Background
Hydrosave has provided leak detection services to Scottish Water for over 5 years. Initially responsible for the supply area within the East, Hydrosave was appointed as sole supplier status in July 2014. We now operate throughout the eight regional areas. The geographic diversity is quite unique and has extended elements of urbanised in Tweed and Clyde to extremely rural networks situated to the north such as Ness and Don which includes the Orkney Islands and the Outer / Inner Hebrides.
The geographic diversity does impact on our approach to Active Leak Detection (ALD) whereby rapid work through of the urbanised District Metered Areas (DMA) are compensated to the more prolonged campaigns in rural DMA’s, the islands are monitored and programmed periodically unless an eruptive occurs.
Other challenges are reflective of the general irregular climate, distances between available fittings and safe access to assets.
The Works
Each area has a separate SW leakage manager which facilitates a detailed and multiplex client engagement program. ALD resources seasonally fluctuate and on average Hydrosave provide x120 technicians supported by a management team of x15 which includes local supervision, analytical and administrative roles.
Additional complexities arise when dealing with commercial customer engagement and in particular the wholesale vs. retail split which sometimes makes managing the customers’ expectations a little more problematic and often requires sensitivity in resolution of the related operational issues.
Our technicians are transient between areas and are fully integrated with SW DLO and Civils Alliance partners. Hydrosave analysts use SW systems to target DMA’s for ALD and assist in producing the leakage reporting data.
Particular attention is given to commercial night use monitoring in some areas where seasonal tourism does impact on the balance of real and apparent losses
Multiple ALD techniques are applied i.e. correlation surveys are carried out using ‘Enigma’ equipment within Edinburgh due to traffic management restrictions, two and three man teams are deployed within rural DMA’s, Islands are visited periodically with adapted work patterns to reflect the difficulty in travel and ensure ‘end to end’ support process for detection and repair.
Generally ALD is conducted during daytime hours within the rural areas, urbanised operate a mixed shift which comprises of 50% night activity to undertake ‘step tests’, carry out noise logger AOI follow ups and pinpoint.
Large rural DMA are sub divided using a temporary ‘waste meter’ at designated monitoring points within the network. This allows specific sections to be tested and leakage localised as part of the overall ALD campaign plan. All technicians are DOMS and Water Hygiene trained and accredited for valve operations and disinfection procedures.
Technicians utilise our ‘Hydrosave OPS’ Remote Work Systems (RWS) and standard templates to raise jobs and report campaign plan progress. The data produced is instantaneously visible via a web portal to SWs Alliance administration team who plan and schedule the repair program directly from this interface.
As part of our continuous improvement program the existing system is currently undergoing a phased replacement to our App based mobile platform which allows additional functionality in flash messaging, individual performance tracker and health & safety reporting.