Thames Water has signed contracts worth a combined £200m with some of the industry’s leading suppliers to find and fix more leaks than ever before across London and the Thames Valley
The contracts, awarded for an eight-year period, were signed at Thames Water’s head office in Reading by its chief operating officer, Lawrence Gosden, and senior leaders from each of the contract partners. It is expected to save the equivalent of 172 Olympic swimming pools of water every day.
Under the agreement, teams will be using a range of leak detection methods including traditional sound tests, acoustic logging and desktop modelling to accelerate Thames Water’s work to reduce leakage by 15% by 2025.
As part of the new contract, due to begin on 1 April, suppliers will support Thames Water’s ongoing work to trace unaccounted-for water, including the illegal use of unauthorised and unlicensed standpipes.
The contracts have been awarded on a region-by-region basis and will be managed by Thames Water’s three regional head of water networks:
- North London: Hydrosave (reserve supplier: PN Daly)
- South London: PN Daly (reserve supplier: RPS)
- Thames Valley: RPS (reserve supplier: PN Daly).
A separate contract covers a preferred supplier list of five companies: Morrison Utility Services, Teccura, Crowders, Invenio and PN Daly. They will adopt a campaign-based method to leakage detection using innovative approaches to best understand full water usage within specific geographical areas.
Lawrence Gosden, Thames Water said: “Reducing leakage is a top priority for the company and our customers, so it’s vital we have the very best people working on it.
“Our partners will be challenged to be as innovative as possible to find leaks so we can get them fixed, especially those that are hidden underground and not visible from the surface. We are focussed on ensuring our network is fit to serve our customers now and into the future, and I’m confident investment on this scale will help us to achieve our ambitious targets.”
Morrison Utility Services contract director, Lawrence Summers added: “Thames Water is looking to implement a step change in current performance to meet its leakage target and commitments.
“This agreement will see our leakage specialists delivering innovative detection services and solutions to target historically problematic DMAs, using big data and key analytics to provide insight into leakage issues and undertaking targeted asset health checks and mapping.
“Reducing leakage levels will limit Thames Water’s impact on the environment and we look forward to working with our client in what is a hugely important area of its operations.”
