead in a “you’ve got to do

more with less…you’ve got to be smarter” kind of way

Option 1 – Business as Usual

• As a result, water utilities have a choice
• They can carry on as they are, continuing with
• current pain points
• having only limited knowledge of what is going on on their trunk

main network

• paying compensation for bursts and having their brand undermined
• having employees and contractors out in the roads running manual

inspections and repairing and replacing cheap kit with all the health and safety risks that go with that

• with making the same old submissions to OFWAT, and have them

rejected as not reflecting the new realities

Trunk Main Option 1 – Business As Usual

Option 2 – Outperforming

• Or utilities can position themselves for the future as outperformers
• working on credible regulatory plans that reflect the diminishing scope for

CapEx

• lessening the disruption and costs of bursts by repairing leaks before they

become bursts

• applying automation to know real time what is happening on their critical

mains

• having a single supplier providing four points of critical information rather than

four suppliers each providing one each

• using resilient technology
• to reduce health and safety exposure
• that allows reports and data to be gathered and viewed not in a Day-Glo jacket in the

middle of the road but when

• it is needed
• before customers know about it
• from wherever the utility operator happens to be

Trunk Main Option 2

• Permanent Monitoring

TrunkMinder

• Because that is what Syrinix’s TrunkMinder

provides

• 150 being deployed across London
• Providing real time information
• Allowing leaks to be located on trunk mains within 1 metre and

repaired before bursts occur

• Automatically monitoring utility strategic networks every second of

every day

• Guarding critical pipes with a web-based configurable interface
• Guarding critical brands
• With a sub-3 year payback

• Whilst swimming in a river, the
• verall direction can seem

unclear

• But viewed from above, the

direction in which the UK water sector is heading, with AMP6 preparations well underway, is very clear indeed and that is

• towards spending less to do more
• towards acting on an informed basis
• towards innovation at the core of your

activities

• Syrinix’s aim with TrunkMinder

is to work very much with water utilities as they adapt to those trends and continue as the leading company that they are