The water industry is one of the most energy-intensive, requiring large amounts of power to move water around their networks and run water and wastewater treatment plants that provide clean water to customers and return sewage safely back into the environment.

Achieving value for money

The water industry is under increasing pressure to reduce their energy consumption to provide better value to their customers and shareholders, and they are delivering this through energy efficiency initiatives and on-site generation like solar, water turbines, bio generation and combined heat and power.

Ensuring resilience and security

Resilience of electricity supply is also crucial to the delivery of water and protecting the environment. The consequences of the failure of high voltage electrical equipment and power outages are far more significant than just losing power, so water companies must have a backup supply, maintain their equipment regularly and replace it before it fails.

Power failures can cause untreated wastewater to enter the environment. This can have a devastating effect on the local ecosystem and the local community and result in significant fines. These failures can also affect water pressure and interrupt supply throughout the water network, leaving residential and business customers without water supply for extended periods.

Increasing efficiency and performance

The drive from AMP 6 has enabled water companies to invest in new assets and improve the efficiency of existing ones, and develop networks and systems that are much more cost effective. AMP 7 will commence in 2020, and will likely require further reductions in carbon emissions and improve asset health and performance commitments.

Water sector under pressure

The water sector is also under increasing pressure to innovate and find new ways to deliver more for less, which will benefit customers.

We understand these challenges and work closely with Southern Water and South East Water to help them deliver sustainable energy solutions and resilience.