Ofwat names innovation challenge winners and unveils new competition to boost new ideas

Ofwat has awarded funding to the winners of its second Water Breakthrough Challenge – part of a series of innovation competitions supported by its £200m Water Innovation Fund. The seven winners will share about £30m in funding. Meanwhile Ofwat has proposed a new competition that will seek to draw in innovative proposals at an early stage of gestation.

The proposed new competition is part of a set of planned measures to extend access to the Innovation Fund for 2022-5, following its pilot year to date.

The proposed measures include:

• splitting the remaining £120m of the Innovation Fund into three annual award amounts of about £40m a year;

• continuing the existing requirement for water companies or NAVs to lead Transform stream (long-term, large scale schemes) entries;

• having. £6m available for pots of between £250,000 and £1m under the Catalyst stream (small projects);

For both streams, owners of intellectual property rights will be permitted to charge a licence fee at “a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory rate” and entrants will be expected to make a 10% mandatory financial contribution.

Breakthrough Challenge winners

The latest Breakthrough event was delivered by competition designer Nesta Challenges, built environment services firm, Arup and c lean technology consultant, Isle Utilities. The winning entries and their partnerships are listed below. All current and previous winners can be viewed HERE:

CHP exhaust carbon capture and utilisation

Led by: Severn Trent Water

Partners: Brunel University, United Utilities, Southern Water

The partnership plans to develop a means to reduce and reuse carbon dioxide emissions from biogas fired combined heat and power generators. The partnership says it will demonstrate its “first-of-its-kind technology on an industrial scale” at a Severn Trent site in Derby.

Enabling Water Smart Communities

Led by: Anglian Water

Partners include: Thames Water, United Utilities, Arup, University of Manchester, University of East Anglia, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Clarion Housing Group, Taylor Wimpey, Cambridge Water, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Severn Trent Water, Southern Water.

Housing development in its current form and rapid growth will increase existing, significant challenges to customers, communities and the environment including flood events, sustained droughts and impacts on water quality.

The partnership claims that its Integrated Water Management (IWM) provides a solution by “combining infrastructure, technologies, policies, and behaviour change initiatives to improve lives through co-ordinated water management.”

Managing background leakage

Led by: Dwr Cymru Welsh Water

Partners: Affinity Water, Anglian Water, Severn Trent Water, Portsmouth Water, University of Sheffield, HWM, Invenio Systems

Customers and regulators seek a downward trend in leakage which is seen as wasted water. But some 50% of leakage is background leakage – defined as the sum of small leaks below a detectable threshold and is viewed as impossible to reduce. This project aims to redefine the detectable limit of leakage to help pinpoint and repair hidden leaks and other factors contributing to background leakage.

National leakage research test centre

Led by: Northumbrian Water

Partners include: Water Research Centre, HR Wallingfor, The University of Sheffield, Southampton University, eleven English water companies, Irish Water, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Northern Ireland Water and British Water.

The National Leakage Research and Test Centre will be a 5km, buried water pipe network used specifically for developing and testing inventions without disrupting customers’ supplies or affecting water quality.

Hyvalue - hydrogen from biogas

Led by: Dwr Cymru Welsh Water

Partners: Costain and University of South Wales

HyValue aims to convert sewage-derived biogas into hydrogen, to increase the decarbonisation potential of biogas by up to ten times, while maximising the carbon dioxide capture at source and minimising emissions including methane, nitrogen oxides and particulates.

This project will initially study hydrogen production as an alternative use for the biogas, by comparing its sustainability to the other mainstream uses of biogas and incorporating the impact of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage.

Stream

Led by: Northumbrian Water

Partners: AWG Group, Thames Water, Severn Trent Water, Scottish Water, SES Water, United Utilities, South West Water, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Southern Water, Yorkshire Water, Sia Partners, Aiimi, Open Data Institute, and Costain.

Data plays a critical role water supply says the Stream partnership.Between now and 2024, Stream will design and deliver the “network of data pipes” needed to share useful industry datasets in a secure, standardised and easy to access way. This, it says “will create large datasets, enabling us to collaboratively solve tough sector challenges.”

Water4All – helping identify and support vulnerable households

Led by: Southern Water

Partners: Sagacity, Synectics Solutions, Equifax, Auriga, Waterwise, Advizzo, AgilityEco, Thames Water, Severn Trent, South West Water, Portsmouth Water, Leep Utilities, Affinity Water, Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, Together

Water companies have specific initiatives aimed at supporting customers, but they urgently need help to better identify and support low-income and vulnerable households says Water4All. “It puts financially vulnerable customers at the heart of the solution.”

A consortium of leading multi-sector experts will use its knowledge and data to seek and serve those who need help most. Billing, affordability, fraud and benefits data will be used to identify priority vulnerable households using advanced “machine learning” and statistical modelling techniques.