United Utilities has become the first water company in the UK to introduce large-scale artificial intelligence into its operational systems in an effort to cut waste and reduce household bills.
The company has signed an agreement with Canadian technology firm Emagin to roll out an AI platform across United’s entire water network in the North West of England.
The deal follows a successful trial, in which the Canadian team were given access to the water firm’s huge wealth of data to help shape their technology for the UK and European water markets.
Emagin’s artificial intelligence platform can assess vast amounts of data on a wide range of factors such as weather, demand for water, pump performance and electricity prices. This is used to help make decisions on the most cost-effective and efficient way to run pumps, detect burst pipes and minimise the risk of discoloured water.
In the 12-week trial which took place across Oldham, the platform demonstrated energy savings of 22%. United Utilities now plans to deploy the technology in phases across the whole North West region by the end of 2019.
United Utilities chief operating officer Steve Fraser said: “Water networks are complex systems, and technology like this is going to play an integral role in our drive towards ‘systems thinking’, helping us make more sense and better use of big data.
“It will free up our people to be more proactive and that’s going to have a direct impact on levels of service. Water companies are going to have to start thinking in this way and embracing new technology if we are to meet customers’ expectations on value and reliability.
“The pilot scheme clearly demonstrated the huge potential for efficiency and energy savings which will help reduce our operational costs. This is going to be vital over the coming years as we aim to reduce customer bills by 10.5% in real terms from 2020.”
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